Chicago Maroons

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Chicago Maroons
Chicago Maroons logo.svg
UniversityUniversity of Chicago
Conference University Athletic Association
Midwest Conference (baseball and football)
CCIW (women's lacrosse)
NCAA Division III
Location Chicago, Illinois
Football stadium Stagg Field
Basketball arena Ratner Athletics Center
Other venues Henry Crown Fieldhouse
MascotPhil the Phoenix
NicknameMaroons
Fight songWave the Flag
ColorsMaroon and white [1]
   
Website athletics.uchicago.edu
Chicago univ maroons wmark 2017.png

The Chicago Maroons are the intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Chicago. They are named after the color maroon. Team colors are maroon and gray, [2] and Phil the Phoenix is their mascot. They now compete in the NCAA Division III, mostly as members of the University Athletic Association.

Contents

The University of Chicago helped found the Big Ten Conference in 1895; although it dropped football in 1939 (as inconsistent with its academic vision), its other teams remained members until 1946. Football returned as a club sport in 1963, as a varsity sport in 1969, and began competing independently in Division III in 1973. The school was part of the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference from 1976 to 1987, and its football team joined the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference's successor, the Midwest Conference (MWC), in 2017. In the 2018–19 school year, Chicago added baseball to its MWC membership, and elevated its club team in women's lacrosse to full varsity status, with that sport competing in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW).

Stagg Field is the home stadium for the re-instated football team.

Conference affiliation

Big Ten Conference

Chicago basketball team of 1895-96 University of Chicago 1895-96 Basketball Team.jpeg
Chicago basketball team of 1895–96

The Maroons helped establish the Big Ten Conference (then known as the "Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives", and commonly called the "Western Conference") at a follow-up meeting on February 8, 1896. [3] The league initially consisted of Chicago, Purdue, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Northwestern.

Jay Berwanger was awarded the first Heisman trophy in 1935. [4]

Baseball team of 1915 Chicago University and Waseda University Baseball Club players in 1915.jpg
Baseball team of 1915

Hall of Fame coach Amos Alonzo Stagg coached the football team from 1892–1932, the basketball team from 1920–1921, and the baseball team from 1893–1905 and 1907–1913. [5] He encouraged players to adopt vegetarianism, believing it supported both athleticism and a "gentle and gentlemanly" sportsmanship. [6]

The football team was dropped following the 1939 season. [7] In explaining the reason to drop football, Robert Maynard Hutchins, the university’s president, had written acidly in The Saturday Evening Post “In many colleges, it is possible for a boy to win 12 letters without learning how to write one.” [8]

On March 7, 1946 the University of Chicago withdrew from the Big Ten Conference. [9] On May 31, 1946 the resignation was formally accepted by the Big Ten Conference. [10]

Varsity teams

110609 spt volleyball eg 01 (4139315285).jpg
Chicago v Brandeis volleyball in 2011
UChicago pole vault.jpg
Pole vault
040409 spt track eg 4 (3584740938).jpg
Track athlete
Whole band.jpg
Band
Men's sportsWomen's sports
Baseball Basketball
Basketball Cross country
Cross countryLacrosse
Football Soccer
GolfSoftball
SoccerSwimming
SwimmingTennis
TennisTrack and field
Track and fieldVolleyball
Wrestling

Facilities

Current

Chicago Maroons Facilities
Ratner Athletic Center.jpg
Ratner Athletic Center
University of Chicago July 2013 49 (Henry Crown Field House).jpg
Henry Crown Field House
Marshall Field.jpg
Former Stagg Field (1904)
Modern Stagg Feild.jpg
Current Stagg Field
VenueSport(s)Open.Ref.
Gerald Ratner Athletics Center Basketball (2003–)
Volleyball
Wrestling
Swimming		2003 [11]
Henry Crown Field House Indoor track and field
Racquetball
Handball
Basketball (1933–2003)		1932 [12]
Stagg Field Football
Soccer
Outdoor track and field		2013 [13]

Former

University of Chicago Men's Gymnasium.jpg
Men's Gymnasium, demolished in 1904
Bartlett Dining Commons in February 2016.jpg
Bartlett in February 2016, now a dining hall
VenueSport(s)Open.Clos.Ref.
Men's Gymnasium Basketball18911904
Bartlett Hall Basketball1904– [n 1] [14]
Notes
  1. ↑ Repurposed as a dinning hall.

Championships

National and NCAA championships

University Athletic Association championships

Midwest Conference championships

All championships listed here were won when the league was known as the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference, and only sponsored men's sports. The Midwest Conference was established in its current form in 1994 with the merger of the MCAC and Midwest Athletic Conference for Women.

Big Ten Conference championships

Fight song

Wave the Flag (For Old Chicago) is the fight song for the Maroons. [17] Gordon Erickson wrote the lyrics in 1929. The tune was adapted from Miami University's "Marching Song" written in 1908 by Raymond H. Burke, a University of Chicago graduate who joined Miami's faculty in 1906.

The song is traditionally sung by the players at midfield after all home victories. [18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ The University of Chicago Identity Guidelines (PDF). Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Color Palette | University Communications". Archived from the original on 2014-10-26. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  3. ↑ Canham, Don (1996). From The Inside: A Half Century of Michigan Athletics . Olympia Sports Press. p.  281. ISBN   0-9654263-0-0.
  4. ↑ "Heisman trophy winners" . Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  5. ↑ "Alonzo Stagg Profile" . Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  6. ↑ Shprintzen (2013). The Vegetarian Crusade. pp. 200–201. ISBN   978-1-4696-0891-4.
  7. ↑ "Chicago gives up football as major sport". Gettysburg Times. December 22, 1939. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  8. ↑ Bearak, Barry (17 September 2011). "At the University of Chicago, Football and Higher Education Mix". New York Times. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  9. ↑ "Chicago Withdraws From Big Ten Because of Weak Athletic Teams". New York Times. March 8, 1946. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
  10. ↑ "No changes voted by Big Ten group". New York Times. Champaign, Illinois. June 1, 1946. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
  11. ↑ Gerald Ratner Athletics Center
  12. ↑ Henry Crown Field House
  13. ↑ How Stagg Field has changed throughout UChicago’s history By Sarah Hopkins on Chicagomaroon.com. September 23, 2024
  14. ↑ "UChicago Dining | The University of Chicago". Dining.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  15. ↑ Henderson, Cydney. "University of Chicago's Julianne Sitch first female coach to lead NCAA men's soccer team to title". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2022-12-04.
  16. ↑ NCAA.com. "UChicago wins the 2022 NCAA DIII men's tennis championship | NCAA.com". www.ncaa.com. Retrieved 2022-05-25.
  17. ↑ Archived December 1, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  18. ↑ "Chicago Traditions" Archived May 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine at University of Chicago official website (accessed 2012-12-29).
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