Big 10 Tournament Tickets

Founded in 1896, The Big Ten Conference is an association of 11 world-class universities with the member institutions that share a common mission of research, graduate, professional and undergraduate teaching and public service. The Big Ten universities provide approximately $94 million in direct financial aid to more than 8,400 men and women student-athletes who compete for 25 championships, 12 for men and 13 for women. Conference institutions sponsor broad-based athletic programs with more than 270 teams. Thus, the intercollegiate athletics has an important place within the mission. The Big Ten has sustained a comprehensive set of shared practices and policies that enforce the priority of academics in student-athletes' lives and emphasize the values of integrity, fairness and competitiveness.

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, more popularly known as the Big Ten Conference, would be founded. The office of the commissioner of athletics was created in 1922 to study athletic problems of the various Western Conference universities and assist in enforcing the eligibility rules which govern Big Ten athletics. Major John L. Griffith was the first commissioner and worked on that post till his death in 1944. Kenneth L. Tug Wilson, former director of athletics at Northwestern, served from 1944 until he retired in 1961. Bill Reed, an assistant commissioner since 1951, succeeded Wilson until his death in 1971. Wayne Duke became the fourth Big Ten commissioner in 1971 and retired June 30, 1989. Duke was succeeded by James E. Delany on July 1, 1989. Delany came to the Big Ten following 10 years as Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner.

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 the university's regular sporting events. That important legislation, along with others served as the primary building block for amateur intercollegiate athletics. At the turn of the century, faculty representatives established rules for intercollegiate athletics that were novel for the time. As early as 1906, the faculty approved legislation that required eligible athletes to meet entrance requirements and to have completed a full year's work, along with having one year of residence. Freshmen and graduate students were not permitted to compete, training tables (or quarters) were forbidden, and coaches were to be appointed by university bodies at modest salaries.

Football and baseball were the popular sports prior to 1900. Wisconsin won the first two football championships and Chicago claimed the first three baseball titles. The first official sponsored championship was in out-door track. It was held at the University of Chicago in 1906 with Michigan earning the title. Today, the Big Ten sponsors 25 championships. There have been many different athletic events popularized on Big Ten campuses. Some became extremely popular - football and basketball, for example. Others, like boxing, fell by the wayside.