MENOMONIE - The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is celebrating 50 years of Division III and UW-Stout is marking the occasion. The official starting date of the NCAA Division III (and NCAA Division II) was August 6, 1973.
The Blue Devil men's programs at the time were affiliated nationally with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) while the women's varsity programs, which were just in their infancy, were nationally affiliated with the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). Neither the NCAA or the NAIA affiliated with the fledgling women's programs at the time, but due to the passage of Title IX in 1972, that changed within the next 10 years.
Stout's athletic program was first affiliated with the NAIA in the early 1940s and the Blue Devil men's basketball team made back-to-back trips to the national tournament in 1941 and 1942. The NAIA initially sponsored only a men's basketball tournament, expanding their offerings beyond basketball in 1952. Over the next 40 years, Stout would send individuals to the NAIA men's championships in track and field, wrestling, tennis, golf, gymnastics, swimming and diving and cross country.
After the AIAW ceased functioning (more about that later) the women's programs joined the NAIA and the Stout women advanced to the NAIA national championships in track and field, gymnastics, swimming and diving and cross country. The men's basketball team advanced to the NAIA tournament in 1969; baseball played in the NAIA national tournament in 1989 and 1990; the men's gymnastics team were regulars at the NAIA national meet, winning the NAIA national title in 1984; and the women's basketball team made their first foray to a national tournament, advancing in 1991.
The NCAA got it's start in 1906 after President Teddy Roosevelt called together athletic leaders from some of the top football schools, urging the schools to clean up the rules to make football a safer sport. The NCAA men's basketball tournament began with barely a whisper with only eight teams and launched the tournament in 1939 that would eventually lead to the juggernaut now known as March Madness.
While the 1956-58 Stout State Undergraduate Bulletin listed the Blue Devils as being affiliated with both the NCAA and the NAIA, Stout officially came into the NCAA during the 1980-81 season when the program held a dual membership with both the NCAA and the NAIA. Stout was one of five Wisconsin State University Conference (WSUC, a predecessor to the WIAC) schools to take up dual membership that season.
A May 20, 1981, column in the Dunn County News by sports editor Jerry Poling explained Stout's rationale joining the NCAA and maintaining a dual membership along with the NAIA.
Stout athletic director Bill Burns was quoted by Poling - "The reason we went to the dual was we can pick and choose and go to the nearest one. It promotes additional opportunities."
Individual sports could advance to both championship meets, while teams would have to declare which association they would affiliate with that year.
A big difference in the two championships turned out to be funding, and the differences are still true today. The NCAA reimburses teams and individuals for travel expenses to national events, while the NAIA does not.
But tradition was strong within the NAIA. Basketball teams especially were used to playing for a chance to "go to Kansas City," where the national tournament was held annually. Rob Heiman, a guard on the 1969 Stout team, was an accomplished pianist and played the song "Going to Kansas City" in a restaurant after the Blue Devils vanquished Lakeland College to earn a national berth.
In his column, Poling laid out the pros and cons of both associations. Poling talked not only to Burns of Stout, but then UW-Eau Claire athletic director Steve Kurth for his column. Poling paraphrased the pair's thoughts by ending his column: "Burns and Kurth both thought traditional relationships between schools could weaken because of the trend to go both ways. Neither sees the NCAA becoming dominant."
With the bull out of the barn door, those sentiments proved to be incorrect as both schools, as well as the remainder of the schools in the WSUC and the Wisconsin Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WWIAC), would be strictly NCAA by the mid-1990s.
As far as the women's programs and the AIAW, the NCAA started sponsoring women's championships at all three levels in the early 1980s. Once the NCAA brought women's programs into the association, teams from the larger schools, followed by the smaller schools, jumped ship, leaving the AIAW to sink. By the time the AIAW folded in 1983, Stout's women's programs were members of both the NCAA and the NAIA.
Following is a timeline of some of UW-Stout's highlights with the NCAA.
1956-58 - The Stout State Undergraduate Bulletin lists Stout's national athletic affiliations as both the NAIA and the NCAA. The Bulletin does not list the NCAA again until the 1982-83 edition.
1980 - An August 28, 1980, story by sports editor Kevin Harter of The Stoutonia, the student newspaper, bore the headline "Blue Devils Go NCAA."
1981 - Five Blue Devil athletes advance to the NCAA Division III Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship in Cleveland, Ohio, but 10,000-meter walker Ken Gissing competed at the NAIA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship because the NCAA did not offer the event.
