A-R-C Through the Years

12/8/2022 8:55:00 AM

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- The American Rivers Conference is one of the very best in NCAA Division III. Celebrating 100 years is a time to reflect on what has been accomplished and look towards the future and what still is to be accomplished.

When you think of 100 years, a lot has happened. The conference has outlasted pandemics, wars, and many other major events in our country’s history. The conference denied a proposal to sanction women’s competition in 1960. Twelve years later, Title IX was passed. Ten years following the passage of Title IX, the league officially sponsored women’s sports during the 1982-83 academic year.

The institutions in the A-R-C strive to exemplify the NCAA Division III philosophy by:
  • Creating learning experiences on each campus that support intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and physical growth, and well-being of all students.
  • Enabling student-athletes to learn from competitive opportunities while developing individual athletic gifts and talents to support personal and academic achievement and aspirations.
  • Sustaining a competitive athletic culture representing the best of Division III in an atmosphere that brings excitement, joy, and appreciation of sport and competition to student athletes, the campus community, and spectators alike.
 
As a student-athlete in the A-R-C, it is emphasized the strive to have academic and athletic excellence. Each year, the A-R-C honors academic achievements by the Academic All-Conference honor. To be eligible for Academic All-Conference, a student-athlete must compete at the varsity level, be at least a sophomore in academic standing and attain a 3.5 or better grade point average (on a 4.0 scale).

The NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship program began back in 1965. Since the birth of the postgraduate scholarship, the A-R-C has seen 153 student-athletes earn the scholarship.

Athletics excellence is something the A-R-C prides itself on. Since 1974, the league has won 44 NCAA team championships. Seven of the nine schools have won at least one national title. The league has won 318 individual national championships.

In 2018, after the addition of Nebraska Wesleyan in 2016, former Commissioner Chuck Yrigoyen announced the formerly Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference established a new brand with the American Rivers Conference. The A-R-C name centers on key geographic features of the conference’s birthplace. The Mississippi to the east, the most famous river in America and one of the most famous in the world, and the Missouri to the west, the country’s longest river, make up most of the State of Iowa’s borders. The conference’s regional and national reach is reflected in the name. Not only did the expanded membership bring a new era to the conference, some campuses’ out-of-state student-athletes number is upwards of 70%.

The A-R-C sponsors 23 official sports, most recently adding swim & dive, competitive cheer, and competitive dance. 

Hubert Utterback was named the league’s first commissioner in 1923. In 2001, John Cochrane was announced as the league’s first full-time commissioner. Cochrane is now the Athletic Director at league institution, Wartburg College. Following Cochrane was Yrigoyen and Dan Hammes assumed the commissioner position following Yrigoyen’s retirement. Hammes is the 18th Commissioner of the league and just the third full-time Commissioner.
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