Fall 1904 – Saint Michael's College opens ... the student-run Athletic Association is founded.
Spring 1905 – Baseball begins competition.
Fall 1907 – Football begins competition.
Winter 1912-13 – Men's basketball and men's ice hockey begin competition. Men's ice hockey will exist intermittently over the next four-plus decades before officially being elevated to varsity status for the 1982-83 season.
Winter 1914-15 – Men's basketball wins state championship, the first title in Athletics history at the College.
1924-25 School Year – Jeanmarie Hall, then known as New Hall, opens. Among many things, Jeanmarie is also home to the College's first official gymnasium, where the men's basketball team plays its home games for 23 years.
1926-27 School Year – Robert Carr is the first lay director of athletics hired by the College after Athletics had always been overseen by a member of the Society of Saint Edmund ... the College hosts its first intercollegiate skiing meet, on the hill across Vermont 15 from the current location of the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel.
Spring 1933 – Football is discontinued, not returning until fall 1947, shortly after the hire of Director of Athletics George "Doc" Jacobs.
November 22, 1947 – Director of Athletics George "Doc" Jacobs announces a student vote has determined "Purple Knights" will be the College's Athletics nickname. Arthur Fraser '50 creates the first logo of the Purple Knight, depicting a knight on horseback.
November 1947 – President Rev. Daniel Lyons '26 and Director of Athletic George "Doc" Jacobs announce freshmen are no longer eligible for varsity sports teams, following a nation-wide trend among top small colleges. This will remain in place until the 1970s.
Winter 1947-48 – Men's basketball begins playing home games at Memorial Auditorium in Burlington.
Spring 1948 – Director of Athletics George "Doc" Jacobs establishes the Block 'M' Varsity Awards Dinner, a tradition that endures to this day.
December 1948 – Athletics at the College achieves its first official conference affiliation, joining the Eastern College Athletic Conference, effective for the 1949-50 academic year.
Summer 1950 – A $100,000 football and baseball complex is completed on the site of the current 300s Field. The football grandstand had a capacity of 5,000.
September 1, 1951 – The College becomes an official member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Fall 1951 – Football finishes with a perfect 6-0-0 record as the only unbeaten, untied team in New England and is recognized as the undisputed College Division champion of its seven-state region.
January 30, 1954 – Football is discontinued at the College.
Winter 1956-57 – Men's basketball qualifies for the inaugural NCAA College Division Tournament, ultimately winning the New England region while kicking off a run of four straight NCAA appearances.
Winter 1957-58 – Men's basketball, dubbed the Iron Knights by the national media, finishes as NCAA College Division national runner-up.
October 19, 1960 – Men's soccer plays its first intercollegiate varsity game, traveling to nearby Middlebury College.
Winter 1964-65 – Men's basketball makes an appearance in the NCAA College Division Final Four.
May 19, 1968 – George "Doc" Jacobs, the Father of Modern Athletics at Saint Michael's College, dies in his on-campus home at the age of 68. Ed Markey '51, his long-time friend and assistant, succeeds him as director of athletics.
September 30, 1969 – Men's cross country returns to varsity status by winning a tri-meet with homestanding Johnson State College and Plymouth State College. Peter Laskarzewski '73 takes home the individual victory in the four-mile race by 17 seconds.
September 1970 – After more than six decades as an all-male school, the first class of 22 women enrolls at the College.
July 19, 1973 – The $2.5 million, 66,000-square-foot Vincent C. Ross Sports Center is dedicated. Completely funded by the Ross family, the project brings to the campus a modern basketball facility with multi-purpose flexibility, and an indoor swimming pool, weight room, athletic training room and locker rooms.
August 1973 – The NCAA reorganizes from two divisions into three divisions, and Saint Michael's reclassifies from the College Division to Division II.
December 1, 1973 – The Ross Sports Center hosts its first sporting event when men's basketball plays Niagara University in front of a pack house of 3,500 fans.
Winter 1973-74 – Women's basketball becomes the College's first varsity women's sport. Field hockey and softball programs are established soon thereafter.
Winter 1974-75 – With a pool now on campus, the men's swimming & diving program is established. Both men and women compete on the cross country and swimming & diving teams until women's swimming & diving begins in winter 1978-79 and women's cross country in fall 1979.
1975-76 School Year – Zaf Bludevich is hired as the College's first full-time head athletic trainer and ends up holding a multitude of titles over his 39 years at the College, including senior associate athletic director, director of intramurals, and cross country and field hockey head coach and men's lacrosse assistant coach. The Athletic Training Center in the Ross Sports Center is renamed for him in September 2014.
