A Brief History of the Missouri Valley Conference

[Bluejay09Bear06]

I posted this in another thread but deleted it as there's no need to distract from the subject of that thread.

As a long-time fan of the Valley, recent membership changes made me nostalgic for MVC alignments of years past as well as excited for the future of the league with the recent, very solid additions. I translated the MVC membership timeline from Wikipedia into a year-by-year membership change list for the conference. I initially published that in this thread but it was extremely long and difficult to read. I'd be happy to provide that year-by-year list to anyone who wants it.

In creating that list, I did not count affiliate memberships (including football-only when the league sponsored football). It's fascinating to see how our conference has responded to member departures over more than 100 years to end up with our current alignment, which appears to be one of its strongest alignments since the early days of the MVC.

My narrative of MVC membership changes is below, which summarizes the list. I recommend reading the narrative in Ken Burns' voice:

The Missouri Valley Conference was founded in 1907 when Drake, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Washington University in St. Louis formed what would become the second-oldest conference in NCAA Division I (only the Big Ten predates the MVC). The conference remained at six members until Kansas State and Grinnell College joined in 1913 and 1918, respectively, bringing the league to eight members.

Nebraska briefly disaffiliated from the MVC in 1919. Oklahoma’s addition the same year grew the MVC to nine members after Nebraska rejoined the conference in 1921. The MVC expanded its Oklahoma presence in 1925 when Oklahoma State became the MVC’s tenth member school.

1928 ushered in the MVC’s first, and most significant, realignment. All of the MVC’s public schools, except for Oklahoma State, exited the MVC. The mass exodus of almost all the large state schools (Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma) dropped league membership from ten members to four and threatened the very existence of the MVC. Creighton was brought in that year to bump league membership to five and stop the bleeding. Butler would join in 1932.

The MVC remained at six members even upon Butler’s departure in 1934, as Tulsa joined the same year. The MVC began expanding again, adding Washburn in 1935 and Saint Louis in 1937 to bring league membership to eight. Grinnell abandoned the MVC, and Division I membership altogether, in 1939, as would Washburn in 1943, briefly returning the MVC to six members during the Second World War.

Wichita State joined the MVC in 1945 to give Oklahoma State another state-supported conference opponent. When Washington University left two years later, the MVC became a six-member league once again, with four private and two public universities. Creighton folded its football program in 1948 as well as its MVC membership, but the public-private balance would not change as private Bradley joined upon Creighton’s departure to the ranks of the Division I independents.

The University of Detroit gave the MVC another private league member the following year, and Houston’s addition in 1951 gave the MVC its eighth member school. Drake and Bradley briefly surrendered their conference memberships in 1952 in protest of Oklahoma State's and the MVC's response to the Johnny Bright incident. Bradley would return in 1955, and Drake in 1956, the same year Oklahoma State parted ways with the MVC after 31 years in the league.

Detroit’s departure in 1957 was met with the additions of Cincinnati and North Texas as the MVC began to expand its public footprint once again. Houston would leave in 1960, but the MVC added Louisville in 1963 and Memphis in 1968 to create a nine-member, majority-public MVC composed of five public (Wichita State, Cincinnati, North Texas, Louisville, and Memphis) and four private (Tulsa, Saint Louis, Bradley, and Drake) members.

The MVC continued adding public universities, beginning with New Mexico State and West Texas A&M in 1970 to replace Cincinnati. The MVC competed as a ten-member league until Memphis (1973) and Saint Louis (1974) resigned from the conference.

The MVC’s response in 1975 to the defections of North Texas and Louisville set the tone for the most stable stretch of MVC membership in conference history, and the one most basketball fans are familiar with today. Southern Illinois joined the league that year, as did Indiana State the following year. Creighton returned to the MVC in 1976 when NCAA rule changes made it more difficult for unaffiliated teams to earn NCAAT berths. Illinois State’s addition in 1980 would give the MVC ten league members and a familiar footprint of Tulsa, Wichita State, Bradley, Drake, New Mexico State, West Texas A&M, Southern Illinois, Creighton, Indiana State, and Illinois State.

The far-western pair of New Mexico State and West Texas A&M would leave the MVC for more geographically sensible conferences in 1983 and 1986, respectively. The MVC responded by adding rising Division I newcomers in Missouri State (1990) and Northern Iowa (1991). The league threw a bone to the private members by adding Evansville (1994) two years before Tulsa departed for the football-focused Western Athletic Conference in 1996.

The MVC would remain a five public, five private, geographically compact and very stable conference from 1996 to 2013. Seventeen years of peace and stability in the Valley ended when the Big East Conference came calling for Creighton in 2013. The MVC responded with the addition of the institutionally-similar Loyola Chicago the same year. When Wichita State left in 2017 to join some former MVC foes in the American Athletic Conference, Valparaiso would keep the MVC at ten members and two flags in the Chicagoland market.

Loyola’s stint in the MVC turned out to be brief, as the school announced it would join the Atlantic 10 Conference in 2022. The MVC responded with its largest single-year addition in the 115-year history of the league by announcing the additions of public Murray State and Illinois-Chicago and private Belmont, reshaping the league into its largest yet (twelve members).

