Freshman and sophomore classes at Princeton make up the first student led intramural sport in 1857, however the first dedicated departments to Intramural Sports began in 1913 at the University of Michigan and The Ohio State University (Tobin, n.d.). Texas, Illinois, and Oregon State followed behind developing their programs in 1916. It became a common practice to use intramural sports as a recruiting method for collegiate varsity sports until about the 1920's. E.D Mitchell is known as a leader in the field as the first Director at Michigan State University. He brought together other programs and held conferences to discuss growth in their rec programs. (Tobin, n.d.).

Dr. William Wasson was the Intramural Director at Dillard University and he brought together 22 males and females from 11 HBCU's to discuss a research study he conducted on thier institutions and from this meeting the National Intramural Association, NIA was formed on February 22, 1950 (Dampeer,2021). This Assosciation today is known as the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association, NIRSA. Though NIRSA began on HBCU campuses, within a decade it was largely controlled by white males and by 1959, women were banned against the vision of Dr. Wasson. It was not until 1971, one year before Title IX of the Higher Education Act of 1972, the association provided opportunities for women in the campus recreation profession (NIRSA, 2025).