Why Do We Call Them “Ivy League” Schools?

“Planting the Ivy” Was a Tradition at Many Colleges

The ivy-covered buildings on a college campus have come to signify tradition, longevity, and prestige. This symbolism dates back to a 19th-century university ritual called “planting the ivy,” an annual ceremony in which graduating seniors would plant ivy on campus, usually near a wall or building, and commemorate the event with a decorated stone engraved with their graduation year. Planting the evergreen vine, which has long symbolized everlasting life, devotion, fidelity, and loyalty, was often a traditional part of Class Day, the day before commencement, when the senior class would celebrate the completion of their courses with festivities, speeches, and the presentation of awards. At Harvard University, the ceremonial planting of the ivy dates back to at least 1850, though the celebration of Class Day is even older.

Some schools designated a specific day as Ivy Day, which was a more sentimental occasion than Class Day. In 1873, on the first Ivy Day at the University of Pennsylvania, an ivy twig was imported from Scotland and an invocation was made at the planting: “Having been nurtured this far in its development, it is now able to take roots for itself and grow greater and greater through the years.” While planting ivy isn’t a tradition exclusive to Ivy League colleges, the association, and all it represents, endures. Today, Ivy Day is the day when all eight Ivy League schools release their regular admission decisions.

A Sports Writer Coined the Term “Ivy Colleges”

Football probably isn’t the first thing most people think about when they hear the term “Ivy League,” but that is where the term originated. On October 14, 1933, New York Herald Tribune sports writer Stanley Woodward used the term “ivy colleges” when reporting on upcoming football games between several Northeastern colleges and their opponents. “A proportion of our eastern ivy colleges are meeting little fellows another Saturday before plunging into the strife and turmoil,” he wrote.

Associated Press sports writer Alan Gould is attributed with the first article referencing the “Ivy League,” writing on February 7, 1935, “The so-called ‘Ivy League’ which is in the process of formation among a group of the older eastern universities seems to have welcomed Brown into the fold and automatically assumed the proportions of a ‘big eight.’” While Gould may have been the first to use the term in print, the traditionally recognized Ivy League schools, as well as a few others, had competed against each other in football games since the 1870s. At times, the prestigious military academies, the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, and the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, were also included in discussions of the Ivy League, both athletically and academically.  

The “Ivy League” Began as a Collegiate Athletic Conference

An informal football league was established in 1945 when the presidents of the eight Northeastern universities signed the Ivy Group Agreement. The schools already had a long history of competing against each other in sports — the first Harvard-Yale football game took place in 1875 (Harvard won 4-0) — but the agreement regulated athletic team standards, including academic expectations and eligibility requirements, such as a ban on athletic scholarships. The NCAA Division I athletic conference officially known as the Ivy League was established in 1954 when the Ivy Group Agreement was extended to all intercollegiate sports. Despite the relationship to sports, however, the name “Ivy League” endures as a shorthand reference for a certain type of college education — one associated with highly competitive admissions, academic excellence, and all of the privilege and power that can come out of an elite education.

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