Chicago Maroons


The Maroons are the intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Chicago. They are named after the color maroon. Team colors are maroon and gray, and the Phoenix is their mascot. They now compete in the NCAA Division III, mostly as members of the University Athletic Association. The University of Chicago helped found the Big Ten Conference in 1895, although it dropped football in 1939, its other teams remained members until 1946. Football returned as a club sport in 1963, as a varsity sport in 1969, and began competing independently in Division III in 1973. The school was part of the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference from 1976 to 1987, and its football team joined the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference's successor, the Midwest Conference, in 2017. In the 2018–19 school year, Chicago added baseball to its MWC membership, and elevated its club team in women's lacrosse to full varsity status, with that sport competing in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.
Stagg Field is the home stadium for the re-instated football team.

Men's athletics

The Maroons helped establish the Big Ten Conference at a follow-up meeting on February 8, 1896. The league initially consisted of Chicago, Purdue, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Northwestern.
Jay Berwanger was awarded the first Heisman trophy in 1935.
Hall of Fame coach Amos Alonzo Stagg coached the football team from 1892-1932, the basketball team from 1920-1921, and the baseball team from 1893-1905 and 1907-1913. He encouraged players to adopt vegetarianism, believing it supported both athleticism and a "gentle and gentlemanly" sportsmanship.
The football team was dropped following the 1939 season.
In explaining the reason to drop football, Robert Maynard Hutchins, the university’s president, had written acidly in The Saturday Evening Post “In many colleges, it is possible for a boy to win 12 letters without learning how to write one.”
On March 7, 1946 the University of Chicago withdrew from the Big Ten Conference. On May 31, 1946 the resignation was formally accepted by the Big Ten Conference.

Championships

National and NCAA championships

All championships listed here were won when the league was known as the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference, and only sponsored men's sports. The Midwest Conference was established in its current form in 1994 with the merger of the MCAC and Midwest Athletic Conference for Women.
The Chicago Pile Was constructed out of graphite blocks underneath the football stands in the Racquetball and tennis court during World War II for the Manhattan Project. It was the first Nuclear reactor to hit critical mass.

Fight song

Wave the Flag is the fight song for the Maroons. Gordon Erickson wrote the lyrics in 1929. The tune was adapted from Miami University's "Marching Song" written in 1908 by Raymond H. Burke, a University of Chicago graduate who joined Miami's faculty in 1906.
The song is traditionally sung by the players at midfield after all home victories.