MIT Engineers football | |
---|---|
First season | 1881 |
Head coach | Brian Bubna 4th season, 21–7 (.750) |
Stadium | Steinbrenner Stadium |
Location | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
NCAA division | Division III |
Conference | NEWMAC |
Colors | Cardinal red and steel gray [1] |
The MIT Engineers football represent the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the American football intercollegiate sport. The team plays in New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conferences (NEWMAC) and competes in Division III of the NCAA. Home games are played at Henry G. Steinbrenner '27 Stadium, located on the Institute's campus. The current coach is Brian Bubna.
The initial MIT football team, nicknamed the Techmen, recorded its first victory by defeating Exeter College, 2–0, in 1881. [2] In 1901, the MIT student body voted 119–117 to discontinue the intercollegiate football squad. The university did continue to field sophomore and freshman football teams into the 1920s. The last game played against another university was the MIT sophomore team against the Harvard freshman team in 1901. [3]
In 1978, a group of students self-organized to re-establish the team, though none of the school's administration knew at the time. To raise funds, they refereed intramural games, sold hot dogs, painted hurdles for track meets, took grants from the school, and sneaked loans from their fraternity budgets. For their uniforms, the team repurposed those of Rochester Institute of Technology, whose own football program had recently been cut. [4]
Finally, the students met with then-MIT President Jerry Wiesner, who passed the issue toward MIT’s athletic board where Jack Barry, an assistant athletic director, recommended that MIT support the club for at least one season. Jay Glass, who covered the team for MIT’s newspaper, commented, “It was a hack on the university itself.” After a poor first season, the new MIT Engineers won their first victory in 1979 and went 6–1 the next year. [4] [5] In 1987, the club became a varsity program and joined the NCAA Division III. The next year, the team won its first varsity victory of the modern era, beating Stonehill, 29–7. [6]
In 2014, the Engineers finished the regular season with a 9–0 record and won their first New England Football Conference title. [7] [2] The team won its second title, 9–1, in 2018, but lost to the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays in the playoffs. [8] In 2019, MIT won its second consecutive NEWMAC conference title. [9] They advanced to the NCAA Division III playoffs where they lost to Muhlenberg College. [10] The 2020 season was cancelled due to coronavirus. In 2021, the Engineers finished the year with a 5-4 record. [11]
Muhlenberg College is a private liberal arts college in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg College is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is named for Henry Muhlenberg, the German patriarch of Lutheranism in the United States.
The Vanderbilt Commodores are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Vanderbilt fields 16 varsity teams, 14 of which compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Vanderbilt's women's lacrosse team plays in the American Athletic Conference. The bowling team plays in the Southland Bowling League. The University of Tennessee Volunteers are Vanderbilt's primary athletic rival, and the only other SEC team in Tennessee.
The Liberty League is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division III. Member schools are top institutions that are all located in the state of New York.
The Drexel Dragons are the athletic teams of Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Navy Midshipmen are the athletic teams that represent the United States Naval Academy. The academy sponsors 33 varsity sports teams and 12 club sport teams. Both men's and women's teams are called Navy Midshipmen or "Mids". They participate in the NCAA's Division I, as a non-football member of the Patriot League, a football-only member of the American Athletic Conference in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), and a member of the Collegiate Sprint Football League (men), Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (men), Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges, Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League (men), Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference (men) and Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association. Navy is also one of approximately 300 members of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).
The Johns Hopkins Blue Jays are the 24 intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Johns Hopkins University, located in Baltimore, Maryland. They compete in the NCAA Division III, except for their lacrosse teams, which compete in Division I. They are primarily members of the Centennial Conference, while the men's and women's lacrosse teams compete in the Big Ten Conference. The team colors are Hopkins blue and black, and the blue jay is their mascot. Homewood Field is the home stadium.
The NJIT Highlanders, formerly the New Jersey Tech Highlanders, are the varsity sport members of the Division I NCAA-affiliated sports teams of New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). There are ten men's teams, seven women's teams, and three club teams along with a variety of intramural teams. The school's primary conference is the America East Conference. In November 2017 NJIT opened the Wellness and Events Center (WEC) which incorporates upgraded facilities for most Division 1 sports including a 3,500-seat arena for basketball and volleyball.
