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Jan. 7-9, 1980: Divisions II and III women’s championships in basketball, field hockey, swimming, tennis and volleyball are established.
March 20-22, 1980: Kenyon, under coach Jim Steen, begins the longest streak of consecutive team championships in any NCAA division with its first victory in the Division III Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships. After 31 straight victories, Kenyon took second to Denison in 2011 to end the streak.
April 4-5, 1980: The first National Collegiate Rifle Championships are conducted at East Tennessee State.
April 5, 1980: Executive Committee votes to eliminate ski jumping at Skiing Championships after 1981.
May 25, 1980: Hobart wins the first of 12 straight titles as host of the first Division III Men’s Lacrosse Championship (the school added a 13th title in 1993).
October 1980: The first NCAA women’s sports committees are formed (the Divisions II and III Women’s Basketball Committees are the first to meet).
Jan. 13, 1981: A governance plan that includes women’s athletics programs and services within the NCAA structure is approved.
Jan. 14, 1981: James Frank of Lincoln University (Missouri) is the first African American to be elected NCAA president.
February 1981: New NCAA seal with both men and women athletes replaces the original seal with a male athlete used since 1950.
March 4, 1981: CBS is awarded rights to the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship for three years beginning in 1982.
May 19-22, 1981: Florida Southern wins the first of 11 Division II Men’s Golf Championships titles between 1981 and 2000.
November 1981: The first NCAA women’s championships are conducted in Divisions I, II and III field hockey and cross country.
Nov. 21, 1981: The College of New Jersey wins the first of 11 Division III Field Hockey Championships between 1981 and 2014 under coach Sharon Pfluger.
Nov. 23, 1981: UTEP wins the Division I Men’s Cross Country Championships with a record-low score of 17 points (claiming first, second, third, fifth and sixth places individually).
December 1981: The first Division I, II and III Women’s Volleyball Championships are conducted.
March 12-13, 1982: Suleiman Nyambui of UTEP becomes the first participant to win seven career individual titles in the Division I Men’s Indoor Track and Field Championships.
March 1982: The first Division I, II and III women’s swimming and basketball championships are conducted.
March 26-27, 1982: The first National Collegiate Women’s Gymnastics Championships are conducted at Utah, where the host team wins the first of nine team titles extending through 1995 under coach Greg Marsden.
May 1982: The first National Collegiate Women’s Golf and Lacrosse Championships are conducted. Also, the first Division I, II and III Softball and Tennis Championships are conducted.
May 16-23, 1982: Stanford wins the first of 13 Division I Women’s Tennis Championships titles between 1982 and 2004.
May 27-30, 1982: UCLA, featuring shortstop Dot Richardson and pitcher Debbie Doom, wins the first of 10 Division I Softball Championship titles between 1982 and 2004.
May-June 1982: The first Division I, II and III Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships are conducted.
May 24-29, 1982: Abilene Christian wins the first of 19 Division II Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships titles between 1982 and 2011 (including seven in a row from 1982 to 1988 under coach Don Hood and another seven straight from 2002 to 2008 under Jon Murray and Hood).
Nov. 20-21, 1982: The first National Collegiate Women’s Soccer Championship is conducted at the University of Central Florida.
Nov. 21, 1982: Old Dominion wins the first of nine Division I Field Hockey Championship titles between 1982 and 2000 under coach Beth Anders.
Nov. 21, 1982: North Carolina wins the first of 21 Division I Women’s Soccer Championship titles between 1982 and 2012 under coach Anson Dorrance, including nine straight championships from 1986 to 1994.
Jan. 10-12, 1983: Division I approves Proposal No. 48, which requires prospective student-athletes to reach specified grade-point averages and standardized test scores.
March 11-12, 1983: The first National Collegiate Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships are conducted in Pontiac, Michigan.
March 18-19, 1983: West Virginia wins the first of 19 National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Rifle Championships team titles between 1983 and 2017.
April 4, 1983: In what many believe is the greatest Cinderella story in college basketball, North Carolina State’s Lorenzo Charles dunks the ball as time expires in the 1983 Division I Men’s Basketball Championship title game to lead the Wolfpack to a 54-52 win over heavily favored Houston.
May 28, 1983: Syracuse wins the first of 10 Division I Men’s Lacrosse Championships between 1983 and 2009.
Nov. 12, 1983: Bloomsburg wins the first of 13 Division II Field Hockey Championship titles between 1983 and 2009 under coach Jan Hutchinson (in addition to Division III titles in 1984 and 1987, during an eight-year period when the Division II championship was discontinued).
Dec. 10, 1983: North Dakota State University wins the first of five Division II Football Championship titles between 1983 and 1990. The school would later go on to win eight Football Championship Subdivision titles from the 2011 through the 2019 seasons after moving to Division I.
Jan. 9-11, 1984: Creation of the NCAA Presidents Commission is approved.
March 8-10, 1984: Kenyon wins the first of 17 straight Division III Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships team titles (16 under coach Jim Steen and one under Jon Howell). It added six more titles between 2002 and 2009.