1981 - The men's cross country team qualifies for the first time to the NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country Championship. Stout has qualified as a team to the NCAA DIII championship in 1981, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022. During the 1980s, the team qualified to the NAIA Championships in 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1986.
1982 - Lee Couillard, the Blue Devils' No. 1 tennis player, competes at the 1982 NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championship in Kalamazoo, Mich., winning his first round match, 6-4, 6-4, but falling to the eventual singles champion, 6-4, 6-4, in the second round.
1982 - The Blue Devil football team hosted UW-Oshkosh in a regionally televised football game by CBS, Oct. 3, 1982, at Nelson Field. The Blue Devils won the contest, 23-15, with running back Jesse Hughes earning game MVP honors. An Oct. 11, 1982, Sports Illustrated story, "A Big Day for the Small Fry - CBS Sent It's NFL Heavies Out into the Boonies to Air Division III Games" highlighted the teams that played. With an NFL strike in progress, CBS opted to broadcast four Division III games to fill the Sunday spots. NFL announcer Tim Ryan was assigned the Stout/Oshkosh contest and was quoted in the story as saying "Where is this Stout?" The other games were West Georgia at Millsaps College, Wittenberg at Baldwin-Wallace and the University of San Diego at Occidental. Teams had to be willing to move their regularly scheduled Saturday game to Sunday. Reportedly, Widener, Bowdoin and Wesleyan refused to move their games and missed out on the $15,000 payout from CBS. During one of Stout's winningest football seasons in school history, the Blue Devils would run their season record to 6-0 and rank as high as fourth in the NCAA Division III before suffering their first loss of the season. Stout finished the season 8-3 overall, losing their final two games, coming up just short of an NCAA Division III playoff berth, coach Bob Kamish told the Dunn County News.
1983 - Gymnast Paul Speltz becomes Stout's first NCAA national champion, but it would not be as an NCAA Division III champion, but rather as a Division II champion. The Blue Devils competed as a team in the NAIA Championship and the top two qualifiers in each individual event advanced to the NCAA Division II championship, where Speltz won the pommel horse title. The following year in 1984, Mike Beaupre, after finishing second to Speltz at the NAIA meet, won the NCAA Division II pommel horse title. By winning the DII titles, Beaupre and Speltz - along with second-placed rings specialist Ryan Sweeney, advanced to the NCAA Division I championship - becoming the first Stout athletes to compete at the Division I level.
1983 - The women's gymnastics team qualified to the NCAA Division II Championship, according to a March 23, 1983, issue of the Dunn County News. But no results appeared in subsequent editions. The women's gymnastics team would compete at the NAIA championships in 1984, 85, 86 and 87, and would make their first of nine NCGA team appearances in 1984.
1984 - Jeff Wachter becomes the first Stout athlete to win an NCAA Division III individual title. The Hall of Fame distance runner captured the 1500-meter run at the 1984 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championship at Carleton College. Earlier that season, Wachter earned his first national title when he won NAIA Indoor Track and Field two-mile championship.
1984 - High jumper Vicki Neal earns All-America honors with a sixth place finish (5-feet, 7-inches) at the NCAA Division III Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championship in Northfield, Minn. The finish gave Neal her third All-America honors and she is the only Blue Devil athlete to earn All-America laurels in three different national athletic affiliations. In addition to her NCAA medal, Neal was second (5-6) at the NAIA Indoor Championship (5-6) in 1984 and third (5-5) at the AIAW Outdoor Track and Field Championship in 1982. Neal still holds the women's indoor high jump school record, leaping 5-8 in 1984, and is tied for second on the outdoor all-time list at 5-7 in 1984. Neal's outdoor record stood for 21 years before Laura Verdegan set a new mark of 5-9.75 in 2005. Neal's indoor record is nearing 40 years.
1986 - Rob Oertel earns NCAA DIII All-America men's tennis singles honors and teams up with Mike Friedman to earn All-America doubles honors.
1987 - John Leehy earns NCAA DIII All-America men's tennis honors and receives the Arthur Ashe Award.
1991 - Stout discontinues affiliation with NAIA and will affiliate solely with the NCAA.
1992 - The Blue Devils makes their first appearance in the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament by traveling to Wartburg College for a first round game. The Blue Devils, who made their first-ever national appearance in the 1991 NAIA Tournament, would play in the NCAA Division III tournament in 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007. The team advanced to the Sweet 16 in both 2005 and 2006.
