Three Division III conferences are observing anniversaries this year. One is older than the division itself, another includes six of the NCAA’s charter members and the third is emblematic of Division III’s recent growth.

All three conferences – the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC), North Coast Athletic Conference and Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference – are commemorating the occasion with special logos.

The SUNYAC, now 50 years old, was formed a full 15 years before Division III was created in 1973. But its presence at the division’s inception was noticeable – it was one of just a handful of conferences consisting of publicly supported institutions in a division that even today is made up mostly of private schools.

Consisting of colleges in the State University of New York system, its membership has remained relatively stable through the years – all 10 of its current members joined within the first two years of the league’s existence.

“Of course, we’ve had a lot of administrative changes, but we’re the same schools basically, and we have the same philosophies,” says Patrick Damore, who became the league’s first and only commissioner in 1979. “As we say, we have the same parents, but we’re all different children.”

Before assuming the post – “They asked me if I was interested in being a commissioner on a part-time basis, to get things started,” he recalls – he was a coach and then an athletics director in the league. Altogether, he has been affiliated with the SUNYAC for 48 of its 50 years.

The North Coast, observing its 25th anniversary this year, was formed 10 years after Division III’s establishment. In a sense, though, its history stretches to the very beginnings of the NCAA, as six of its 10 members – Allegheny, Denison, Oberlin, Ohio Wesleyan, Wittenberg and Wooster – were among the 39 schools that banded together to launch the NCAA in 1906.

Another of its members, Kenyon, holds the longest streak in any division of consecutive NCAA championships in a sport. The school’s men’s swimming team has won 29 straight Division III team titles.

The Heartland is 10 years old in name, but its history actually dates to 1987, when six private schools formed the Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference.

However, 1998 is the year when the league’s membership went through a ground-shifting change – three schools in Ohio joined, while two of its Indiana-based founders departed.

Those changes prompted the league to adopt its current name, and it’s now also evident that they were an indicator of more widespread changes to come in Division III conference alignments. The division’s rapid growth during the past decade set in motion several such shifts in conference lineups, as some leagues expanded to include existing Division III members, while others invited schools that were new to NCAA membership.

Still, the HCAC looks much the same as it did in its formative years, with nine private schools proud of its competitive athletics programs but also devoted to its founders’ idea of being an “academic conference.”