[World Wide Webb]

A meeting of seven Midwest university presidents on January 11, 1895, at the Palmer House in Chicago to discuss the regulation and control of intercollegiate athletics was the first development of what would become one of organized sports' most successful undertakings.

Those seven men, behind the leadership of James H. Smart, president of Purdue University, established the principles for which the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives, now known as the Big Ten Conference, would be founded.

At that meeting, a blueprint for the control and administration of college athletics under the direction of appointed faculty representatives was outlined. The presidents' first-known action "restricted eligibility for athletics to bonafide, full-time students who were not delinquent in their studies."

This helped limit some problems of the times, especially the participation of professional athletes and "non-students" in regular sporting events. That important legislation, along with other legislation that would follow in the coming years, served as the primary building block for amateur intercollegiate athletics.

Baseball had been played by colleges and universities in an organized way since 1860, but in 1896 began the first Conference play and uniformity of rules and eligibility of players.

1896 teams

Independents
Alabama Crimson Tide
Army Black Knights
California Golden Bears
Clemson Tigers
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Indiana Hoosiers
Iowa Hawkeyes
Kentucky Wildcats
Lafayette Leopards
Marshall Thundering Herd
Maryland Terrapins
Michigan State Spartans
North Carolina Tar Heels
Northern Iowa Panthers
Stanford Cardinal
Villanova Wildcats
Washington State Cougars

Big 10

Chicago Maroons
Illinois Fighting Illini
Michigan Wolverines
Wisconsin Badgers


**I am using modern names for conferences and schools for my ease of use (i.e. Big 10 was originally named the Western Conference