The Washington & Jefferson Presidents are the intercollegiate athletic teams for Washington & Jefferson College. The name "Presidents" refers to the two presidential namesakes of the college, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. W&J is a member of the Presidents' Athletic Conference, the Eastern College Athletic Conference, and play in Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in both men's and women's varsity sports. During the 2005–2006 season, 34 percent of the student body played varsity-level athletics.
W&J competes in 28 intercollegiate athletics at the NCAA Division III level.Baseball, Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country, Field Hockey, Football, Men's Golf, Women's Golf, Men's Lacrosse, Women's Lacrosse, Men's Soccer, Women's Soccer, Softball, Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving, Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis, Men's Track & Field (Indoor and Outdoor), Women's Track & Field (Indoor and Outdoor), Volleyball, Men's Water Polo, Women's Water Polo, Men's Wrestling, Women's Wrestling, Men's Volleyball
Entering the 2026-27 academic year, the Presidents have won 158 Presidents' Athletic Conference team championships, collectively. W&J has had 11 individual NCAA Champions, with their most recent coming in 2015 when Nick Carr won the 157-pound title at the 2015 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships. More than 80 students have been selected as conference Most Valuable Players/Players of the Year, more than 450 students have been named First Team All-Conference, over 90 received students have received All-American honors, and W&J has had 79 Academic All-Americans by CSC (Formerly known as CoSIDA). The W&J football team has won a conference best 29 PAC Championships and has advanced to the NCAA Division III playoffs 28 times, including two trips to the NCAA Division III National Championship Game in 1992 and 1994.
History
Early development The development of sanctioned, varsity-level athletics at Washington & Jefferson College began to develop in 1883, when the student body began agitating for more formal athletic programs.Scarborough 1979 p. 23 Many other schools had developed athletic programs by that time and advocates felt that a more formal athletic program would increase school spirit, which they felt was lacking.Scarborough 1979 p. 18 In 1890, students formed the Athletic Association, charging the 75 members a $1 membership fee that went to fund athletics.Scarborough 1979 p. 24 By a vote, the students selected cardinal and black to be the school colors, as the preferred scheme of navy and orange had been taken by the Western University of Pennsylvania. An oil strike was discovered on the Old Fairgrounds, which helped finance the renovation of that facility into the "College Field," including the construction of a new grandstand.Scarborough 1979 p. 29-30
At the close of the 19th century, the concerns over the influence of professionalism in college sports, especially the use of itinerant student and professional football player John Brallier, caused the faculty to adopt the first eligibility requirements for student athletes.Scarborough 1979 p. 36-40 Professor Edward Linton represented W&J at the initial meeting of the International Athletic Association of the United States in 1906, where the first national standards for edibility and amateurism were developed. At that meeting, Linton expressed a desire for the student athlete to be "relieved of the incubus of the professional coach."Scarborough 1979 p. 36-37
Student and Faculty Athletic Committees By the early 1900s, "football fever" had swept through the student body, leading the College administration to take steps to further integrate the sport into the educational framework, including the development of a new governance structure. The new Student Athletic Committee and Faculty Athletic Committees instituted a minimum 1-year residency requirement to combat transient students and created an alumni coach system, so the coaches would be more sympathetic to the educational objectives of the college.Scarborough 1979 p. 42 In 1910, the football program was in danger of being dissolved due to crushing debt.Scarborough 1979 p. 47-48 The Student Athletic Committee proposed a $1 per term student fee to fund the team, a proposal that was met with initial resistance from the student body. However, team manager and beloved student solicitor Robert M. Murphy, was able to convince the students to accept the fee. The Student Athletic Committee agreed to retract the residency rule, as it was blamed for contributing to losses, but instituted other student athlete requirements, including a ban on Academy students, raising entrance requirements, and creating a stringent system of recording absences. However, the Faculty Athletic Committee balked, vetoing the new rules.
The firings of Dr. G.H. Winchester and Dr. H.E. Wells highlighted the growing tension between athletics and academics.Scarborough 1979 p. 68-70 As orchestrated by a group of alumni football supporters, the two professors were brought before a faculty committee for not having the requisite support for the athletic programs. At the time, Dr. Winchester was serving in France during World War I and Wells maintained during the hearing that he did not object to athletics per se, but rather the way it was run at Washington & Jefferson. The event, known nationally as the Winchester-Wells case, was investigated by the American Association of University Professors and was the profiled in Upton Sinclair's book The Goose-Step, a muckraking investigation into the state of American colleges.
