General 6/27/2013 2:09:00 PM Kevin White, Truman Athletics Communications

Rich History of Bulldog Athletics in MIAA

This is the first of a series of stories this summer highlighting Truman State University's transition from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association to the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The first story in the series looks back at Truman's history in the MIAA.

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – After more than 100 years of competition as a member of the Missouri/Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA), Truman State University will shift to the Great Lakes Valley Conference on July 1, 2013. The Bulldogs captured 150 conference championships and created many memories since 1912.

History of the MIAA
A group of 14 schools from across the state of Missouri came together to form the first Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Association in 1912. The conference consisted of the five "directional" institutions, Truman (then Northeast), Northwest, Missouri State (then Southwest), Southeast, and Central, along with denominational schools Drury (Springfield), Missouri Valley (Marshall), William Jewell (Liberty), Culver-Stockton (Canton), Missouri Wesleyan (Cameron), Central Wesleyan (Warrenton), Tarkio, and Westminster (Fulton).

According to the 1962 publication "History of the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Association", the original makeup was doomed to fail from the start because of both the size of the conference and how the various athletic programs differed so greatly amongst the schools that no true champion could be established in any competition.

The split occurred in 1923 when the independent/denominational schools withdrew to form the Missouri College Athletic Union while representatives of the five Missouri State Teachers Colleges met in Kansas City in December to draw up plans for a new conference. The league began play in fall of 1924, with the Bulldog football team capturing the first MIAA championship with a 2-0-2 record among the five schools.

A sixth school was added to the league in 1935 as Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, Rolla) and the MIAA competed for national championships under the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) umbrella.

In 1958, the conference joined the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) with all of the schools in the smaller "College Division" of the two division set-up by the NCAA. The association separated into three Divisions in 1973.

The conference membership remained unchanged for 35 years until Lincoln University was added in 1970 followed by the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1980.

The first departure occurred a year later with Missouri State moving up to NCAA Division I in 1981. Southwest Baptist (Bolivar) became a member in 1986 to restore the league to eight schools.

The expansion era began in 1989 and throughout the past 24 years, a total of 12 schools from Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma have joined the league. The first four to come aboard were Missouri Southern (Joplin), Missouri Western (St. Joseph), Pittsburg State (Kan.) and Washburn (Kan.).

Southeast followed Missouri State to Division I in 1991 and was replaced by Emporia State (Kan.) to set the membership once again at 12.

Due to the its lack of football sponsorship, Missouri-St. Louis departed the conference for the Great Lakes Valley in 1996 and Lincoln's membership was forfeited in 1999.

In the 2000s, the push west continued with the addition of Fort Hays State (Kan.) in 2006 and the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 2007. Meanwhile, Missouri S&T left for the GLVC in 2005 and Southwest Baptist moved their football program out of the league to compete as an independent.

The flux continued a few years later when Lincoln returned to the league after reinstating football at the school, while Nebraska-Omaha hurriedly departed for Division I after cutting both its football and wrestling programs.

Finally, this past season, Central Oklahoma, Northeastern State (Okla.), Nebraska-Kearney and Lindenwood (Mo.) became members, while Southwest Baptist brought its football program back into the MIAA fold. This final flurry of moves brought the conference to 15 schools, with eight residing in the state of Missouri.

In June of 2012, Truman announced it would depart the MIAA to join the GLVC. The Bulldogs join Missouri-St. Louis, Drury, William Jewell, Rockhurst (Kansas City), Missouri S&T, Maryville (St. Louis) as the seventh Missouri-based GLVC institution.

Conference Championships and Awards

Truman has won 150 MIAA titles since the league's reorganization in 1924 with the Bulldog football team winning 26, the most by any conference school. The team won five straight league titles from 1932-1936 while being led by legendary Missouri coaches Don and Fred Faurot and won its last conference title in 1988.

Sport	MIAA Titles
Football	26
Men's Indoor Track	19
Men's Outdoor Track	17
Men's Golf	13
Men's Tennis	11
Men's Cross Country	11
Women's Soccer	9
Men's Basketball	9
Softball	7
Volleyball	6
Men's Soccer	6
Wrestling	5
Women's Indoor Track	4
Women's Tennis	4
Women's Outdoor Track	2
Women's Cross Country	1

The Men's Track & Field teams also dominated the conference during the early years, winning a total of 36 indoor and outdoor championships. Of those 36 titles, the team won an unprecedented 20- straight by winning both the indoor and outdoor championships every season from 1959 through 1968.

Fueled by the track & field program, Truman won 39 conference titles during the 1960s. The Bulldogs won 24 MIAA championships in both the 1970s and 1980s, 13 during the 1990s, and added 22 more during the 2000s. The last MIAA title came in 2009, when women's soccer stood atop the league standings.

In addition, 35 Bulldogs have earned their respective sport's league most valuable player award. Football quarterback Tom Hayes won three straight MVP awards (1981,1982, 1983) while football running back Jarrett Anderson (1995 & 1996), women's soccer goalkeeper Emily Huyck (1999 & 2000) and softball shortstop Elizabeth Economon (2002 & 2003) each picked up multiple MVP awards.

A countless number of individuals have won titles in the sports of wrestling and track & field. From 1959 through 1967, five Bulldogs won the MIAA Men's Cross Country championship with Ed Schneider and Ron Werling each winning three apiece. Recently, Karen Grauel became the first Bulldog women's cross country runner to capture an individual conference title en route to winning two in a three-year span. Beth Luebbering, Molly Kandlebinder, Christina Winkler all were high point earners during MIAA Women's Track & Field championships. On the mats, Curd Alexander, George Simmons, Rich Beard and Mike Duffy each secured three conference titles in their respective weight classes.

Women's Soccer head coach Mike Cannon is a recipient of eight MIAA Coach of the Year awards and is among the 13 Truman coaches to earn the honor league-wide. Cannon and his Bulldogs won seven straight league titles from 1999 through 2005 (going 66-4-7 in league play during the stretch) and nine of the 14 MIAA women's soccer championships.

Three from Truman have won the Ken B. Jones Award, given to the top overall male and female student-athlete. Men's Basketball player Jason Reinberg won the award in 2000, followed by Women's Soccer standout Sara Murray in 2005 and Volleyball star Sarah Shearman in 2007. The award began in 1993 and was named in honor of the first full-time commissioner of the conference.

The Future

With a regionalization philosophy governing NCAA Division II championships, Bulldog teams will still see plenty of MIAA institutions in the coming years. All teams that reside in the state of Missouri and schools in states adjoining Missouri count toward "in-region" games in NCAA championship selections. However, the Bulldogs will no longer directly compete against MIAA institutions for NCAA tournament spots in team sports, as Truman shifts to the Midwest region (from the Central) beginning in 2013-14.

All ties to the MIAA won't be lost, however. Since the GLVC does not sponsor Wrestling as a championship sport, Truman will remain an associate member of the MIAA and compete against those institutions for the MIAA conference crown.

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