1976-77 School Year – Sue Duprat is hired as the Department of Athletics' first full-time female employee, serving as coordinator of women's athletics and head coach of field hockey, basketball and softball, as well as cheerleading adviser. In a legendary 27-year career - which included guiding women's basketball to more than 300 wins - she later serves as associate athletic director and coaches women's lacrosse for a season.
Fall 1979 – Women's volleyball is added to the list of varsity sports offering, with women's tennis (1980-81), men's ice hockey (1982-83), men's and women's lacrosse (1982-83) and women's soccer (1982-83) all following within the next three school years.
1981-82 School Year – Baseball and softball are discontinued, eventually reemerging as varsity programs for the 1989-90 school year.
June 24, 1984 – The original George "Doc" Jacobs Field Complex is dedicated on what later becomes the 300s Field.
1987-88 School Year – Saint Michael's becomes a member of the Northeast-10 Conference.
October 16, 1987 – The inaugural Saint Michael's Athletic Hall of Fame class is inducted at Burlington's Radisson Hotel. Charter members include George "Doc" Jacobs, Rev. Ralph Linnehan, SSE '21, John "Pro" Herbert '40, Dr. Robert Knight '50, Leo "Pete" Plourde '52, Frank Simas '52, Anthony Nicodemo '59, Richard Tarrant '65 and Kathleen O’Neil '81. Jerry Healy '50, Director of Public Relations for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, serves as master of ceremonies.
November 5, 1988 – By virtue of a 1-0 win over Bentley College, field hockey captures the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III Tournament, the first postseason crown for a women's team in College history.
November 1988 – Saint Michael's and the Federal Government sign an agreement allowing the College to construct a new George "Doc" Jacobs Field Complex on a 10-acre parcel of land adjacent to the campus that was deeded as part of the Vermont National Guard's base. Once complete in 1989, the complex becomes the new home of Purple Knight baseball, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer and softball.
April 10, 1990 – The Doc Jacobs baseball field is officially dedicated, as the Purple Knights host crosstown rival University of Vermont.
October 15, 1994 – After nearly two years of construction, the Jeremiah J. and Kathleen C. Tarrant Student Recreation Center is dedicated. Basketball All-American and NBA Draft pick Rich Tarrant '65 provides the lead gift for the $6.5 million, 67,000-square-foot project. The structure includes many firsts for the College population, including indoor tennis courts, racquetball and squash courts, a running track, and a climbing wall.
May 7, 1997 – With Ed Markey '51 having announced his retirement as director of athletics following five decades of service to his alma mater, Geri Knortz is introduced as the College's first female Director of Athletics.
March 13, 1999 – Men's ice hockey captures the first national championship in the history of Athletics at the College, downing New Hampshire College, 8-5, to win the NCAA Championship series, 1-0-1. Members of the team are honored before a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park in Boston on May 5, with captain Chris Davidson '99 throwing the ceremonial first pitch.
May 2, 1999 – Women's lacrosse defeats homestanding Stonehill College, 10-9, to win the inaugural Northeast-10 Conference Tournament, also the first NE10 crown for a women's program at the College.
May 2000 – The College unveils its new athletic logo and colors, blending the traditional Purple Knight nickname with several new components, including setting a helmet on a backdrop of green mountains, a feature incorporated in the College's belltower logo as far back as the late 1940s.
November 3, 2000 – Field hockey makes its NCAA Division II Tournament debut, becoming the College's first women's team to appear in the NCAA Tournament.
November 18, 2000 – Women's ice hockey debuts as the College's 21st varsity program, visiting the University of Southern Maine for its inaugural varsity contest.
March 10, 2001 – Men's basketball's historic season ends in the NCAA Division II Sweet 16, its deepest NCAA Tournament run in 34 years. The Purple Knights win the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament and are ranked as high as No. 3 in the nation - a program best - during the winter.
November 30, 2001 – Men's ice hockey hosts Hamilton College for its first game at the C. Douglas Cairns Recreation Arena in South Burlington after calling the Essex Skating Facility home for its first 18 seasons.
November 9, 2003 – Drew Best '04 becomes the first cross country runner - man or woman - in College annals to qualify for the NCAA Division II Championship, taking ninth at the NCAA East Regional Championship. Best ends up 69th out of 176 competitors on November 22 during the national meet in Cary, N.C.
