|
NAIA
The National Association
of Intercollegiate Athletics (better known as the NAIA)
traces its roots to the National Association of Intercollegiate
Basketball. The NAIB was established on March 10, 1940 in Kansas
City, Missouri.
The association got its
start three years after a men’s
basketball tournament was held in Kansas City. The tournament was
started by
James Naismith and others who wanted to establish a forum for small
colleges and universities to determine a national basketball champion.
The original eight-team tournament expanded to 32 teams in 1938.
In 1948, the NAIB became
the first national organization to open their intercollegiate postseason
to black student-athletes.
In 1952, the NAIB was
transformed into the NAIA, and with that came the sponsorship of
additional sports. The NAIA began sponsoring intercollegiate
championships for women in 1980, the first coed national athletics
association to do so. The NAIB/NAIA was formed on the grounds that the
older, larger
NCAA was predominantly oriented toward larger institutions,
particularly those which played "big time" college football.
Sports: cross country,
football (men), soccer, volleyball (women), basketball, swimming, track
and field, wrestling (men), baseball (men), softball (women), and
tennis.
Ice hockey (men) was also
sponsored until 1984.
|
