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Contact: Ted Schultz, Sports Information Director - Grinnell College, schultzt@grinnell.edu

GRINNELL, Iowa — Grinnell’s long and proud tradition in athletics can be traced back to just after the Civil War. In 1868, Grinnell won the first intercollegiate baseball contest to be played in the state, defeating the University of Iowa (though the score is unknown).
 
That in itself lent itself to the nickname Pioneers, though the most famous single athletic pioneering activity was to happen two decades later. Accepting a challenge from the University of Iowa to play the first intercollegiate football game west of the Mississippi River, Grinnell walked away with a 24-0 victory on Nov. 16, 1889. A commemorative marker, erected on the 50^th anniversary of the contest, stood at Ward Field until the team moved north of 10^th Avenue following the 1974 season. The marker now is behind the north end zone of Rosenbloom Field.
 
Grinnell played in the Missouri Valley Conference from 1919 through 1938, tussling with teams that are now major NCAA Division I powerhouses. In 1926, Grinnell’s football team went 3-1-1 in the Missouri Valley with the only blemish coming to eventual champion Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State). Wins by Grinnell came against the likes of Kansas and Drake. The 1929 team won a share of the league title.
 
Grinnell competed in several other Missouri Valley sports, as well, and had a nationally-ranked tennis player in Harris Coggeshall, who won three league crowns.
 
The Pioneers also boasted a number of star track athletes, most notably Morgan Taylor ’26. As a mere sophomore, Taylor captured the only Olympic gold medal ever won by a Grinnell student, setting a new world record in the 400-meter hurdles at Paris in 1924. He followed that up with an Olympic silver medal in 1928 and bronze in 1932.
 
Despite individual and team success at times, Grinnell had difficulty competing overall with the powerhouses of the Missouri Valley. An article in the Omaha World-Herald summed it up best, stating “Grinnell College has decided the job of trying to keep up with the other members of the Missouri Valley Conference is too tough and, Grinnell’s conception of athletics considered, not worthwhile.” Change was on the horizon.
 
That change came in the form of Midwest Conference, which the Pioneers joined in 1939 and remain today. Members of the conference when Grinnell joined included Knox, Monmouth, Ripon, Beloit, Lawrence, Coe and Carleton.
 
The move to the MWC was a natural fit, and Grinnell showed promise right off the bat by sharing the league title in basketball in the 1940-41 season.
 
Success came in many sports such as cross country, track and field and swimming and diving. Grinnell also began adding sports, bringing back baseball in 1956 after a decades-long hiatus and soccer in 1961.
 
More sports and more success meant the need for better facilities, and that call was answered in 1971 with the construction of the Physical Education Complex (PEC). Additionally, the football team moved north of the PEC to the newly-constructed Rosenbloom Field, all under the watchful eye of the legendary John Pfitsch. Pfitsch’s name is synonymous with GC athletics, dating back to when he joined the College in 1948. He went on to serve several decades as coach, instructor and athletic director.
 
The biggest change came with the advent of Title IX, which finally allowed women an equal footing in many facets including athletics. In December 1973, Grinnell’s faculty voted to begin a program of intercollegiate athletics for women.
 
It didn’t take long for the Pioneer women to make their mark, almost instantly dominating the league in sports such as swimming and diving and cross country. By the next decade, Veronika Platzer ’87 enjoyed individual track and field success by claiming three NCAA Division III discus titles.
 
Since then, Grinnell’s athletic offerings has grown to 20 sports – football, volleyball and men’s and women’s cross country, soccer, golf, tennis, swimming and diving, basketball, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, baseball and softball.
 
Grinnell enjoyed another boost in the early 2000s with the construction of the Charles Benson Bear ’39 Recreation and Athletic Center. The center was completed in two phases. The first phase, finished in 2005, contains the gyms and the fitness center, while the later phase, completed in 2010, contains the natatorium and fieldhouse.

The Bear ’39 houses the 1,250 seat Darby Gymnasium, home of the Pioneer men’s and women’s basketball teams and volleyball team; 500-seat natatorium with a 50-meter pool and movable bulkheads; six-lane 200-meter fieldhouse with seating for 400, 8,000-square foot fitness center with cardiovascular and strength equipment; and an auxiliary practice gymnasium.

In addition, the center houses the physical education and athletics staff and faculty, as well as classroom and practice space, climbing and bouldering walls, racquetball courts, locker rooms, equipment room, and a concession lounge with wireless Internet access and seating area.
 
The facilities have allowed Grinnell to host the NCAA Division III National Indoor Track and Field Championships in both 2012 and 2016, as well as numerous NCAA D-III Regional Diving Championships.
 
Overall, Grinnell has won 207 MWC team titles and numerous individual crowns. Boasting the most team titles are men’s swimming and diving (42), men’s cross country (33), women’s swimming and diving (29), men’s tennis (22), women’s cross country (20) and women’s tennis (13). Additionally, the Pioneers are always a threat in the overall MWC team trophy competition.
 
But equally if not more important, the Pioneers are nearly yearly leading the league in Academic All-Conference selections and have had 25 Academic All-Americans in their storied history.