**This feature is a series developed by the Midwest Conference office, highlighting each of the league's member institutions**
RIPON, Wis. — Ripon's first-ever recorded intercollegiate sports contest was held in 1882, a football game with Lawrence College ending in a 2-1 Ripon victory. The next event of which there is a written record was again with Lawrence in 1889, described as "the first annual all-day track and field meet." Football with the neighboring college was resumed in 1891 thus establishing what has become one of the oldest continuous sports rivalries in the Midwest and is in fact the oldest college football rivalry in the state of Wisconsin. Basketball competition came into the picture in 1898.
With the formation of the Little Five Conference in 1909, intercollegiate athletics at Ripon had begun to come of age. Ripon's athletic director, Fred Luehring, proposed the Little Five. Beloit, Carroll, Lawrence, Northwestern, and Ripon were the initial members.
Ripon became a member of the Midwest Athletic Conference in May of 1923 for competition in football and basketball. It entered the conference jin other sports as follows: track (1929), tennis (1931), golf (1932), wrestling (1938), cross country (1938), baseball (1954), swimming (1965), and soccer (1974). Cross Country didn't compete from 1939-49, before resuming in 1950. They took another hiatus in 1977, before bringing the sport back in 1987.
During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Ripon made it a practice to play such major university football teams such as Wisconsin, Minnesota, Marquette, Iowa, and Michigan State. More than once, these gridiron giants were surprised to find themselves in a real battle with the little college team from Ripon, Wis.
Women's sports were given varsity status beginning with the 1975-76 school year, with teams competing in tennis, volleyball, basketball, and track & field. Ripon's women's teams initially competed in the Wisconsin Independent Colleges-Women's Athletic Conference (WIC-WAC), before joining the Midwest Conference in 1983. Softball was added as an intercollegiate sport in 1982, while Women's Soccer was added in 1986. Women's Tennis and Women's Swimming was also added in the early-mid 80s, while Women's Cross Country was added in 1987. Dance became an intercollegiate sport in 2006, while Men's and Women's Cycling was introduced in 2009, before disbanding in 2020. Men's and Women's Golf were removed as sports in 2012, while wrestling was removed in the early 1990s. Cycling and Dance are the only two sports that are not sponsored by the MWC.
Ripon has won 94 Midwest Conference Championships, with the most coming in baseball (21), followed closely behind by both football and Men's Tennis (19 apiece). Ripon has also seen 44 individual National qualifiers in track & field, including three National champions, while also having one national champion in wrestling. They have advanced to the NCAA Division-III Tournament 37 times in all their sports combined. They have received 61 Individual All-American selections, while earning 28 Academic All-America honors.
The words of Carl Doehling when he retired in 1961 after 37 years as Director of Athletics during the formative years aptly describe the evolution of athletics at Ripon.
"Ripon has progressed from the old idea of winning for winning's sake to the ideal of open-handed dealing and winning through a scientific and sportsmanlike approach. Its relationship with other colleges has always been of paramount importance," Doehling said. "Ripon College will continue to help the student-athlete gain a richer life through the medium of sports."
Those ideals still hold true today.
