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April 27, 1960: The NCAA cancels its alliance with the Amateur Athletic Union.
Jan. 11, 1961: The National Collegiate Boxing Championships are abolished.
Dec. 6, 1961: Syracuse running back
Ernie Davis becomes the first Black athlete to win the Heisman Trophy.
March 15, 1963: Loyola Chicago faces Mississippi State in a men’s basketball tournament regional semifinal. Mississippi State, an all-white team, sneaks out of town in the middle of the night despite protests from the governor and state police of Mississippi to play a Loyola team that features four Black starters. Loyola beats Mississippi State and goes on to win the title.
March 15-16, 1963: The first College Division Wrestling Championships are conducted at the University of Northern Iowa.
June 6-8, 1963: The first College Division Tennis Championships are conducted at Washington University of St. Louis.
June 7-8, 1963: The first College Division Track and Field Championships are conducted at the University of Chicago.
June 12-14, 1963: The first College Division Golf Championships are conducted at Southwest Missouri State University (now named Missouri State).
March 20-21, 1964: The first College Division Swimming Championships are conducted at Grove City College.
March 21, 1964: UCLA finishes an unbeaten season and wins the first of 10 basketball championships between 1964 and 1975 under coach
John Wooden.
April 18, 1964: The NCAA authorizes 32 $1,000 postgraduate scholarships for varsity letter winners.
April 19, 1964: A Special Committee on Women’s Competition is appointed.
Dec. 4, 1964: The first College Division Regional Football Championships are conducted at Sacramento, California; Abilene, Texas; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; and Orlando, Florida.
Jan. 12, 1965: The NCAA adopts the 1.600 rule for initial academic eligibility, which meant incoming student-athletes had to have a high school GPA and test scores that predicted they would have at least a 1.6 GPA in college.
March 12-13, 1965: The first National Collegiate Indoor Track Championships are conducted in Detroit.
June 19, 1965: UCLA senior
Arthur Ashe wins the NCAA singles and doubles titles and leads the Bruins to a team championship.
Jan. 11, 1966: The first Honors Luncheon is conducted at the 60th Convention (50 government officials — including three Cabinet members, 17 senators and 30 congressional representatives — are honored).
March 11, 1966: Kentucky Wesleyan wins the College Division Basketball Championship, the first of eight Division II titles between 1966 and 2001.
March 19, 1966: Texas Western College (now UTEP) defeats Kentucky in the basketball final with a starting team consisting entirely of black players.
April 23, 1966: The National Collegiate Athletic Bureau is separated into publishing and public relations functions. The new College Athletics Publishing Service is moved to Phoenix.
April 23, 1966: The Theodore Roosevelt Award, the Association’s highest honor, is established. Dwight Eisenhower receives the first award at the 1967 Convention, where 12 astronauts who won varsity letters also are honored.
March 17, 1967: Winston-Salem State, led by most outstanding player Earl Monroe and coached by Clarence “Big House” Gaines, becomes the first historically black institution to win an NCAA basketball title (College Division champion).
September 1967: Indiana State becomes the first member school to install an artificial playing surface (AstroTurf).
Oct. 24, 1967: The NCAA appoints a committee to study the feasibility of establishing ways to develop and supervise women’s intercollegiate athletics.
1968: James “Doc” Counsilman publishes “The Science of Swimming” during a period of success for his Indiana swim teams.
Jan. 20, 1968: Houston defeats UCLA in the Astrodome to end the Bruins’ 47-game winning streak before a crowd of 52,693, at the time the largest crowd at a college basketball game.
March 7-9, 1968: The first College Division Gymnastics Championships are conducted at Springfield College.
June 5-7, 1968: The first College Division Baseball Championship is conducted at Southwest Missouri State (now named Missouri State).
Sept. 1, 1968: A total of 223 members select membership in the University Division and 386 in the College Division under new legislation.
April 19, 1969: The first National Collegiate Trampoline Championships are conducted at the University of Michigan.
Nov. 28-29, 1969: The first National Collegiate Water Polo Championship is conducted at Long Beach State.
Nov. 29, 1969: The first College Division Regional Football Championship Games (Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl and Knute Rockne Bowl) are played in Springfield, Ohio, and Bridgeport, Connecticut.
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