Athletic Council and financial reforms During the Presidency of Simon Strousse Baker, the Student and Faculty Athletic Committees were heavily in debt and approaching insolvency.Scarborough 1979 p. 83-96 The gate receipts for football games, the Committees' main source of income, had fallen as the team began to lag behind the larger schools it traditionally played. A report in 1929 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching showed that the W&J athletics program, like many programs at other colleges, held a large "slush fund" with donations from alumni and businessmen totaling $25,000 to $50,000 per year. This "extreme case of subsidizing" funded all college expenses for football players, plus "paychecks" to top performers.Scarborough 1979 p. 96-97 To alleviate this problem, President Baker proposed to wholly separate athletic funds from general College funds by creating an "Athletic Council" to take control of the athletic program. The proposal was defeated, and Baker was eventually hounded from office. In spite of that failure, a 1931 followup to the original Carnegie Foundation report commended W&J for creating some institutional controls, including limiting subsidization to tuition, room, and board.
Baker's successor, Ralph Cooper Hutchison, himself more personally popular than Baker, was able to bring even more control to the athletic program by reducing the number of scholarships from 18 to 8 and limiting the practice of playing against powerhouse football teams.Scarborough 1979 p. 103 Later, the athletic program was reorganized under an Athletic Director and the practice of awarding athletic scholarships was abolished.Scarborough 1979 p. 109 In 1937, Hutchison created a whole new governing structure for athletics, the Athletic Council, which was not unlike the plan proposed by Baker a decade earlier.Scarborough 1979 p. 110 The new Athletic Council, composed of four faculty members and six students, had responsibility for dispensing student appropriations and income from ticket sales. The Board of Trustees' own Athletic Committee would govern the hiring and payment of coaches. The new system was intended to unite the intramural and intercollegiate athletics programs, reinstate faculty into athletic governance, give more responsibility to students, and to create a freshman football program. D.C. Morrow, former football coach and member of the Athletic Committee dissented, advocating for a return to the scholarship model, blaming the waning alumni interest in the college on the team's poor performance. However, the College's indebtedness at that time was $133,000, most of which was the result of player subsidization.Scarborough 1979 p. 112 At that time, athletics took up half of the student activity fee. In an attempt to stabilize the fiscal picture, the athletic budget was cut significantly, with freshman football and boxing discontinued. The plan worked, and by the 1940s, the athletic finances were stabilized. This signaled the end of the football team's games against larger schools.
Athletic colors and nicknames In 1890, a vote by the Athletic Association selected cardinal and black to be the school colors; the preferred scheme of orange and navy has been taken by Western University of Pennsylvania. Since then, the phrase "Red and Black" has been used to refer to the school itself, the college newspaper (Red & Black) and the athletic teams. The early athletic teams also were known as the "Jaymen," a play on the college's nickname "W&J". By the 1930s, the word "Jaymen" was used to refer to the students in general. The use of this term had died off even before the college went co-educational in 1970. The college's modern nickname of "Presidents" was coined in 1917 by a sportswriter from Richmond, Virginia covering the football game between W&J and the Washington & Lee Generals. Larry Stewart, the W&J's football publicity director at the time, quickly adopted the nickname on a permanent basis. In July 2016, the school introduced a new brand identity, working with New York City-based SME Branding.
Sports sponsored
Baseball W&J varsity programs Men's sports Women's sports Baseball Basketball Basketball Cross country Cross country Field hockey Football Golf Golf Lacrosse Lacrosse Soccer Soccer Softball Swimming and diving Swimming and diving Tennis Tennis Track and field Track and field Volleyball Volleyball Water polo Water polo Wrestling Wrestling
The baseball team was founded in 1890.Scarborough 1979 p. 155 At least five W&J alumni have played professional baseball: Ody Abbott, Farmer Burns, Doc Gessler, Andy Oyler, and Bill Steen.
W&J's baseball team plays at the all-turf Ross Memorial Ballpark, a site selected to host the 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2026 NCAA D-III regional tournament. Tyler Horvat, one of the top all-around players in program history, is the school's all-time winningest pitcher with 29 victories. Nick Vento (2014–17) is the all-time home run leader with 26 career home runs. Vento is also the school's all-time hit (255) and RBI (168) leader. Luke Alvarez, a recent graduate, shattered the single-season home run record, slugging 16 homers in 2026.
In 2017, the W&J baseball team made history as they won the 2017 NCAA Mideast Regional tournament to advance to their first Division III College World Series in school history. The team earned the Presidents Athletic Conference's automatic bid after winning the 2017 PAC regular season and tournament championships. In regional play, the Presidents won their first 3 games earning their first spot in a regional championship game in school history. W&J lost game 1 to SUNY Cortland 7–6, but bounced back to win 6–3 in game two to advance to the 2017 Division III World Series. The Presidents maintained this momentum in Appleton, Wisconsin as they would win their first 3 games to win Pool A and advance to the best-of-3 championship series against California Lutheran. W&J would win game one 12-2 behind a complete game effort from pitcher Matt Heslin. The Presidents would lose the next two games and finish as the national runner-up with a Division-III-best 42 wins and 13 losses, also a new W&J school record.