October 1933
Stanley Woodward of the New York Herald Tribune first uses the phrase "Ivy colleges" in print to describe the eight current Ivy schools (plus Army). On February 8, 1935, AP Sports editor Alan Gould first uses the exact term "Ivy League". [From Mark Bernstein, Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession, University of Pennsylvania, 2001]

1945
The first "Ivy Group Agreement" is signed, applying only to football. It affirms the observance of common practices in academic standards and eligibility requirements and the administration of need-based financial aid, with no athletic scholarships. The agreement creates the Presidents Policy Committee, including the eight Presidents; the Coordination and Eligibility Committee, made up of one senior non-athletic administrator from each school; and the committee on Administration, comprised of the eight directors of athletics.

February 1954
The Ivy Presidents extend the Ivy Group Agreement to all intercollegiate sports. Their statement also focuses on presidential governance of the league, the importance of intra-League competition, and a desire that recruited athletes be academically "representative" of each institution's overall student body. Although this is the League's official founding date, the first year of competition is 1956-57.

December 1969
Clayton Chapman, Assistant Athletic Director at Cornell, becomes Executive Secretary of the Council, providing its first staff assistance.

March 1971
The Ivy League becomes the last conference in the country to endorse the national change to freshman eligibility on varsity teams. Although the Ivy Presidents do not permit the change in all team sports, by 1980 the change is complete in all team sports except in football and men's rowing.

December 1971
With women now enrolled as undergraduates at all eight Ivy institutions, the Presidents unanimously approve the proposal of the Coordination and Administration Committees that "The Ivy Group rules of eligibility shall not be construed to discriminate on grounds of sex."

July 1973
The Presidents agree to appoint a full-time coordinator for the Ivy Group. Later that year in December, Ricardo Mestres, a Vice President at Princeton, attends his first Presidents meeting as the Ivy Group's permanent Executive Director.

May 1974
The Ivy Group officially begins League championships in women's sports, as the Radcliffe-Harvard women crew wins the first official women's Ivy League championship.

March 1976
James Litvack, a Princeton faculty member, becomes the second Executive Director. A joint committee is formed to make specific recommendations for applying rules equitably to both men and women, and to consider rules for the number of contests, length of seasons, etc., in women's sports.

February 1977
The Ivy League Presidents approve a 10th game for football, previously limited to nine games.

August 1977
The Ivy Presidents adopt the name Council of Ivy Group Presidents, and the Coordination and Eligibility Committee becomes the Policy Committee.

June 1979
On the 25th anniversary of the 1954 Agreement, the Council of Presidents issues a 10-point Statement of Principles, reaffirming basic goals with regard to admissions, financial aid, and the role of athletics in the undergraduate educational experience.

May 1980
On recommendations of the Athletic Directors and Policy Committee, the Council of Presidents unanimously adopts the "Parry-Ryan" report, a comprehensive approach to assuring that the scope of scheduling, competition and practice opportunities will be consistent with athletes' academic priorities. This basic structure remains in effect today.

Fall/Winter 1981
Marking the 25th anniversary of the first Ivy season, sportswriters covering the League select all-time Silver Anniversary Football and Men's Basketball teams.

December 1981
A special NCAA convention creates a "I-AA" football division and Ivy League members begin play in that division the following September.

March 1983
An Ivy League team (Dartmouth) receives its first appearance in the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship, when, on a one-year basis only, the Ivy League was one of additional eight conferences that played opening-round games to determine the four additional conference representatives that would compete in the first-round games.

September 1984
Jeffrey H. Orleans, a Yale graduate and lawyer and author of the federal Title IX regulation, is appointed the third Executive Director of the Council of Ivy Group Presidents. He is authorized to hire other professional staff to create an Ivy League Office in Princeton, N.J., to more effectively coordinate and serve institutional activities, represent the League nationally, and engage in League-wide sports information and championship administration.

June 1985
The Council formally adopts a structure, which remains in effect currently, for monitoring the academic qualifications of recruited athletes.

July 1986
Constance Huston Hurlbut becomes the League's first Assistant Director, assuming responsibility for Ivy League sports publicity from the institutional sports information offices. In 1993, Hurlbut becomes Executive Director of the Patriot League.

June 1989
The Council approves a third professional position, dividing the functions of rules compliance and sports information; Charles Yrigoyen III becomes Assistant Executive Director for Public Information.

June and December 1991
Coincident with reducing the permitted number of recruited football players, the Council agrees to freshman eligibility in football and to 12 sessions of spring practice for football rather than one spring "media day."

April 1993
The Ivy League receives its first annual automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship, beginning with the 1994 championship. In the next few years, the Ivy League will become the only conference to attain automatic bids in every women's sport.

July 1993
Carolyn Campbell-McGovern succeeds Constance Hurlbut as Senior Associate Executive Director. While extending and formalizing Ivy rules compliance activities, and assisting the eight Ivy institutions through the first NCAA certification reviews, she also will chair both the NCAA Olympic Sports and Women's Ice Hockey committees.

