NCAA Launches New Historical Championship Database

The NCAA has released a historical championships dashboard, a first-of-its-kind resource that includes details on the winners of every NCAA championship. 

This interactive dashboard, displayed across several tabs, provides a comprehensive visual catalog of championship sports, individual titles and school-level summaries throughout the NCAA's history.

 The NCAA research, library and championships departments collaborated to create the database, which allows users to view historical championship data by year, division, sport, event and school. Championship data will be updated after the end of the fall, winter and spring sports seasons.

"This new historical championships dashboard is a powerful example of how we're using data to bring the NCAA's rich history to life," NCAA President Charlie Baker said. "It celebrates the achievements of student-athletes across generations and gives fans, alumni and schools a dynamic way to explore our championship history."

The resource includes data from 1921 through the 2024-25 academic year for over 4,500 team and 23,000 individual championships. Highlights from the database include:

• The first NCAA championship occurred in 1921, with Illinois winning the men's outdoor track and field championship.
• Several of the first individual champions were World War I veterans, including Kansas State's Ray Watson, who won the mile in 1921.
• The first NCAA men's basketball tournament was won by Oregon in 1939.
• The first women's championships took place in 1981, with field hockey and cross country titles being awarded in Divisions I, II and III in November.
• Southern California (86) holds the most men's championship titles, while Stanford (67) leads on the women's side.

The dashboard will assist staff and the membership in their historical research pursuits. For questions, reach out to Lee Rathbun ([email protected]) in research or Michelle Watsky ([email protected]) in championships.