The Washington & Jefferson Presidents are the intercollegiate athletic teams for Washington & Jefferson College. The name "Presidents" refers to the two presidential namesakes of the college: George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. W&J is a member of the Presidents' Athletic Conference, the Eastern College Athletic Conference, and play in Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in both men's and women's varsity sports. During the 2005–2006 season, 34 percent of the student body played varsity-level athletics.
The Catholic University Cardinals football team represents the Catholic University of America in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III college football competition as a member of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC). The team played its first game in 1895 and was a major college team in the first half of the 20th century, into the 1940s. The football program was put on hiatus during World War II, and then discontinued shortly afterwards. In 1965, football returned to the university at the club level, and, in 1977, re-entered NCAA competition as part of Division III. The Cardinals have participated in the Division III playoffs three times in the late 1990s and have secured two Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) championships. The head coach is Mike Gutelius.
James Michael Bartolotta is an American former professional basketball player. He completed his collegiate career as the most decorated basketball player ever to play at MIT.
The Eastern Collegiate Football Conference is a football-only intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Founded in 2009, it combines six schools spread across the states of Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York, plus Washington, D.C.
The United States Coast Guard Academy's intercollegiate sports teams are called the Bears. They compete in NCAA Division III as members of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference. Through the 2016 season, the Bears played football in the New England Football Conference, but after that season moved their football program into the NEWMAC, which started sponsoring the sport in 2017.
The Muhlenberg Mules are the collegiate athletic teams of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The college competes in NCAA Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Muhlenberg has 22 intercollegiate sports, which belong to either the Centennial Conference or Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).
Massachusetts Institute of Technology's intercollegiate sports teams, called the MIT Engineers, compete mostly in NCAA Division III. It has won 22 Team National Championships, 42 Individual National Championships. MIT is the all-time Division III leader in producing Academic All-Americas (302) and rank second across all NCAA Divisions. MIT Athletes won 13 Elite 90 awards and ranks first among NCAA Division III programs, and third among all divisions. Most of the school's sports compete in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC), with sports not sponsored by the NEWMAC housed in several other conferences. Men's volleyball competes in the single-sport United Volleyball Conference. One MIT sport, women's rowing, competes in Division I in the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (EAWRC). Men's water polo, a sport in which the NCAA holds a single national championship for all three of its divisions, competes in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) alongside Division I and Division II members. Three sports compete outside NCAA governance: men's rowing competes in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC), sailing in the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association of ICSA and squash in the College Squash Association. In April 2009, budget cuts led to MIT's eliminating eight of its 41 sports, including the mixed men's and women's teams in alpine skiing and pistol; separate teams for men and women in ice hockey and gymnastics; and men's programs in golf and wrestling.
The Wheaton Lyons represents Massachusetts' Wheaton College and fields 21 varsity intercollegiate teams, 9 for men and 12 for women, in addition to 14 club sports programs and a variety of intramural activities. The school's teams play within the NCAA Division III and in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC).
The WPI Engineers are the athletic teams of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The school sponsors 20 varsity sports.
The WPI Engineers men's basketball team is the college basketball program representing Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). The Engineers compete in the Division III (DIII) of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the NEWMAC. WPI's men's basketball program began competing regularly as a varsity sport in 1918. The team is currently coached by Chris Bartley.
The 2017 WPI Engineers football team represented Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the 2017 NCAA Division III football season. It marked the Engineers' 128th overall season. The team played its home games at Alumni Stadium in Worcester, Massachusetts. They were led by eighth-year head coach Chris Robertson. This was the first season that WPI competed in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) for football.
The Brain Bowl is the name given to the MIT–WPI football rivalry. It is an American college football rivalry game played annually between the MIT Engineers of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the WPI Engineers of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The two schools have been rivals in the academic and in the sports arena, but the rivalry was expanded to the sport of football when the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) began sponsoring the sport in 2017. Despite the two teams first meeting being in 1888, the programs have only faced each other sixteen times with an 89-year hiatus. With the two programs now competing in the same conference, they will now face each other regularly each year.
The 2019 WPI Engineers football team represented Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the 2019 NCAA Division III football season. It marked the Engineers' 130th overall season. The team played its home games at Alumni Stadium in Worcester, Massachusetts. They were led by tenth-year head coach Chris Robertson.