June 1994
The Council of Presidents approves the appointment of a Senior Women's Athletic Administrator to the Policy Committee, a position complementing the long-standing representation of a Director of Athletics.

August 1996
Associate Executive Director Charles Yrigoyen III oversees the inauguaration of the Ivy League website (www.IvyLeagueSports.com), and begins the League's transition to electronically-focused sports information.

May 1998 to April 1999
The Ivy League holds a year-long celebration of the 25th Anniversary of Ivy League Women's Championships, including events at each campus, a traveling photo-history mural, timeline exhibit, selection of the women's Silver Anniversary Team in all sports and a two-day symposium in April 1999, in New York City with 300 alumnae and other participants. The League's Silver Anniversary is remembered in print with the November, 1999 publication of Silver Era, Golden Moments, an authoritative 200-page narrative and photographic history.

July 2000
The Council approves a fourth professional position to provide for the first time a focus on championships, officiating, scheduling, and other aspects of sport administration. Brett A. Hoover becomes the new Assistant Director for Public Information, focusing on web-based communication with the media and all Ivy constituencies.

September 2002
The Ivy League redesigned website draws more than one million visitors in its first full year.

October 2002
Harvard beats Cornell in football in the first YES Network broadcast of Ivy League sports. YES broadcasted Ivy football and men's basketball games for six seasons (2002-07).

November 2002
The Ivy League hosts the first ESPN College GameDay football show to draw more than 1.5 million households (November 16, 2002, Harvard-Penn at Franklin Field).

July 2004
The Ivy League produces the largest and most complete compilation of athletes from the eight schools who have competed in the Olympic Games, www.IviesinAthens.com. The celebration of the Athens Games that summer would later spin off a book -- Ivies In Athens -- written by summer intern Jay Bavishi.

September 2005
The Ivy League and SIRIUS Satellite Radio announce a four-year agreement for an Ivy League Game of the Week broadcast package for football and men's basketball.

2006-07
The Ivy League celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the formal agreement with a year-long online feature known as Ivy@50 (www.Ivy50.com). There were nearly 200 features written about former athletes, the likes of Bill Bradley, Ken Dryden, Calvin Hill, Allison Feaster, Meredith Rainey, Steve Jordan, Marcellus Wiley, Chick Igaya, Reggie Williams and Christina Teuscher. Stephen Eschenbach served as the primary writer for the ground-breaking series.

The Ivy League boasted an all-time high 18 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans during the 2006-07 season.

February 2008
Jeffrey H. Orleans announces his retirement, effective June 30, 2009, as the third Executive Director of the Council of Ivy Group Presidents. Orleans served as Executive Director for 25 years.

2007-08
The Ivy League boasts an all-time high 81 CoSIDA Academic All-District honors during the 2007-08 season.

July 2008
The Ivy League Office's three internships are upgraded to Assistant Executive Director positions, one in Compliance and Governance and two in Communications, effective July 1, 2008. The new positions were filled by the current interns, Megan McHugo, Wesley Harris and Alex Searle, respectively, who were entering their third years with the League office.

Scottie Rodgers named Associate Executive Director, Communications, succeeding Brett Hoover, effective July 1, 2008.

August 2008
The Ivy League and VERSUS announce unprecedented national television coverage for the 2008 football season. VERSUS televised five Ivy League football games under the title "The Ivy League Game of the Week, Presented by TIAA-CREF". The agreement marks the first time since the early 1990s that Ivy League football games have been packaged together nationally. The games reached more than 73 million U.S. homes, the widest reach of Ivy football games in League history.

Charles Yrigoyen III, a member of the Ivy League Office staff for nearly two decades, named Commissioner of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, effective October 1, 2008.

September 2008
The Ivy League blog for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing drew 53,581 viewers since its inception on July 30, 2008. The blog featured 216 stories, including a daily feature for all 16 days of competition, 40 Ivy@50 Olympic stories, daily recaps of individual and team performances and special video features. The Ivy League boasted 42 athletes Beijing, earning 14 medals (five gold, seven silver and two bronze).

January 2009
The Ivy League announces it would begin conducting four-team men's and women's lacrosse tournaments at the end of the regular season, beginning the spring of 2010, to determine the League's automatic qualifying institutions to the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Lacrosse Championships. The winners of the regular-season titles will host the inaugural tournaments.

February 2009
Robin Harris, Senior Counsel and Co-Chair in the Collegiate Sports Practice at Ice Miller, LLP, named the fourth Executive Director, effective July 1, 2009.

August 2009
The Ivy League extends its agreement for a fifth season with SIRIUS/XM Satellite Radio to broadcast an Ivy League Game of the Week broadcast package for football and men's basketball.

December 2009
Celene McGowan named Associate Executive Director, Championships and Sports Administration, succeeding Charles Yrigoyen III, effective January 4, 2010.

