NAPERVILLE, Ill. -- The 2020-21 academic year will mark the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin's (CCIW) 75th season of competition, 35th for women's athletics. 

Throughout the year, the conference will recognize the work of our past and current coaches, administrators and student-athletes who have helped shape the CCIW as one of the top NCAA Division III conferences in the country. 

Today, we take a snippet into the conference's history including the 1946 formation, Academic All-America history, and the numerous national championship teams.

Formation

The conference was formed with nine charter members (Augustana, Carthage, Elmhurst, Illinois College, Illinois Wesleyan, Lake Forest, Millikin, North Central and Wheaton) on April 26, 1946, in Jacksonville, Illinois, and opened competition in the 1946-47 academic year as the College Conference of Illinois (CCI). In 1967, the name was changed to the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin to recognize Carthage, which moved to Kenosha, Wis., in 1962, and Carroll, which entered the conference in 1955. North Park became a CCIW member in the fall of 1962. Carroll left the conference after the 1991-92 academic year, but returned in the fall of 2016.

The CCI began in 1946-47 with seven conference sports including football, men's basketball, men's swimming, men's outdoor track & field, baseball, men's tennis and men's golf.

Today, the CCIW sponsors 24 sports including football, men's & women's soccer, men's & women's volleyball, men's & women's tennis, men's & women's golf, men's & women's cross country, men's & women's basketball, men's & women's swimming, men's & women's indoor track & field and outdoor track & field, men's & women's lacrosse, men's wrestling, baseball and softball. 

CoSIDA Academic All-Americans

CCIW core members have accounted for 617 College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-American awards, led by Augustana (176) and followed by Illinois Wesleyan (133), Wheaton (99), Millikin (76), Elmhurst (43), North Central (40), North Park (22), Carthage (16) and Carroll (12).

Washington University in St. Louis, which joined the CCIW as an associate member for football in 2018, has had three Academic All-Americans named in the last two seasons. 

The CoSIDA Academic All-America Program selects student-athletes who have excelled in the classroom and in their sport. To be nominated, student-athletes must be a starter or important reserve with at least a 3.30 cumulative grade-point average (on a 4.0 scale) at his or her institution. Freshmen and first year transfer students are not eligible. 

CCIW Conference Titles

CCIW teams have combined for 1,058 conference titles since the 1946-47 season, led by Wheaton (219) and followed by North Central (215), Augustana (199), Illinois Wesleyan (160), Carthage (109), Millikin (83), Elmhurst (40), North Park (21) and Carrroll (12). For a complete breakdown, visit the CCIW Conference Championship Results page. 

First National Champion

Under the direction of head coach Lee Pfund, Wheaton's men's basketball team became the first CCI program to win a national title in 1957. Named the Crusaders at the time, Wheaton defeated Kentucky Wesleyan 81-65 to win the NCAA College Division title. The Crusaders finished 28-1 and won their second of four-straight CCI titles. Pfund led Wheaton to five conference titles in his tenure.

Women's Sports Success

The CCIW began sponsoring women's athletics during the 1986-87 season and has won nine NCAA Division III national titles since then. But three women's teams won national titles before the CCIW began sponsoring its sports including North Central women's basketball in 1983 and Elmhurst women's volleyball in 1983 and 1985. 

Long-time Millikin head coach Lori Kerans (pictured right) led the Big Blue to the first women's basketball title under CCIW sponsorship in 2005. Kerans coached Millikin from 1986 to 2018 and won 11 CCIW titles during her tenure. 

Mia Smith coached Illinois Wesleyan to a women's basketball title in 2012 as the squad was led by the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player Olivia Lett. Lett took over as the Millikin coach following Kerans' retirement. 

Illinois Wesleyan has won four additional women's national titles including three in outdoor track & field (2008, 2010, 2016) and one in indoor track & field (2008). All four titles have come under the direction of current head coach Chris Schumacher. 

Pete Felske and the Wheaton women's soccer team won three national titles in a four-year span (2004, 2006, 2007). Felske's teams have won 21 CCIW titles since the conference began sponsoring women's soccer in 1995. 

55 NCAA Division III National Championships & Counting

Along with the eight women's titles, CCIW teams have accounted for 55 NCAA Division III national titles since the NCAA split into three divisions in 1973. 

North Central men's cross country, under the direction of head coach Al Carius (pictured right), has won the most NCAA Division III national titles with 19, the first occurring in 1975 and the most recent in 2018. The Cardinals also have the longest streak of any CCIW program with 46-straight conference titles between 1974 and now. 

Carius also coached the Cardinals to five of the program's six men's outdoor track & field titles (1989, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2010) and two of the program's six men's indoor track & field titles (1989, 2010). Long-time assistant Frank Gramarosso took over the men's track & field program in the fall of 2010 and has won one outdoor national title (2011) and four indoor national titles (2011, 2012, 2017, 2019) since then. 

North Central's most recent national title came in football in December of 2019 under the direction of Jeff Thorne. Thorne took over from his father John in 2015 after the elder Thorne led the Cardinals to a record-tying eight-straight CCIW titles between 2006 and 2013. It was the conference's first national title in football since Bob Reade led Augustana to four-straight between 1983 and 1986. 

Reade's teams went a combined 49-0-1 during their four-year run, with a 0-0 tie against Elmhurst in the 1985 opener being the only barrier to a 50-game winning streak. Reade led the Vikings to 12 CCIW titles between 1981 and 1994.

North Park is a four-time national champion in men's basketball including three-straight titles under Dan McCarrell (1978, 1979, 1980) and two under current Carthage head coach Bosko Djurickovic (1985, 1987). Illinois Wesleyan won the CCIW's last men's basketball title in 1997 under former Titan coach and Athletics Director Dennie Bridges. Bridges' teams won 17 CCIW titles during his 36-year tenure.

Former Wheaton men's soccer coach Joe Bean won two national titles (1984, 1997) during his tenure, while his team also made an improbable run to the national title match during his last season in 2006. Bean's teams won 14 CCIW titles between 1988 when the CCIW began sponsoring men's soccer and his last title in 2003. 

Illinois Wesleyan won the conference's only national titles in baseball (2010) under the direction of current head coach Dennis Martel and men's golf (2019) under the direction of current coach Jim Ott.

Additional National Titles

North Central men's swimming won four National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) titles in six years between 1958 and 1963. The Cardinals won 17-straight CCIW titles between 1950 and 1966 and 21 conference titles overall.

Most recently, North Central won three-straight USA Women's Triathlon Collegiate National Championships between 2017 and 2019 after the program started in 2016 under the direction of head coach Jenny Garrison.   
The College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) was founded in 1946 and currently services nine member institutions including Augustana College (Rock Island, IL), Carroll University (Waukesha, WI), Carthage College (Kenosha, WI), Elmhurst University (Elmhurst, IL), Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, IL), Millikin University (Decatur, IL), North Central College (Naperville, IL), North Park University (Chicago, IL) and Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL).