Greyhound Sports Conference

      The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) was founded in 1972. During the two years previous to the GLIAC's founding, several attempts were made to create a new NCAA College Division conference. In 1971, the Great Lakes Athletic Conference was formed, but plans for the new conference were put on hold and several of the participating schools subsequently withdrew their support. However, the idea for a new conference did not die, and since 1972-73 the GLIAC has been a leader in the advancement and promotion of intercollegiate athletics for men and women.

      The charter members of the GLIAC were Grand Valley State University, Lake Superior State University, Northwood University, and Saginaw Valley State University.

      Expansion of the GLIAC began immediately with the addition of Ferris State University and Oakland University in 1972. Hillsdale College was accepted as a member in 1974, while Northern Michigan University and Wayne State University joined in 1975. In 1977, the conference lost its first member when Northern Michigan withdrew. Michigan Technological University filled the vacancy when it became a member in 1980.

      After the 1986-87 season, Northwood left the conference and was replaced by Northern Michigan. Northwood rejoined the conference in 1992.

      After the 1989 season, the conference dropped football as a sponsored sport. The conference schools sponsoring football joined the members of the Heartland Collegiate Conference in forming the football-only Midwest Intercollegiate Football Conference (MIFC), which began play in 1990.

      After nine years of existence as one of the premier conferences in Division II football, the MIFC merged as part of GLIAC on July 1, 1999. With the merger, the University of Indianapolis became an associate member as a football-only school.

      The GLIAC entered a new era in the 1995-96 school year. Prior to 1995-96, all member institutions of the GLIAC were located in the state of Michigan. On December 14, 1994, membership was offered to three schools located in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The expansion members were Ashland University of Ashland, Ohio, and Gannon University and Mercyhurst College, both located in Erie, Pennsylvania. All three schools began their membership July 1, 1995.

      On July 1, 1997, membership was granted to The University of Findlay, located in Findlay, Ohio. Findlay replaced Oakland University, which withdrew from the conference after the 1996-97 season as it moved to NCAA Division I status.

      Westminster College, located in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, became the 14th member of the GLIAC when it accepted its expansion offer in May of 1997. On June 30, 2000 Westminster left the conference as it changed its affiliation to NCAA Division III.

      Overall the GLIAC conducts championships in 21 sports, 11 for men and 10 for women. The policy-making body of the GLIAC is the Executive Council, which is comprised of three representatives from each member institution - its director of athletics, faculty representative and senior woman administrator. Final approval of all GLIAC legislation is required by the Council of GLIAC President's.

      As GLIAC commissioner, Tom Brown is responsible for all conference administration. He was named the Conference's fifth commissioner on August 1, 1992. Assisting Brown are Phil Barnes, Supervisor of Football Officials; John Kirk, Supervisor of Basketball Officials; Jeff Ligney, Director of Media Relations, Jeanne Skinner, Supervisor of Volleyball Officials, and Caroline Gamache, Assistant to the Commissioner.

| Copyright © 2004-05 . Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic |
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      The 14-member Great Lakes Valley Conference has made its name throughout the last 27 years as a power in NCAA Division II basketball. In the last few years, however, the GLVC has seen success in many sports, and the league can now claim itself as one of the nation's top in all NCAA Division II athletics.

      The 2005-06 academic year brings the addition of Drury University, the University of Missouri-Rolla, and Rockhurst University increasing the GLVC from 11 to 14 members.

      The formation of the GLVC can be traced as far back as 1972 when the athletic directors of three member schools - Kentucky Wesleyan, Bellarmine and Indiana State University at Evansville (now the University of Southern Indiana) - began preliminary discussions about forming a basketball conference. Four years later, the University of Indianapolis and Saint Joseph's College expressed interest. On July 7, 1978, those schools - along with Ashland University - united to become the GLVC.

      Since formulation of the conference, ten schools have joined the league: Lewis University (1980), Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne (1984), Northern Kentucky University (1985), Kentucky State University (1989), Quincy University (1994), Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (1994), University of Wisconsin-Parkside (1994), University of Missouri-St. Louis (1995), Drury (2005), Missouri-Rolla (2005), and Rockhurst (2005). Ashland and Kentucky State left the conference after the 1994 season, while IPFW left the league following the 2000-01 academic year.

      Along with its expansion came the hiring of the league's first full-time commissioner in 1996. In 2001, an associate commissioner was added to the full-time conference staff, and a part-time sports information director joined in 2004. The conference headquarters are located in downtown Indianapolis.

      The GLVC can claim schools in many of the Midwest's major media markets, with schools in Milwaukee/Northern Illinois (UW-Parkside), Chicago (Lewis), Indianapolis (Indianapolis), Cincinnati (Northern Kentucky), Louisville (Bellarmine), Evansville (Southern Indiana), Owensboro (Kentucky Wesleyan), Kansas City (Rockhurst) and St. Louis (SIU Edwardsville/UM-St. Louis).

      The conference sponsors 17 championships in baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, indoor and outdoor track and field, and tennis for men and basketball, cross country, softball, soccer, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field, golf, and volleyball for women. The GLVC sponsors more women's golf teams that any other Division II league in the country, while GLVC baseball has featured the exclusiveness of using wood bats since 1999.

      The addition of SIU Edwardsville, Quincy, Wisconsin-Parkside, and Missouri-St. Louis in the mid-1990s allowed the GLVC to become an immediate national power in several sports such as men's and women's soccer, women's softball and tennis.

      The conference expanded to include women's basketball in 1983-84 and immediately established a women's-men's doubleheader format in league play to ensure maximum exposure for both squads. GLVC basketball games take place on Thursday and Saturday nights in November, December, January and February. GLVC institutions have won 10 national championships in basketball. Kentucky Wesleyan leads all Division II institutions with eight men's basketball titles, while Southern Indiana won the men's crown in 1995 and finished as the runner-up in the 2004 tournament. Northern Kentucky's women won the school's first-ever national championship in 2000.

      In 2001, the league announced the creation of the GLVC Hall of Fame, with the first class being inducted in 2002. The GLVC annually presents the Richard F. Scharf Paragon Award to the top male and female student-athlete in the league, and the Bertram Award to a distinguished alum who both succeeded while a GLVC student-athlete and excelled in accomplishments after graduation.