March 9-10, 1984: Arkansas wins the first of 12 straight Division I Men’s Indoor Track and Field Championships team titles under coach John McDonnell. The team added another four consecutive titles from 1997 to 2000.
March 15-17, 1984: Florida’s Tracy Caulkins wins four events at the Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships to extend her record career total to 12 individual titles. The same year, Texas wins the first of five straight team titles under coach Richard Quick, who then moves to Stanford and wins six more titles by 1998.
March 24, 1984: The Central Missouri men’s and women’s teams win the Division II Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships, making Central Missouri the first school in any division to accomplish the dual feat in basketball.
April 2, 1984: Georgetown’s John Thompson becomes the first African American to coach a team to a title in the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.
June 27, 1984: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds a ruling that the NCAA Football Television Plan violates the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Nov. 23, 1984: Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie’s “Hail Mary” touchdown pass to Gerard Phelan lifts the Eagles over Miami (Florida) in the Orange Bowl.
March 1985: The first Divisions II and III Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships are conducted at North Dakota State and Bates, respectively.
May 19, 1985: The College of New Jersey (then known as Trenton State College) wins the first Division III Women’s Lacrosse Championship, claiming the first of its 12 titles between 1985 and 2006.
Jan. 13, 1986: George H.W. Bush is honored with the Theodore Roosevelt Award during his vice presidency. He was elected as president in 1988, making him the third president to receive the award.
Jan. 13-15, 1986: The NCAA drug-testing program is approved. The first testing was conducted at the Division I Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships in November 1986.
March 12-15, 1986: California State University, Bakersfield, wins the first of 13 Division II Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships team titles between 1986 and 2004.
April 1986: The Men’s Basketball Rules Committee adopts the 3-point shot for the 1986-87 season.
Nov. 16, 1986: The first Division III Women’s Soccer Championship is conducted at SUNY Cortland.
Feb. 25, 1987: The SMU football program is suspended for one year in the NCAA’s first application of the “death penalty” for assorted and ongoing rules violations.
March 13-14, 1987: LSU wins the first of 11 Division I Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championship team titles between 1987 and 2004. In May, the school claims the first of 11 straight outdoor team titles.
March 13-14, 1987: Wisconsin-La Crosse wins its first of 18 team titles from 1987 to 2017 at the Division III Men’s Indoor Track and Field Championships. The titles include a streak of six straight from 2001 to 2006.
March 16, 1987: New York University’s Michael Lofton becomes the first to win four titles in the same event (sabre) at the National Collegiate Fencing Championships.
March 29, 1987: Tennessee wins the first of eight Division I Women’s Basketball Championship titles between 1987 and 2008 under coach Pat Summitt.
April 2-4, 1987: Stanford’s Pablo Morales surpasses Southern California’s John Naber as the most victorious individual titlist in the history of the Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships, claiming his 11th championship.
May 12-16, 1987: Principia’s Courtney Allen sweeps the singles and doubles titles at the Division III Women’s Tennis Championships to finish her career with six individual titles.
May 20-23, 1987: Abilene Christian wins a record eight events at the Division II Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
June 4, 1987: A record 58-game hitting streak by Oklahoma State’s Robin Ventura is snapped during the College World Series by Stanford, which goes on to win the championship.
Oct. 1, 1987: Richard Schultz succeeds Walter Byers as NCAA executive director. Byers served in the position for 36 years.
March 11-12, 1988: Abilene Christian and Saint Augustine’s tie for the 1988 team crown in the Division II Men’s Indoor Track and Field Championships, marking the first of 13 team titles through 2011 for Abilene Christian and the second of 13 titles through 2014 for Saint Augustine’s. Abilene Christian’s women also win the first of 12 team titles extending through 2000.
March 11-12, 1988: Christopher Newport wins the first of six Division III Women’s Indoor Track Championships team titles between 1988 and 1998 under coach Vince Brown.
Nov. 12, 1988: The first Division II Women’s Soccer Championship is conducted at Barry.
Jan. 8-12, 1989: Proposal No. 42, withholding athletically related aid from partial academic qualifiers, is approved.
Jan. 8-12, 1989: The creation of the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is approved.
May 25-27, 1989: Saint Augustine’s wins the first of seven straight Division II Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships team titles under coach George Williams. The school sees another streak, with five straight titles from 2013 to 2017, bringing the total number of championships to 16 by 2017.
Sept. 27, 1989: The Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics is formed.
Nov. 18, 1989: SUNY Cortland wins the first of seven Division III Women’s Cross Country Championships between 1989 and 1997 under coach Jack Daniels.
Nov. 20, 1989: Villanova wins its first of six consecutive team titles in the Division I Women’s Cross Country Championships between 1989 and 1994.
Nov. 22, 1989: The NCAA and CBS sign a $1 billion television agreement for 1991 through 1997. Executive Director Richard Schultz moves to examine equitable distribution of revenue.
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
