HISTORY: CONT. Ivy League NFL Draft
Frank Reagan Penn( 1941 New York Giants)
Bill Olson Columbia( 1949 N. Y. Giants)
John McLaughry Brown( 1940 N. Y. Giants)
Don Colo Brown( 1950 Baltimore)
Chuck Mercein Yale( 1965 New York Giants)
John Sinnott Brown( 1980 St. Louis)
Mitch Marrow Penn( 1998 Carolina)
Jeff Hatch Penn( 2002 N. Y. Giants)
Reggie Williams Dartmouth( 1976 Cincinnati, 82)
Fourth Round
Bruce Gehrke Columbia( 1948 N. Y. Giants)
Joe Sullivan Dartmouth( 1949 Detroit)
Bill Kurlish Penn( 1937 Brooklyn)
Bob Oristaglio Penn( 1951 Cleveland)
Bob Greenlee Yale( 1967 Miami)
Dick Jauron Yale( 1973 Detroit)
Seth Payne Cornell( 1997 Jacksonville)
Isaiah Kacyvenski Harvard( 2000 Seattle)
Chad Levitt Cornell( 1997 Oakland) that meeting would lead to the formation of what today is the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA.
Between 1870 and 1900, Lafayette, an Ivycaliber school, was the only institution not named Yale, Princeton, Penn, or Harvard to win a national championship. In fact, an Ivy Group school won or shared a national championship in every season up until 1914. With its increasing popularity, football grew geographically heading into the Southern states and eventually making its way out West. A variety of regional powers – the service academies, Notre Dame, Ohio State,
“ IT’ S A CHALLENGE AND IVY LEAGUE COACHES HAVE A TOUGHER JOB THAN THEIR COUNTERPARTS AT LARGER SCHOOLS.”
– ROYCE NOVOSEL-JOHNSON
Michigan – rose to challenge the Ivy Group for supremacy of college football.
Bob Fisher’ s Harvard teams of 1919 and 1920 went unbeaten and captured national titles. Gil Dobie and Cornell ran off three successive 8-0 seasons and captured three national titles in the 1920s. Dartmouth, Penn, and Princeton all laid claim to national championships. Between 1869 and 1935, Ivy Group schools won or shared 53 national titles. There was no doubt that the eight schools that comprise today’ s Ivy League were among the best college football teams in the nation year in and year out. That would change after World War II.
The Meeting
With college football growing, presidents of the eight Ivy Group schools met and signed the first Ivy Group Agreement, which effectively de-emphasized what was becoming big-time football at each school. The agreement set forth standards for academics, athletics, and financial aid for student-athletes. Long before what we currently know as recruiting, schools could lure football players to their schools regardless of their academic abilities. Ivy Group schools would have none of that. An applicant’ s ability to play a sport would not influence any admission decision. The presidents also agreed that athletic scholarships would not be permitted.
Winner of nine Ivy League Championships, Harvard head coach Tim Murphy.
No. 14, Ryan Fitzpatrick’ s career highlight came in 2004 when he led Harvard to a 10-0 season and an Ivy League championship.
Financial aid would only be offered based on the academic standards and need that was applied to all students. Ivy League schools in our modern era still do not offer athletic scholarships of any kind.
The Ivy Group Agreement was finalized in 1954 and in 1956, the very first season of intercollegiate athletics was played in the newly formed Ivy League. The agreement was symbolic in a way. There were several schools on the East Coast and Midwest that followed the Ivy League’ s lead and de-emphasized football to the point of ending their programs. One of the more prominent programs to drop the sport was the University of Chicago. A founding member of the Big Ten Conference, Chicago was coached by one of the game’ s alltime greats, Amos Alonzo Stagg. The school also produced the first-ever Heisman Trophy
Photos Courtesy of: Harvard Athletic Communications
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