The History Of The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA)

The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) is a college athletic conference made up of historically Black colleges in the southeastern United States. It participates in the NCAA’s Division II. Its annual basketball tournament is one of the most successful events in the nation. The CIAA Basketball Tournament is the third most attended athletic event in collegiate sports after the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big East tournaments. It is the first NCAA Division II Conference to have its tournament televised as part of Championship Week on cable television. Overall attendance at official CIAA events topped 165,000 people in 2007 – up from about 155,000 for the previous year’s event. Several of its member teams have claimed national Championships in their respective sports. Virginia Union University has claimed the National Championship in Basketball (Division II) on three occasions. St. Augustine’s College is also a national power in the sport of Track and Field.

History

The CIAA is the oldest African-American athletic conference in the United States. Founded in 1912, on the campus of Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), the CIAA embodies a history rich in tradition, which epitomizes the fortitude of its 10 colleges and universities. When the conference was founded, it was originally known as the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Its founding fathers were Allen Washington and C.H. Williams of Hampton Institute; Ernest J. Marshall of Howard University; George Johnson of Lincoln University, PA ; W.E. Atkins, Charles Frasher and H.P. Hargrave of Shaw University; and J.W. Barco and J.W. Pierce of Virginia Union University. The conference’s football legacy dates back to 1892. That year, Livingstone College and Johnson C. Smith University (then Biddle University) played in the first football game between two African-American colleges. The athleticism and sportsmanship the teams exhibited on that rainy afternoon set the standard for the CIAA’s member institutions: Bowie State University, Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, Johnson C. Smith University, Livingstone College, St. Augustine’s College, St. Paul’s College, Shaw University, Virginia State University, and Virginia Union University.

Lincoln University, PA, a charter member of the CIAA, is adding a varsity football team and looking to reclassify their athletic program to NCAA Division II from NCAA Division III, and is currently seeking re-admission into the CIAA. Chowan University will join the CIAA in 2008 for football only.