Forging a Path: The History of the NAIA

On March twelfth, nineteen thirty seven, Central Missouri State wins the very first national basketball tournament, which later forms into the NAIA, which today is the second largest college athletic organization in the country. Here's the story behind the NAIA today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Rees, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day now. The NAIA stands for National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and all started in nineteen thirty seven. Win James Nasmith, the creator of basketball, and some other local leaders in Kansas put together a term for basketball. It was known as the National Intercollegiate Basketball Tournament, and it happened in Kansas City, Missouri. I know you might think, what didn't James Naismith create basketball back in Massachusetts. Yes, he did, but later on he took a job teaching and coaching at Kansas University Jayhawks and was their very first basketball coach. This tournament that they held in nineteen thirty seven was the first of its kind to try to stage a national championship for basketball. This was two years before the NCAA had a tournament. At the time, the nc DOUBLEA was more organized around football. James Naismith, of course always loved basketball as it was his creation, so he put it together a tournament and two years later the NCAA followed with their own tournament. But seeing as the n CLA was more focused on football, they wanted to form an organization for basketball, and that's when they formed the AIB, the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball to help schools that were more focused on basketball than football. And the one thing that INNAI was always known for was being innovative and being ahead of everyone else. In nineteen forty eight was the first time they allowed integration into college basketball. It was the first time anyone did. At Indiana State, Clarence Walker, coach by the legendary John Wooden, played in the NAIB tournament, which Indiana State left the NCAA because they would not allow him to play. Then, in nineteen fifty two, they changed their name to the INNAIA because they were adding other sports. They introduced golf, tennis, and track and field, and then four years later they would add football. Then the next year in nineteen fifty three, they were the first ugic organization to invite historically back institutions to be members, and in nineteen fifty seven, one of those historic black colleges that was invited, Tennessee State, won the national championship. Always being ahead of the pace, in nineteen eighty, they decided to add women's championships along with their men's sports and added nine women's championships, again ahead of ahead of the NCAA. In two thousand, they adopted the Champions of Character, emphasizing character development among their student athletes. In twenty fourteen, they started to do a showcase to allow athletes better chances to connect with coaches to get recruited, and in twenty nineteen they were the first also to add name, image and likeness for student athletes. Now today in AIA schools offer over a billion dollars in scholarship and have over two hundred and forty members and continuously are adding members to this day, with over eighty thousand student athletes participating with sports that include baseball, bowling, cheer and dance, cross country, lacrosse, football, soccer, golf, tennis, volleyball, wrestling, and track and field. You may not know the NAI very well because they're mainly for smaller institutions the NCAA grew far larger than the NAI ever did because their focus was more on football than basketball, as it was more established at the time and allowed them to get more tractions with bigger state schools that you see today, but smaller private schools that wanted their own way chose the NAI because difference is they're more flexible and willing to adapt to changes quicker as we've seen, as they were the first to allow African Americans to play and allow women to play. But that doesn't mean there aren't great players that came out of the NAIA Basketball Hall of Famers. Willis Reid and Scottie Pippen both played at Innai schools. Football Hall of famers Mel Blunt, Walter Payton, both Parcels, and Jim Thorpe all attended in AI schools and they have multiple gold medal Olympians that attended in AI's schools. Now, if you don't know much about NAIA today, there's a structure in college is kind of broken down. Is you have the NTAA Division one. Those are the ones that are on TV all the time, Your Alabama's, your Notre Dame's USC's, those are the big schools. Those are Division ones. They give out most scholarships full rides to their players. Then there's Division two. This is a smaller division and they don't give as much scholarships, but there's still a scholarship institutions and they can give just a few more scholarships than the INNAIA, and the NAIA allow for scholarships as well, and they are on par with Division two in Ncuba on competition level. These teams do play each other every now and then and it does allow for great competition. And then there's three in college in the NCUBLEA, which is are schools that offer no scholarships at all, just the opportunity to play sports again. And those are generally seen to be just a little under in AIA and competition level, but they can the higher levels such as Wisconsin Whitewater or Mountain Union, who win championships every year in football, can compete with the higher level in AIA or Division two schools. It's kind of the breakdown and then AIA is kind of looked down. There's a great opportunity because it doesn't focus so much on what you did before. There's they allow for people that struggled in high school academically the chance to continue their education, which is great because some of us didn't learn well or went in the right situation, and this allows you that chance. So their academic standards aren't as high to get in, but you have the chance to do better while you're in college. And I think that's why a lot of these institutions join the NAIA, because it's more flexible and they can allow more students to join, and it's a great organization that continues to grow. Thank you for joining us today on Daily Sports History. I hope you enjoyed this and tell a friend to come listen so you both can talk about all the history you're learning. Come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History.