1994 - Wrestler Corey McCauley wins the NCAA Division III title in the 158-pound weight class, wrapping up a year where he went 33-3. McCauley, who won three WSUC titles and was a three-time NCAA Division III All-American, was the Division III runner-up in 1993 and and finished eighth in 1991 as a freshman. McCauley finished his career with a 144-26 overall record, wrestling at 158 his entire collegiate career.
1994 - The volleyball team makes their first appearance in the NCAA Division III Volleyball playoffs. The Blue Devils traveled to UW-Oshkosh where they fell, 3-1, to the host Titans in a first round match-up. Stout finished the season with a best-ever 33-6 overall record and ranked as high as seventh in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Division III poll. The team returned to the Division III tournament in 1998, winning their first-ever playoff game, downing Elmhurst College, 3-2, in the first round. The Blue Devils fell 3-0 to host UW-Whitewater. Stout advanced to the 2004 NCAA Division III Volleyball playoffs, downing Concordia-Moorhead, 3-0, but lost to host UW-La Crosse, 3-2. Stout finished the 2004 season at 31-5.
1995 - Sprinter Terry Anders wins the first of his six Division III national sprinting titles when he wins the 400-meter dash in 1995 at the Division III indoor championship at Ohio Northern in Ada, Ohio. Anders won the 400-meter indoor title in 1996 in Northhampton, Mass., and then achieved a trifecta at the 1996 NCAA Division III Outdoor Men's Track and Field Championship by winning the 100-, 200- and 400-meter races at North Central College in Naperville, Ill. Anders earned 13 All-America honors over his career. The Blue Devils as a team finished fifth at the 1996 outdoor national championship, their best team finish up to that point.
1997 - Quarterback Matt Bunyan leads the NCAA Division III in total offense (passing and rushing) with 3216 yards. Bunyan was a 1998 finalist for the Gagliardi Trophy, the Division III equivalent of the Heisman Award. Bunyan finished his career throwing for 85 touchdowns and 8562 yards.
2000 - The Blue Devil football team makes their first appearance in the NCAA Division III playoffs after going a perfect 10-0 over the regular season. The Blue Devils were awarded a first round game, which was one of the final games played on Nelson Field, hosting perennial playoff contender St. John's University and their legendary coach John Gagliardi on a 25-degree, overcast afternoon. The Johnnies tripped up the Blue Devils, 26-19.
2002 - The Blue Devil football team leads the NCAA Division III in run defense, allowing 1.7 yards per rush.
2005 - The Blue Devil softball team makes their first trip to the NCAA Division III Softball Championship by coming through the WIAC Tournament loser's bracket, defeating UW-Eau Claire twice to advance to the national tournament hosted by Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Blue Devils lost both contests in the double-elimination national tournament, falling to host Coe, 7-2, and St. Mary's University, 9-3.
2006 - The men's basketball team makes their first NCAA Division III playoff appearance, traveling to Rock Island, Ill., where they defeated Carleton College, 66-64, in a semi-final game as Jake Nonemacher recorded 19 rebounds and sealed the Blue Devils' win with a blocked shot with seven seconds remaining. The Blue Devils bowed out of the tournament with a 77-70 loss to host Augustana University.
2008 - Hockey team makes first appearance in the NCAA Division III playoffs at St. Thomas, falling to the Tommies, but the Blue Devils earn trip to the Frozen Four the next year, traveling to Lake Placid, NY, where they are downed in the 2009 semifinals by Gustavus Adolphus College, 3-2 in overtime.
2009 - Meghan Hargens makes her first appearance at an NCAA Division I regional meet, qualifying during her junior year to the North Central Gymnastics Regional Saturday at the University of Iowa, then repeated the feat her senior year, qualifying to the Salt Lake City Regionals, becoming the first Stout athlete to compete at an NCAA Division I championship meet since a trio of men's gymnasts in the 1980s. Brooke Terry competed at the 2018 North Central Regional at the University of Minnesota.
2009 - The men's golf team makes their first of three consecutive trips to the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships. As a team, Stout placed 12th in 2009, 11th in the 2010 and 28th in 2011. Derek Holmes placed 11th individually in 2009 and 24th in 2010, the season he earned his way to an NCAA Division III All-America third team selection.
