The term "Ivy League" has its origin in athletics, dating back to the 1930s when the phrase was first used to describe the eight current Ivy League schools (Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale ) plus Army and Navy. Formally known as the Council of Ivy Group Presidents, the Ivy League as an athletic conference was first established in 1945, under an "Ivy Group Agreement" signed by the eight presidents and that applied only to football, affirming the observance of common practices in academic standards and eligibility requirements and the administration of need-based financial aid, with no athletic scholarships. In 1954 the agreement was extended to govern all intercollegiate athletics at the eight member schools, and the first year of formal Ivy League competition was 1956-57. For more information, visit the Ivy League web site.
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