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

Jan. 6, 1950: Standard awards for athletes placing in NCAA competition are approved.

March 1950: The City College of New York becomes the only team to win both the National Invitation Tournament and the NCAA basketball championship in the same year.

Jan. 12, 1951: The “Sanity Code” is revised (financial aid and enforcement provisions).

Oct. 1, 1951: Walter Byers becomes the first full-time executive director of the NCAA after serving since 1947 as part-time executive assistant.

Jan. 11, 1952: A limited television plan is adopted.

July 28, 1952: The NCAA national office moves from Chicago to Kansas City, Missouri.

Feb. 13, 1954: Furman’s Frank Selvy establishes a single-game collegiate basketball scoring record with 100 points against Newberry.

Feb. 15, 1954: The first National Collegiate Championships Records Book is published.

March 4-7, 1954: The first National Collegiate Skiing Championships are conducted at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Jan. 10, 1956: Delegates at the 50th NCAA Convention approve the first College Division championship (basketball, for 1957); the NCAA treasurer reports the Association to be in stable financial condition for the first time.

April 12-14, 1956: John Walsh coaches Wisconsin’s boxing team to a record eighth National Collegiate Boxing Championships team title.

June 1956: Houston wins the first of 16 men’s golf championships between 1956 and 1985 under coach Dave Williams.

Fall 1956: When he enrolls at Oklahoma and joins the football team, Prentice Gautt becomes the first Black student-athlete to play for a member school in the Jim Crow states of the South and Southwest. Gautt later becomes the NCAA’s secretary-treasurer in 1994.

March 13-15, 1957: The first College Division Basketball Championship is conducted at the University of Evansville.

March 23, 1957: North Carolina defeats Kansas in a triple-overtime final at the NCAA Basketball Championship.

Nov. 15, 1958: The first College Division Cross Country Championships are conducted at Wheaton College (Illinois).

Aug. 27, 1959: Ownership of the National Collegiate Athletic Bureau is authorized.

Nov. 28, 1959: The first National Collegiate Soccer Championship is played at UConn; Saint Louis wins the first of 10 championships between 1959 and 1973.


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