COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - On March 15, 1920, representatives of seven Minnesota private colleges gathered on the Carleton campus in Northfield to officially form a new athletic union.
 
The schools had been members of the Minnesota-Dakota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (also known as the Tri-State Conference), but had grown tired of the state of affairs there and the bickering it led to.
 
Thus, exit plans were discussed.
 
"The present organization is so large that it is unwieldy," read a portion of a secretary's report from the initial planning sessions in the fall of 1919. 
 
"The result of this state of affairs is that there are constant ruptures between the Minnesota colleges. Many of these should have been avoided in the past, and all healed, had there been a close organization of the colleges."
 
Saint John's, Hamline, Carleton, St. Thomas, Gustavus Adolphus, Macalester and St. Olaf were the charter members of the new league, which the representatives in attendance at Carleton that day named the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
 
Professor Henry Funk of Macalester was elected as the league's first president and Fr. Virgil Michel of SJU was selected as the first vice president. But while the Johnnies were represented in the conference's leadership ranks, they did not join in football right away.
 
The school had dropped the sport out of safety concerns following the 1909 season, and while its return was not required as a condition for joining the MIAC, plans were made to reinstate it anyway. 

But the Johnnies were not ready for a league schedule in 1920, when they played just two games against St. Cloud Teacher's College (now St. Cloud State) and dropped them both.
 
SJU did join MIAC play in 1921, but played only a limited schedule – facing just three league foes. They expanded that total in 1922, but the results that fall were disappointing. 

The Johnnies were winless in league play and won just one game total – a 20-0 victory over Little Falls High School in the season opener.
 
It was a performance that left the editors of The Sagatagan, the school's yearbook, scrambling to find some superlatives.
 
"For although the lads did not win, they fought fiercely and always gave the opposing team a real battle," read the season recap. "And they lost like sporting gentlemen."
 
But there were legitimate highlights to find. 
 
John "Blood" McNally – who went on to become a charter member of the NFL Hall of Fame – was part of that team. So was his fellow Wisconsinite Ernie Koepp, an offensive tackle and team captain who 103 years ago this month earned what is listed as the school's first all-conference honor (technically known then as the all-state team, which was voted on by coaches).
 
"The all-state team is like a cigar after a hearty meal," Harold Rogers wrote of that season's team in the Nov. 26 edition of the Minneapolis Journal. "It aids in the digestion of the season's play, it helps in the analysis of both individual and team work and it tops off the football year with that same satisfied, finished feeling that a big brown Havana adds to a Thanksgiving repast."
 
Whether cigars were involved was not noted, but Koepp's selection was cause for smiles in Collegeville.
 
"He was a good tackle, a good leader and a good fellow," The Sagatagan editors wrote. "He was awarded a berth on the (coaches) second all-star team and he deserved it."
 
Indeed, Rogers had expressed much the same sentiment in his article.
 
"Captain Koepp of St. John's winning the other second team (tackle) place was a signal honor for a man playing on a weak, but fighting team," Rogers wrote. "Koepp on one of the strong teams would undoubtably come in for much greater notice than he has received. He is a real football player and a great leader."
 
Koepp was also a standout in basketball and baseball at SJU. In addition, he seemed fairly proficient at jumping rope as a story in The Record reported in May of 1923.
 
"Ernie Koepp demonstrated that his finesse in fancy and fantastic skipping is more than equal to his skill at the gentler games of football and basketball," the article read.
 
Koepp, though, evidently departed Collegeville following the 1922-23 school year, and enrolled closer to home at Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he went on to become a key contributor for the Blugold baseball team.
 
Since that time, SJU players have earned All-MIAC honors 477 more times through the 2024 season. The 2025 All-MIAC football team is scheduled to be announced on Monday (Nov. 24).

40 years ago (1985)
Phil Johnson hit a short jumper with three seconds to play to lift the SJU basketball team past St. Cloud State 54-52 in the championship game of the Tip-Off Classic on Nov. 23 at SCSU's Halenbeck Hall. 

Johnson went on to average a team-best 18.1 points per game that season and was named the MIAC Most Valuable Player.

55 years ago (1970)
John Cragg finished second overall in the NCAA College Division national cross country meet held in Wheaton, Ill. on Nov. 14. Cragg went on to finish 21st overall in the NCAA University Division meet.