Contact: Dan Lukes, Assistant AD/Athletic Communications - St. Norbert College, dan.lukes@snc.edu

DE PERE, Wisconsin — St. Norbert College’s intercollegiate athletics dates back to 1916 when the school began offering varsity basketball. The college suspended varsity sports from 1925-30 before reinstating basketball and also adding football in 1931. From those modest beginnings, St. Norbert College now offers 23 varsity sports.
 
St. Norbert fielded a boxing team from 1936 to 1939 and added rifle, tennis and golf in 1937-38. The school also added track and field in 1940. Following a brief hiatus due to World War II, the athletic program restarted in earnest for the 1946-47 school year. Baseball was started in 1958, followed by a brief foray onto the wrestling mat from 1966-69. Cross country began around 1970. The athletic department continued to grow with the addition of varsity soccer in 1979, hockey in 1989, swimming in 2018-19 and volleyball in 2020.
 
Women’s athletics started with volleyball, basketball and tennis in the 1974-75 school year. St. Norbert later added softball (1980), track and field (1981), cross country (1981), soccer (1986), golf (1997), swimming (2001) and hockey (2011). 
 
St. Norbert joined the Midlands Conference from 1947-54 until returning to independent status. St. Norbert joined up again with a restarted Midlands Conference for all sports except football in 1966 before leaving in 1974 due to onerous travel. St. Norbert slowly began to phase out athletic scholarships in 1971 until completely eliminated in 1974.

St. Norbert then started to search for a new athletic conference after leaving the Midlands Conference. The college twice inquired about Midwest Conference membership before being formally accepted into the league on February 2, 1982. The Green Knights have won 125 Midwest Conference championships since joining the conference.

St. Norbert has earned the Midwest Conference Ralph Shively All-Sports Championships a total of 21 times – 16 women’s and five men’s. The women captured the trophy in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2019. The men won the trophy in 2004, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2019.

Citing excessive missed class time and travel costs, St. Norbert will leave the Midwest Conference and join the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference on July 1, 2021.