CMC75 Landmark Years (1973): Stags Win Inaugural SCIAC All-Sports Trophy

As part of the buildup to the 75th Anniversary celebration for Claremont McKenna College (visit CMC's 75th Anniversary Countdown Page to learn more), we are reliving many of the great moments and landmark years from CMS athletic department history over the 75-day countdown from April 17 to July 1. If you would like to add to the memories of this moment, or if you would like to submit your memories of your own favorite CMS Athletics moment, fill out the form on our main 75th Anniversary page.

The 1972-73 academic year saw the SCIAC introduce its All-Sports Trophy for the first time, which is given to the program that had the most success throughout the entire athletic department over the course of the year. Claremont-Mudd, in what has become something of a habit over the years, took the first one home.

Led by SCIAC titles from wrestling and men's swimming and diving, Claremont-Mudd earned the most points from the 11 varsity sports that were offered at the time. Men's soccer, men's water polo, baseball, men's tennis and men's golf earned second place finishes, putting seven of the 11 Stag programs in the top two of the league. 

Rich Cozart was a member of the SCIAC Championship wrestling team in 1973, capturing an individual title at the league championships which were a difference-maker in the close final standings. Cozart also had a personal connection to the trophy case where it would reside for the next year. 

"All four years of my time at CMC, I was on a financial need scholarship, paying minimally, and during the first year part of the agreement was that I work part time in the athletic department," he said. "Dr. Arce assigned me to the trophy case in the gym entry area, where I polished trophies for an untold number of weeks, maybe months. Apparently Dr. Arce had a thing, and rightly so, for sparkling trophies and shining trophy cases. As I worked my way through the trophies I admired the names and pictures of athletes that had gone before, and wondered if my name would join them."

The trophy would temporarily find a new home in 1974 when Redlands edged out the Stags, before Claremont-Mudd won it back in 1975 and 1976. When Claremont McKenna went co-educational in 1976-77 and women's sports were added to the all-sports trophy, Pomona-Pitzer (both Pomona and Pitzer were co-educational all along) won five of the next six, before CMS won it back again in 1982-83. Since 1985-86, the Athenas/Stags have won all but four of the combined all-sports trophies, missing in 1990-91 (Pomona-Pitzer) and in 2004-05, 2006-07 and 2007-08 when Redlands temporarily became the dominant athletic department in the SCIAC. 

The SCIAC All-Sports Trophy has been awarded 48 times over the years, and CMS has captured it a total of 35 times. Pomona-Pitzer has earned six (but none since 1990-91), Redlands has captured four, and Occidental three.  

Since 2008-09, though, the SCIAC All-Sports trophy has remained in one place, other than the transition from Ducey Gymnasium to the brand-new Roberts Pavilion in 2016. Currently, the members of the Roberts Pavilion staff are the ones responsible for keeping it sparkling and shining, since it doesn't do much traveling.