Athletic Tradition
The tradition of Concordia athletics dates all the way back to 1903 when the very first Cobber baseball team took to the field. Since then the Concordia athletic department has grown to 22 varsity sports and over 800 student/athletes.
The
Beginning
An athletic association was formed in 1904 in order to have
general supervision of all athletics at the college. The
constitution provided for a number of departments and managers for
each, including baseball, basketball, tennis, skating rink and
gymnasium. Members of the association paid a fee of two dollars for
the year which entitled them to the use of the gymnasium, the
skating rink, baseball games and other athletic events on the
college grounds.
The First
Conference Affiliation
An organization called the "Interstate School Conference of
Faculty Members" was founded at Valley City, North Dakota in
December of 1911. Mr. F. W. Burkhalter, director of Physical
Education of the State Normal School at that place, seeing of what
mutual benefit a closer athletic relationship would be, issued
invitations to several institutions to send a representative to the
conference for the purpose of forming this conference of
educational institutions in southeastern North Dakota and
southwestern Minnesota. The following institutions were
represented: State Normal and Industrial School, Ellendale, North
Dakota; State Science School, Wahpeton, North Dakota; Jamestown
College, Jamestown, North Dakota; State Normal School, Mayville,
North Dakota, State Normal School, Moorhead, Minnesota, Concordia
College, Moorhead, Minnesota; and State Normal School, Valley City,
North Dakota.
The Early
Years
The facilities were somewhat marginal in the early years. The
gymnasium located in the basement of Old Main served the basketball
program and also gymnastics classes. There was adequate room for
outdoor activities. The new gym, constructed in 1915, was a
tremendous boon to the sports program as well as for other college
activities.
Basketball and baseball were the two major sports. Sporadic
attempts to introduce track, soccer and tennis were made at
different times. Football seemed to draw much enthusiasm.
Instruction in football was started as early as 1909, but it wasn't
until 1916 that a schedule of games with other schools was
developed.
The Birth of
the MIAC
The MIAC evolved from the Tri-State Conference which was composed
of schools from North and South Dakota and Minnesota. The Minnesota
private college members of the conference became dissatisfied with
the loose eligibility rules, methods of determining championships
and the size of the conference. There were 15 colleges spread over
three states. Hamline, Macalester, St. Thomas, St. John's, Gustavus
Adolphus, Carleton and St. Olaf were members of the Tri-State
Conference.
At a meeting in November 1919 members of the Minnesota colleges
sponsored a motion for some rules changes which they thought would
improve the league. They were outvoted by the Dakota
representatives. The Minnesota schools met after the adjournment of
the Tri-State meeting and decided to consider forming a league of
their own.
A meeting was held in December 1919 for the purpose of forming a
new conference. A constitution was developed as a basis for
consideration by the member schools. The charter meeting was held
March 15, 1920 at Carleton College. Each college sent a
representative to the meeting. Colleges present were Carleton,
Hamline, St. John's, Macalester, St. Olaf, Gustavus, St. Thomas and
Concordia. Professor A. M. Sattre represented Concordia. All of the
representatives voted for the adoption of the constitution except
Sattre and all of the colleges except Concordia were declared
charter members.
Concordia joined the next year in 1921, Augsburg in 1924 and St.
Mary's in 1926. Luther College's application was rejected at the
time to maintain the state identity.
As one of the early requirements the new league ruled that
championships were to be awarded according to certain regulations.
To be eligible for the conference championship in football, a team
must have played at least four conference games; in basketball, at
least eight conference games with four colleges and four of the
games must have been played on foreign courts; in baseball at least
six conference games with at least three member colleges.(1)
Concordia College was admitted to membership in the MIAC at the
fall meeting at St. John's University on December 13.
Switching To The
NCAA
The Concordia athletic teams began to switch over from the
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) to the
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the late 1970's.
In the late 70's Cobber individual athletes were competing for
national championships in the NCAA while the majority of the team
sports still participated in the NAIA national playoffs. The 1978
Cobber football team won the last NAIA national championship for
the sch