The New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association was organized in 1886 with seven charter members: Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, Dartmouth, Trinity, Tufts and Williams. This Association is the second oldest collegiate group in the country; only the IC4A is older, having been formed in 1876.

Its purpose was the promotion and protection of intercollegiate competition in track and field among the colleges which were members of the Association. Presently, there are 56 colleges and universities as members. Membership is open to any recognized college in New England which sponsors cross country and or track and field and it is one of the last remaining championships that offers competition across all three levels of NCAA membership. The growth of the Association was phenomenal. In 1888, Wesleyan and Worcester Polytechnical Institute were admitted, Vermont in 1890, followed by MIT, Maine, Holy Cross, Colby, Bates, Massachusetts, Middlebury, Boston College and New Hampshire. The 1920s saw the admission of Boston University, Rhode Island, Norwich, Northeastern and Connecticut. Springfield College was admitted in 1932. Most recent additions are Assumption and Western New England College (2000) Babson and Fairfield (2001) and St Anselm (2003).

The first meet of the Association was held at Charter Oak Park in Hartford CT. on May 27, 1887 and has continued with only one interuption (1942) to the present day. In addition to the "normal" track and field events contested,, other ephemeral events included the baseball throw, two mile bicycle race, standing long and high jumps and the standing bar vault. The team championship was determined by the number of first places won. The following account taken from the Dartmouth College History of Track and Field will give insight into the first meet.

Dartmouth sent a strong team, well trained and full of the characteristic sand. The first event was throwing the baseball, which Campbell of Williams succeeded in winning with a throw of 356'1/4. Chandler of Dartmouth came within three inches of taking second. Eastman of Dartmouth and Gilbert of Amherst were the rivals in the two mile event. Eastman had a lame ankle and feared to enter, but he was full of Indian blood and spurted away from his man after the last 100 yards (sic) line had been reached and won, handsomely, 10:36. Keay (sic) of Dartmouth won his heat in the 100 yards dash in good form, but in the finals, he got put back for starting before the pistol and was unable to regain his loss. Chandler of Dartmouth was the one looked to in the shot put, but by an unwarrantable decision, his put was declared to be 1/4" less than his opponents, a cloth tape being used in the measurements.

Dartmouth was surely unlucky in the mile run. Prescott passed all his rivals on his last spurt and would have won "hands down" but for the fact that he threw a shoe; as it was, he came in second. The spirits of the New Hampshire men were very low at that point and "Dartmouth luck" was heard.

Bodwell of Dartmouth came to their relief by winning the hammer throw by five feet. Dartmouth made no struggle for the 220-yard dash. Another agreeable surprise was found in Cobb of Dartmouth who tied for first place in the running high jump at 5'6 although his best previous record was only 5'3. The phenomenal act of the meet was the winning of the half-mile event by Prescott. He was behind until close to the finish, when he made a desperate spurt and outstripped all competitors. His time was 2 minutes, 3 & 2/5 seconds.

Amherst had the bicycle race as hardly any other college entered in the event. Pond failed to win a place in the pole vault. In the quarter mile race, 18 men entered, all running in one heat. It was anybody's event until the first third, each college cheering on its favorite, but it remained for the supporters of the "green" to see Gove of Dartmouth emerge from the crowd and cross the line first. Keay (sic) of Dartmouth ran a beautiful race in the hurdles and won in 18 & 2/5 seconds. Cobb of Dartmouth was pocketed in his race by an Amherst and Brown man. All saw and condemned this action, but the judges left before this, the last event and there was no redress. But it mattered nothing. Dartmouth men were happy. Green was the prevailing color. A pennant was won."

It is interesting to note that even in those days, events were decided by consequences of a cloth tape not being pulled tight, a lost shoe or failure of judges to note an infraction. False starts were punished by being "put back" a yard for each infraction; three and you were out. Imagine the consternation of athletes and coaches, today if a final of the 400 meter were run with 18 people entered.

The mile walk was contested several years, but was dropped in 1896. The discus was introduced in 1898 with a winning throw of 104'1 by P.T. Winslow of Amherst. In 1923, the javelin throw became a championship event with a winning distance of 155'2. The record was broken the next year by C.C. Brooks of Northeastern whose winning throw of 172'6 was disallowed because of excessive wind, but another throw of 161'8.75 was allowed.

In 1964, the 440 yard intermediate hurdles replaced the 220 yard low hurdles. Terry Dorshner of MIT established the new record with a time of 53.8 seconds. In the same year, Kevin O'Brien of Holy Cross inaugurated another new event, the triple jump with a leap of 46' 5.25". Central Connecticut State became the first school to win the mile relay when it was made a championship event in 1966, the winning time, 3:17.5. The year 1967 the two mile for the last time and Colby's Sebsibe Mamo established a record that will last forever of 9:02. In 1968, the three-mile run was substituted for the two and Amby Burfoot of Wesleyan ran 13:51. He also established a record in the steeplechase of 8:55.8. Another new event was added that year, the 440-yard relay, Boston College won in a time of 41.3. In 1971, the six-mile was added and Wayne Frengillio of Boston State ran 29:45.7. In 1978, the running events were changed to their metric equivalents. In 1979, the final event was added to the program, the decathlon and Floyd Schulz of Central Connecticut State won with a total of 7127 points.

In 1912, cross country was added. The first meet was run in Brookline and Norman Taber of Brown was the individual champion. Dartmouth College won the team championship with 35 points. The next year saw the meet move to Franklin Park where it has remained to this day. Only in 1918 was the championship not run.

In 1969, an indoor championship was started at Northeastern University on a dirt, square track, 11 laps to the mile. Archaic by today's standards, but an exciting meet. The host school, Northeastern was the first champion.

Finally, in 2003, the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association merged with the New England Women Intercollegiate Cross Countery, Track and Field Association to become an association of men and women. To the pioneers who fostered the establishment of the NEWICTFA, much is owed. Their persistance established and maintained this women's track association. Because of people like Jim Barber of Southern Connecticut State University, Laurie Melnick and Loren Anderson of the University of Rhode Island. Julie LaFreniere of UMass Amherst, Joe Abelon and Tom Wittenhagen of Northeastern University and so many others, women’s collegiate track in New England developed into national prominence.

It would be remiss if the pioneer coaches who made this conference great were not mentioned at this time: Bates, Walt Slovenski; BC, Bill Gilligan; BU, Doug Raymond, Bill Smith; Bowdoin, Frank Sabasteanski; Brandeis, Norm Levine; Brown, Ivan Fuqua; Central Connecticut State, Ted Owen; UConn, LLoyd Duff, Bob Kennedy; Holy Cross, Tom Duffy, Skip O'Connor; Maine, Ed Styrna; UMass, Bill Footrick, Ken O'Brien; MIT, Art Farnham; New Hampshire, Paul Swett; Northeastern, Putty Parsons, Gerry Tatton; Rhode Island, Tom Russell, Bill Falk; Springfield College, Vern Cox; Tufts, Ding Dussault; Wesleyan, Elmer Swanson; WPI, Merl Norcross.