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| The term has connotations of academic excellence as well as a certain amount of ]. They are sometimes affectionately referred to as ''The Ancient Eight.'' | The term has connotations of academic excellence as well as a certain amount of ]. They are sometimes affectionately referred to as ''The Ancient Eight.'' A handful of other American universities, also mostly private and mostly located in the East, is considered on-par with these schools, but the Ivy League holds a unique place in U.S. pop culture. | ||
| ==History== | ==History== | ||
Revision as of 19:08, 21 January 2004
The Ivy League is a group of eight private universities in the northeastern United States (one of the eight, Cornell University, has a few state-supported academic departments). They are some of the oldest and most respected universities in the United States. First coined informally to refer to these schools which compete in both scholastics and sports, the term "Ivy League" also refers to the formal association of these schools in NCAA Division I athletic competition.
The members of the Ivy League are:
- Brown University, Providence, RI
- Columbia University, New York, NY
- Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
- Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
- Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
- Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
- University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
- Yale University, New Haven, CT
The term has connotations of academic excellence as well as a certain amount of elitism. They are sometimes affectionately referred to as The Ancient Eight. A handful of other American universities, also mostly private and mostly located in the East, is considered on-par with these schools, but the Ivy League holds a unique place in U.S. pop culture.
History
Caswell Adams of the New York Tribune made a passing comment about the schools in 1937, referring to the ivy growing on their walls. Stanley Woodward, a fellow sportswriter, coined the phrase in a column soon thereafter, informally dubbing the eight competitive universities the Ivy League, in advance of any formal sports league involving the schools.
In 1945 the athletic directors of the schools signed the first Ivy Group Agreement, which set academic, financial, and athletic standards for the football teams.
In 1954, the date generally accepted as the birth of the Ivy League, the agreement was extended to all sports.
An apocryphal etymology attributes the name to the Roman numerals for four (IV), incorrectly asserting that there was such a sports league originally with four members.
See also: Russell Group of Universities, Oxbridge