[Mikovio]

Oklahoma State (then A&M) was willing to play integrated teams. Drake and Bradley left because a black Drake player was assaulted by an OKST player and I believe the league didn’t suspend him. The Johnny Bright incident.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Bright_incident

Oklahoma A&M's president, Oliver Willham, denied anything happened even after evidence of the incident was published nationwide. This began a cover-up that would last over half a century; during that time, whenever the story was discussed, the standard response from A&M/OSU was "no comment". The determination to gloss over the affair was so strong that when Robert B. Kamm succeeded Willham in 1966, he knew that he could not even discuss the matter even though he had been Drake's dean of men at the time of the incident.[2]

When it became apparent that neither Oklahoma A&M nor the Missouri Valley Conference, to which both Drake and Oklahoma A&M belonged, would take any disciplinary action against Smith, Drake withdrew from the MVC in protest. The Bulldogs would not return to the MVC until 1956 for non-football sports, and would not return for football until 1971. Fellow member Bradley University pulled out of the league in solidarity with Drake and did not return for non-football sports until 1955; its football team never played another down in the MVC (Bradley dropped football in 1970).[8]

The incident eventually provoked changes in NCAA football rules regarding illegal blocking, and mandated the use of more protective helmets with face guards.[3][9]

[Bluejay09Bear06]

[quote="Mikovio"]Oklahoma State (then A&M) was willing to play integrated teams. Drake and Bradley left because a black Drake player was assaulted by an OKST player and I believe the league didn’t suspend him. The Johnny Bright incident.

Correction made. Thanks.

[oneNEIGHBOR]

Solid write-up. One small clarification:

"Wichita State joined the MVC in 1945 to give Oklahoma State another state-supported conference opponent."
At that time WSU was the Municipal University of Wichita (WU) and didn't enter the state system until 1964.

[squirrel]

Oklahoma State (then A&M) was willing to play integrated teams. Drake and Bradley left because a black Drake player was assaulted by an OKST player and I believe the league didn’t suspend him. The Johnny Bright incident.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Bright_incident

Oklahoma A&M's president, Oliver Willham, denied anything happened even after evidence of the incident was published nationwide. This began a cover-up that would last over half a century; during that time, whenever the story was discussed, the standard response from A&M/OSU was "no comment". The determination to gloss over the affair was so strong that when Robert B. Kamm succeeded Willham in 1966, he knew that he could not even discuss the matter even though he had been Drake's dean of men at the time of the incident.[2]

When it became apparent that neither Oklahoma A&M nor the Missouri Valley Conference, to which both Drake and Oklahoma A&M belonged, would take any disciplinary action against Smith, Drake withdrew from the MVC in protest. The Bulldogs would not return to the MVC until 1956 for non-football sports, and would not return for football until 1971. Fellow member Bradley University pulled out of the league in solidarity with Drake and did not return for non-football sports until 1955; its football team never played another down in the MVC (Bradley dropped football in 1970).[8]

The incident eventually provoked changes in NCAA football rules regarding illegal blocking, and mandated the use of more protective helmets with face guards.[3][9]

Technically, Bradley had been voted out of the league due to educational fraud exposed in the wake of the point shaving scandals that emerged in 1951, and used the opportunity to get out in front and publicly side with Drake and withdrew the membership.

[VUGrad1314]

Super nitpicky but I think Belmont was announced before Loyola left but I have a feeling Commissioner Jackson knew Loyola was leaving when Belmont was announced even though he didn't let on that he knew at that press conference. Feel free to leave that final portion as is because the sequence of events and distinction doesn't really matter.

[05Racer]

This post encouraged me to look up the Johnny Bright incident because I had never heard of it. I encourage others to do the same. Drake football was ahead of its time in terms of integrating sports. It's ridiculous and sad that Oklahoma St didn't formally apologize until 2005.

[squirrel]

This post encouraged me to look up the Johnny Bright incident because I had never heard of it. I encourage others to do the same. Drake football was ahead of its time in terms of integrating sports. It's ridiculous and sad that Oklahoma St didn't formally apologize until 2005.

And the other tragic racial event also impacted a Missouri Valley Conference team from Iowa: Iowa State's Jack Trice, who was essentially murdered by University of Minnesota players in 1923. Trice is now the namesake of Iowa State's football stadium.

[BCPanther]

This post encouraged me to look up the Johnny Bright incident because I had never heard of it. I encourage others to do the same. Drake football was ahead of its time in terms of integrating sports. It's ridiculous and sad that Oklahoma St didn't formally apologize until 2005.

And the other tragic racial event also impacted a Missouri Valley Conference team from Iowa: Iowa State's Jack Trice, who was essentially murdered by University of Minnesota players in 1923. Trice is now the namesake of Iowa State's football stadium.

They stomped him hard enough that his spleen and liver literally exploded.

Just an awful thing and had Minnesota not already been in the Big Ten, they wouldn't have gotten in.

[05Racer]

This post encouraged me to look up the Johnny Bright incident because I had never heard of it. I encourage others to do the same. Drake football was ahead of its time in terms of integrating sports. It's ridiculous and sad that Oklahoma St didn't formally apologize until 2005.

And the other tragic racial event also impacted a Missouri Valley Conference team from Iowa: Iowa State's Jack Trice, who was essentially murdered by University of Minnesota players in 1923. Trice is now the namesake of Iowa State's football stadium.

I looked that one up too. That incident is even more sad since Trice actually died. Back then football was a lot more violent and players did occasionally die on the field or from injuries sustained on the field. It happened often enough most would accept that as an explanation without much further thought or investigation, a good method for covering up a murder, and it sounds like three Minnesota players did exactly that.