February 2010
The Ivy League boasts 19 athletes in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, who earned 10 medals (six gold, three silver and one bronze).

The Ivy League reaches an agreement with Waterbucket Media to manage the marketing rights and solicit corporate sponsorship opportunities for the 2010 Ivy League Men's and Women's Lacrosse Tournaments and to assist with the broadcast arrangements, as needed.

April 2010
The Ivy League announces a partnership with Champion athleticwear to be the presenting sponsor for the 2010 Ivy League Men's and Women's Lacrosse Tournaments.

The Ivy League partners with LiveSportsVideo.com to stream live the semifinal games for both men's and women's lacrosse tournaments.

Second-seeded Dartmouth defeats third-seeded Cornell 10-8 and top-seeded and host Penn defeats fourth-seeded Princeton 13-9 in the women's lacrosse tournament semifinals on Friday, April 30.

May 2010
CBS College Sports televises live the championship game of the 2010 Ivy League Women's Lacrosse Tounament Presented by Champion on Sunday, May 2 at 12:30 p.m. Penn wins the inauguaral women's tournament with a 9-8 win over Dartmouth.

Second-seeded Princeton defeats third-seeded Yale 7-6 and top-seeded and host Cornell defeats fourth-seeded Brown 14-9 in the men's lacrosse tournament semifinals on Friday, May 7.

ESPNU televises live the championship game of the 2010 Ivy League Men's Lacrosse Tounament Presented by Champion on Sunday, May 9 at Noon. Second-seeded Princeton wins the inauguaral men's lacrosse tournament with a 10-9 overtime win over Cornell.

June 2010
The Ivy League announces an agreement with VERSUS to broadcast at least three football games for the 2010 and 2011 seasons, culminating each year with the Harvard-Yale game.

August 2010
Dan Colleran and Sarah Finney named Assistant Executive Directors, Communications and Championships, succeeding Wesley Harris and Alex Searle, effective August 2, 2010.

National Football Foundation and the Ivy League announce that the organizations will co-host the 2010 presentation of the Asa S. Bushnell Cup, which honors the Ivy League Football Player of the Year, in New York City on December 6 as part of the festivities surrounding the 53rd NFF Annual Awards Dinner.

The Ivy League announces an extension of its agreement with SIRIUS Satellite Radio for an Ivy League Game of the Week broadcasts for football and men's basketball for the 2010-11 season, marking the sixth-consecutive year the League action from the gridiron and the hardwood will be featured on SIRIUS.

The Ivy League launches its re-designed website, the site's first overhaul since 2002, partnering with PrestoSports as the site's new provider.

September 2010
Regina Maguire named Business Manager, effective September 20, 2010.

March 2011
The Ivy League conducts its eighth all-time men's basketball playoff on March 12 to determine the League’s NCAA Tournament automatic bid recipient as Harvard and Princeton tied for the 2010-11 regular-season title. Princeton edged Harvard 63-62 on a last-second shot by the Tigers' Douglas Davis in front of a capacity crowd at Yale's John J. Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn. The game was broadcasted live on ESPN3.com and was watched by 54,449 unique viewers. The last two-plus minutes of the game received live national coverage on ABC, CBS, ESPN and ESPNEWS.

July 2011
The Ivy League launches its new online merchandise store, partnering with TeamFanShop, at http://shop.ivyleaguesports.com, on July 8. The Ivy League online store debuted with more than 1,100 items, offering a wide variety of apparel, products and accessories for men, women and children across all eight Ivy League institutions, as well as Ivy League-specific merchandise.

October 2011
Trevor Rutledge-Leverenz named Interim Assistant Executive Director, Communications and Championships, succeeding Sarah Finney, effective October 24, 2011.

January 2012
Matthew Singer named Coordinator, Compliance and Championships, effective January 9, 2012.

March 2012
The Ivy League announces a new partnership with Leverage Agency, a New York City-based sports and entertainment marketing firm, to procure sponsorship opportunities for the conference as well as provide other marketing functions, including social media, public relations and domestic licensing.

May 2012
The Ivy League and the NBC Sports Group announce a two-year national television rights agreement for six to 10 football games, six to 10 men's basketball games and up to four up to four men's lacrosse games annually to be aired on the NBC Sports Network. The NBC Sports Network also acquired the rights to sublicense additional football and men's basketball games to a national sports network.

Trevor Rutledge-Leverenz named Assistant Executive Director, Communications and Championships, effective May 14, 2012.

The Ivy League announces a landmark greening commitment as the first collegiate athletics conference to team up with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to reduce the environmental impacts of its championship events. The League offce will also provide greening resources to its athletics departments with the goal of minimizing the environmental footprint of their operations and supply chains. The partnership kicked off at the inaugural Ivy League Women’s Rowing Championship, held May 13, 2012, at Cooper River Park in Pennsauken, N.J.

October 2012
Mike Hirschman named Assistant Executive Director, Communications and Championships, succeeding Dan Colleran, effective October 10, 2012.