1900s | 1910s | 1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s

May 25, 1935: Ohio State’s Jesse Owens breaks four world records at the Big Ten Conference track championships. A month later, he becomes the first athlete to win four individual titles in one year at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, a feat he repeats the following year.

April 2, 1937: The first National Collegiate Boxing Championships are conducted at UC Davis.

April 16, 1938: The first National Collegiate Gymnastics Championships are conducted at the University of Chicago.

July 4-9, 1938: The Intercollegiate Tennis Championships are first conducted by the NCAA (after sponsorship by the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association beginning in 1881).

Nov. 22, 1938: The first National Collegiate Cross Country Championships are conducted at Michigan State.

March 27, 1939: The first National Collegiate Basketball Championship is conducted at Northwestern. The University of Oregon wins the first title.

April 1939: Illinois, led by eventual seven-time individual titlist Joe Giallombardo, wins the first of eight National Collegiate Gymnastics Championships titles between 1939 and 1958.

June 24-29, 1939: The Intercollegiate Golf Championships of the United States are first conducted by the NCAA (after sponsorship by the U.S. Golf Association beginning in 1887). Vincent D’Antoni of Tulane wins the individual title, and Stanford wins the team title.

Dec. 29, 1939: Longtime NCAA Secretary-Treasurer Frank W. Nicolson, of Wesleyan University (Connecticut), resigns after 30 years in that position.


Sources: “In the Arena: The NCAA’s First Century” by Joseph N. Crowley, NCAA News and Champion magazine archives, the NCAA Media Center, and NCAA record books