October 22, 2005 – The $1 million Christopher M. Duffy Artificial Turf Field, the first artificial surface field on campus, is dedicated early in its first year as the new home of field hockey, lacrosse and soccer at the College. John and Kathleen Duffy, parents of men's lacrosse player Kevin Duffy '03, make the lead gift for the field, which honors the memory of Kevin's older brother, Christopher, who died during the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.
November 9, 2011 – Amid more than a decade of academic success on the national stage, the NCAA announces that Saint Michael's College leads Division II in Academic Success Rate for the latest cycle, graduating its student-athletes at a 99% clip. The College also ties for first in Division II in 2010 and 2017 while doing no worse than tying for first in the Northeast-10 Conference each year from 2009 to 2017.
Fall 2012 – A new varsity weight room opens in the Ross Sports Center, providing a strength & conditioning space dedicated solely to student-athletes for the first time. The 2,250-square-foot facility occupies a former multi-purpose area on the second story, overlooking the basketball and volleyball competition court.
April 3, 2013 – The Department of Athletics inducts its inaugural class of Chi Alpha Sigma, the National College Athlete Honor Society, recognizing upperclassmen with a cumulative 3.70 grade-point average. Saint Michael's is the second Vermont college and fifth Northeast-10 Conference institution to join Chi Alpha Sigma.
November 10, 2013 – Chloe Boutelle '15 finishes seventh at the NCAA East Regional Championship to become the first women's cross country runner in the history of the College to qualify for an NCAA Division II Championship. She competes at the national meet in Spokane, Wash., on November 23 and takes 86th out of 244 runners.
November 22, 2014 – Women's cross country places third at the NCAA East Regional Championship to qualify as a team for its first NCAA Division II Championship. The Purple Knights claim 30th out of 32 schools on December 6 in Louisville, Ky., at the national championship.
July 1, 2015 – With Geri Knortz having announced her retirement as director of athletics after 18 years, associate director of athletics Chris Kenny '86 becomes the new director of athletics following a national search for Knortz's replacement.
September 1, 2015 – Fr. Brian Cummings, SSE '86 blesses the Duffy Field turf following a summer-long project that sees the installation of a new state-of-the-art synthetic surface.
March 10, 2017 – Within hours of one another, Alpine skier Guillaume Grand '19 and swimmer Lindsay McNall '17 both earn All-America finishes at their respective national championships. Grand places 10th in the slalom at the NCAA National Collegiate Championship in Franconia, N.H., earning an All-America second team citation, and McNall takes 15th in the 100-yard backstroke at the NCAA Division II Championship in Birmingham, Ala., landing an All-America honorable mention.
April 7, 2017 – Men's ice hockey student-athletes Danny Divis '17 and Justin McKenzie '17 become the first co-winners of the prestigious Hockey Humanitarian Award for their work in founding Hope Happens Here, which focuses on creating mental health awareness in college students, particularly student-athletes. The duo is interviewed live on ESPN the next day before throwing ceremonial first pitches before a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park in Boston on August 5.
April 25, 2017 – The field hockey team is honored on the floor of the Vermont Statehouse thanks to its relationship with Maureen Eddy and Team IMPACT, an organization that helps improve the lives of children facing life-threatening of chronic illnesses.
September 6, 2019 – Women's ice hockey gains the opportunity to qualify for an NCAA Championship for the first time when the fledgling New England Women's Hockey Alliance is approved for active NCAA membership. Saint Michael's had competed in the Division III Eastern College Athletic Conference East or New England Hockey Alliance since 2001-02 before joining Division I and II programs in the NEWHA in 2017-18.
March 9, 2019 – Guillaume Grand '19 caps a legendary Alpine skiing career with his third All-America finish, taking fourth in the slalom at the NCAA National Collegiate Championship in Stowe to land on the All-America first team for the first time. Grand, also an Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association All-East competitor all four years, is the first Purple Knight to claim All-America even once.
May 9, 2019 – Matt Johnson '20 becomes the first golfer in College history to appear at an NCAA Championship, debuting at the three-day NCAA Atlantic/East Regional Championship. Among 107 competitors, he ultimately ties for 50th.
October 7, 2019 – Matt Johnson '20 becomes the first golfer in College history to win a Northeast-10 Conference Championship, firing a 4-under 68 on October 6 before day two is canceled due to rain. Brendan Locke '23 places second, just two strokes behind Johnson.
