Background

Decades before there was a baseball World Series, two of this group of elite colleges staged the first collegiate contest in the National Pastime. These schools produced the country's All-American quarterback in the Roaring Twenties and a slew of All American soccer players -- when there was no division between major colleges and small ones -- not to mention Olympic and Boston Marathon champions. But the competitive landscape changed 50 years ago when the NCAA created a Division III and presidents of the leading New England small colleges formed NESCAC.

A half century after its founding, the New England Small College Athletic Conference is no rival to the scholarship-granting Division I sports powerhouses. Yet the league sponsors 27 championships and continues to send select players -- and future Front Office personnel -- to the NFL, NBA and pro soccer leagues while yearly dominating the overall performance rankings of Division III athletics...this despite continuing tension on almost all campuses between the desire to win and yet maintain high academic standards. How does the NESCAC do it? Does winning matter? What might the future hold for NCAA Division III sports as well as intercollegiate athletics writ large.

These schools were present at the beginning with the establishment of the first intercollegiate athletics programs in the late 1800’s, and evolved into NESCAC during the 1960s, and became the contemporary “gold standard” of the melding of intercollegiate athletics excellence within a framework of high academic standards.

NESCAC schools

Amherst Bates Bowdoin Colby

Connecticut Hamilton Middlebury Trinity

Tufts Wesleyan Williams

Panelists Bios

Moderator, Tim Layden, a 1978 graduate of Williams College and former mediocre student-athlete, is an award-winning and nationally recognized sports journalist with more than four decades' experience. Layden is currently a Writer-at-Large for NBC Sports, following a 25-year career at Sport Illustrated. Before that, he worked at daily newspapers in Schenectady, NY; Albany, NY; and New York City.

Dr. Daniel Covell is author of The New England Small College Athletic Conference: A History, which was published in 2022 by McFarland & Company to mark NESCAC’s 50th anniversary. Covell played football at Bowdoin and is Professor of Sport Management in the College of Business at Western New England University. Education: Ph.D., University of Massachusetts; M.S., University of Massachusetts; B.A., Bowdoin College (1986)

John Biddiscombe served on Wesleyan's athletic staff for 38 years, the final 24 as its director. He was named Division III Athletic Director of the Year for the Northeast Region by the National Association of College Athletic Directors in 1999-2000.

David Hixon is a legendary Amherst College head men’s basketball coach, who holds the record for number of wins in a single sport while coaching at Amherst. During his storied 42-season career at his alma mater, Hixon ’75, was the third coach in men’s basketball history across all National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) divisions to surpass the 800-win mark.

Dr. Joanne Berger-Sweeney is Trinity College’s President. An accomplished neuroscientist and experienced leader in higher education, she is the 22nd president of Trinity College. The first African American and the first woman to serve as president of the college, Berger-Sweeney is a champion of a liberal arts education, improving campus equity and diversity, fostering community and global engagement, caring for the school’s proud alumni, and preparing students to lead bold and transformative lives. Under Berger-Sweeney’s leadership, the College has experienced notable markers of success across finance, student success, sustainability, and designing a distinctive, relevant liberal arts education. She received her undergraduate degree in psychobiology from Wellesley College, her M.P.H. in environmental health sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Ph.D. in neurotoxicology from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Tickets

Registration is required. Admission includes a wine reception. Williams Club Members' tickets are $ 15 and Non-Members, $ 25. Members must register via the Penn Club's app; Non-Members register via this Eventbrite site.

Questions

If any questions, write to the Williams Club's Director, Dale Riehl: dale@williamsclub.org

Brains and Brawn–The NESCAC at 50