University of Illinois Springfield athletic director Rodger Jehlicka was told that the phone call he and the rest of the Prairie Stars athletic staff had worked so hard for the past three years would come Friday morning at 11:30.
At 11:31 a.m. the phone rang. It was the NCAA, announcing that UIS was now an official Division II school. UIS announced the decision at a news conference later in the day at The Recreation and Athletic Center.
“Division II is a whole new league, as they say,” UIS chancellor Richard Ringeisen told the crowd gathered at the TRAC. “It is one of the three or four most significant moments in our history.”
Jehlicka said the NCAA will release on Tuesday a list of the schools that have moved up from provisional to active membership status. He said that UIS technically will be a full-fledged Division II member on Aug. 1. And there are further benefits for UIS beside the name recognition that comes with being an NCAA institution.
The announcement was featured in a July 10, 2010, article in The State Journal-Register.
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