MIT Engineers

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's intercollegiate sports teams, called the MIT Engineers, compete mostly in NCAA Division III. MIT has won 22 Team National Championships and 42 Individual National Championships. MIT is the all-time Division III leader in producing Academic All-Americans (302) and ranks second across all NCAA Divisions.^[1] MIT athletes have won 22 Elite 90 awards, ranking MIT first among NCAA Division III programs and second among all divisions.^[2] Most of the school's sports compete in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC), with sports not sponsored by the NEWMAC housed in several other conferences. Men's volleyball competes in the single-sport United Volleyball Conference.

One MIT sport, women's rowing, competes in Division I in the Patriot League. Men's water polo, a sport in which the NCAA holds a single national championship for all three of its divisions, competes in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) alongside Division I and Division II members. Three sports compete outside NCAA governance: men's rowing competes in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC), sailing in the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association of ICSA and squash in the College Squash Association. In April 2009, budget cuts led to MIT's eliminating eight of its 41 sports, including the mixed men's and women's teams in alpine skiing and pistol; separate teams for men and women in ice hockey and gymnastics; and men's programs in golf and wrestling.^[3][4]

Varsity sports

Mascot

The beaver, "nature's engineer", was adopted as mascot at the annual dinner of the Technology Club of New York on January 17, 1914 by a group of MIT alumni. The late President Richard Maclaurin formally accepted the proposal, and at this dinner a group of beavers shown in natural surroundings was presented to the Institute. Lester Gardner, a member of the Class of 1898, provided the following justification: "The beaver not only typifies the Tech, but his habits are particularly our own. The beaver is noted for his engineering and mechanical skills and habits of industry. His habits are nocturnal. He does his best work in the dark."^[5]

The beaver has since been nicknamed Tim the Beaver, Tim being MIT spelled backwards.

Nickname and song

The initial MIT football team was nicknamed the Techmen.^[6] After being discontinued in 1901 and self-reinstated by a group of students in 1978, the team called themselves the Engineers, which then become tradition until now. The team also revived the old fighting song, now dubbed as "The Beaver Calls".^[7] The lyric reads:^[8]

I'm a beaver, you're a beaver, we are beavers all. And when we get together, we do the beaver call. e to the u, du / dx e to the x, dx Cosine, secant, tangent, sine; 3.14159 Square root, integral, mu dv Slipstick, slide rule, MIT! GO TECH!

NCAA championships

Team

Individual

Individual teams

Ice hockey

MIT's men's ice hockey team was one of the earliest collegiate hockey programs in the United States. It "was organized in the winter of 1899 to introduce the Canadian game of Hockey in the Institute".^[20] The team has played almost continually since.

Facilities

Sources:^[21][22]

References

1. ^ "CoSIDA Academic All-America All-Time Recipients". MIT. Archived 2019-03-08 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
2. ^ "NCAA Elite 90 Award All-Time Recipients". MIT. Archived 2026-02-10 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2026-02-12.
3. ^ Cohen, Rachel (May 18, 2010). "MIT the No. 1 jock school? You're kidding, right?". Associated Press. Archived from the original on September 12, 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
4. ^ Powers, John (April 24, 2009). "MIT forced to cut 8 varsity sports". The Boston Globe. Archived April 30, 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
5. ^ "Tim the Beaver Mascot History". MIT Division of Student Life. 1998. Archived from the original on 2012-11-02. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
6. ^ "From cancelled to champions: The strange history of MIT Football". MIT News. 19 November 2014. Archived 2017-01-07 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
7. ^ Cohen, Ben (2014-11-23). "How Players at MIT Engineered a Football Team". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived 2019-03-28 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
8. ^ "The MIT Beaver Call". Archived November 10, 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 19, 2020.
9. ^ "MIT, Wisconsin-La Crosse win 2023 DIII track & field championships | NCAA.com". www.ncaa.com
10. ^ Rosado, Laura. "MIT Women Become Fifth Team to Win NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Title". www.swimswam.com
11. ^ "1988 NCAA Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championships". SwimSwam. 1988. p. 30. Retrieved 2025-11-28.
12. ^ "1989 Women's N.C.A.A. Division 3 Swimming and Diving Championships". SwimSwam. 1989. pp. 37,67. Retrieved 2025-11-28.
13. ^ "1990 NCAA Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championships". NCAA. 1990. p. 21. Retrieved 2025-11-28.
14. ^ "2005 NCAA Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championships". NCAA. 2005. p. 103. Retrieved 2025-11-30.
15. ^ "2007 NCAA Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championships". NCAA. 2007. p. 46. Retrieved 2025-11-30.
16. ^ "2013 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships". SwimSwam. 2013. pp. 8,10,19. Retrieved 2025-11-30.
17. ^ "2016 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships". SwimSwam. 2016. p. 52. Retrieved 2025-11-30.
18. ^ "2019 NCAA Division III Men's Swimming and Diving Championships". SwimSwam. 2019. p. 65. Retrieved 2025-11-30.
19. ^ "2022 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships". SwimSwam. 2022. pp. 70,29,100,83. Retrieved 2025-11-30.
20. ^ "1902 Technique". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Archived October 22, 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
21. ^ Facilities on Mitathletics.com
22. ^ Dept. of Athletics (Aug 2012). "2012–13 Quick Facts". MIT. Archived 2013-02-19 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2015-10-01. Intercollegiate Athletics: 33 varsity sports.