2010 - Julia Hirssig wraps up her career by earning the prestigious Jostens Trophy, which recognizes outstanding student-athletes in NCAA Division III basketball for excellence in the classroom, on the playing court and in the community. Hirssig twice led the NCAA Division III in field goal percentage, shooting at a clip of .682 (217-318) during her 2009-10 senior season. Hirssig also led the country during her sophomore year, shooting .648 (175-270) during the 2007-08 year. Hirssig finished her career (2006-10) as Blue Devils' all-time leading scorer (1738 points) and set the single season scoring record of 579 points during her senior year.
2012 - Tim Nelson wins four NCAA Division III individual titles in the calendar year of 2012. Nelson won the indoor 5000-meter run (14-minutes, 11.80-minutes) in March, then followed that up with a pair of outdoor championships in May, winning the 5000-meter (14:15.31) and the 10,000-meter (30:16.07). Nelson set the third fastest time in NCAA Division III history when he ran the 5000 meter in 13:57.02 at Mount Sac Relays, April 20. Nelson capped off his career by winning the 2012 NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country Championship, pacing the field in a time of 24:26.80. Nelson was one of 10 recipients of the 2014 NCAA Today's Top 10 award, which recognizes student-athletes for their successes on the fields and courts, in the classroom and in the community.
2012 - Led by Tim Nelson's three national track and field titles, the 2012 Blue Devil men's track and field team matched or scored their highest team finishes in school history, finishing fourth at the DIII indoor championship (28 pts) - matching the 1997 team's fourth place national finish - and third at the DIII outdoor championship (38 points). Daniel Drewek was second at the indoor championship in both the pole vault and the decathlon.
2013 - The women's golf team makes their first of three NCAA Division III Women's Golf Championship appearances, placing 18th in 2013. Stout finished ninth in 2015 and 14th in 2017.
2014 - The UW-Stout Athletic Department receives the Division III Diversity Spotlight for the month of December 2014. The department was recognized for the establishment of the Women in Leadership Development (WILD) women's program, a program designed to give female student-athletes another level of support. The program was the brainchild of assistant to the athletic director LaShannda Worthy. Worthy came to UW-Stout after the Blue Devil program was awarded a two-year grant by the NCAA Division III Ethnic Minority and Women's Internship Program.
2016 - Ethan Schoen wins two national titles, winning the 2016 men's indoor track and field Division III heptathlon and the 2016 men's outdoor track and field Division III decathlon title.
2018 - Sam Elsner returns to Stout after a stint at Division I University of Minnesota to win two national titles, winning the indoor Division III track and field shot put title in March, then captured the outdoor Division III track and field discus title in May.
2020 - Blue Devil track and field teams experience the COVID-19 shutdowns first hand. Just hours after going through workouts at the 2020 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships in Winston-Salem, N.C., the NCAA cancels the event March 13, 2020, and sends the teams home. The NCAA would cancel all of the remaining winter tournaments at all levels. Championships for spring sports, as well as the following fall, would be canceled. Games would not return to Stout until February, 2021.
2021 - Kevin Ruechel wins the first of two national titles, winning the 2021 outdoor Division III men's track and field shot put title, then captured the 2022 indoor Division III men's track and field shot put title. Ruechel was edged for the 2022 outdoor shot put title on the final throw of the day, finishing second.
Blue Devil coaches and administrators have been active on NCAA Division III committees over the years. Women's basketball coach Mark Thomas served two seasons as the regional chair and nine total seasons on the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball championships committee. UW-Stout athletic director Duey Naatz served eight seasons on the Division III Football championships committee and was the committee national chair for four seasons. Naatz will serve on the NCAA Division III Championships Committee beginning in January. Deputy athletic director Erin Sullivan served five seasons as a member of Division III Women's Volleyball's championships committee and served as the regional chair. Volleyball coach Jill Jolliff served on the Volleyball regional championships committee. Hockey coach Terry Watkins served on the Division III Men's Hockey championships committee.
Michael Bond, Lydia Meier, Rachel Younker and Keyshawn Carpenter were four UW-Stout student-athletes among many who took advantage of NCAA leadership opportunities for student-athletes over the years. Bond attended the 2017 NCAA National Convention as part of the Division III Student Immersion Program in Nashville, Tenn. Meier served as co-president of the UW-Stout Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) and chair of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) SAAC and attended the 2018 NCAA Convention. Younker participated in the NCAA's Student-Athlete Leadership Forum in Houston, Texas, in 2021. Carpenter attended The Career in Sports Forum in 2018 at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, Ind., a program that provides college athletes with a broad scope of the career tracks available within the sports business, with the primary focus on college athletics.
