When students entered Michigan Agricultural College (MAC) in 1857, athletics was not part of the curriculum. Faculty members were opposed to students' participation in athletics, believing that the three hours per day they were required to work in the fields was enough physical activity. Students felt differently and began to campaign for an athletics program as early as 1862. The first intercollegiate athletic competition was a baseball game vs. Olivet in 1884, which MAC won. In 1886, MAC hosted Field Days in which MAC, Olivet, and Albion competed. Michigan Agricultural College began formal participation in intercollegiate sports when it entered the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) in 1888. The original four members of the MIAA were MAC, Olivet, Albion and Hillsdale. In 1899, MAC hired its first athletic coach, Reverend Chares O. Bemies, who stayed for two years. In 1903, Chester Brewer was hired as Director of Athletics. Brewer’s time as coach led to such dominance in the MIAA, that MAC was expelled in 1908. Also during Brewer’s tenure, the department changed names. In 1904, Intercollegiate Athletics moved from the Department of Physical Culture to the Department of Athletics. The department changed its title to the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics in 1945, four years before Michigan State University (MSU) entered the Big Ten in 1949. MSU was able to enter the Big Ten when the University of Chicago withdrew in 1946. MSU applied to take its place and was officially voted into the Big Ten on May 20, 1949. Women’s athletics have been around for almost as long as women have been students. Women were first admitted to MAC in 1870. By 1888, women were regular members of the tennis club and participated in Field Days. The Women’s Athletic Association, founded in 1924, kept women’s athletics going strong in the 1920s, but it was the passing of Title IX in 1972 that provided a big boost to women’s athletics. Though the women’s athletic program was active before Title IX, the legislation made changes possible which advanced the program even more. In 1976, women athletes were offered scholarships for the first time. 1980 marked the beginning of women receiving varsity letters for their participation in athletics. In a 2002 ceremony, nearly 300 women were awarded varsity letters for their participation in athletics from the 1930s through the 1970s.