Williams Ephs

Williams Ephs
Logo
UniversityWilliams College
ConferenceNew England Small College Athletic Conference (primary)
EISA (skiing)
NCAADivision III
Athletic directorLisa Melendy
LocationWilliamstown, Massachusetts
Varsity teams16 men's, 16 women's
Football stadiumWeston Field
Basketball arenaChandler Gymnasium
Baseball stadiumBobby Coombs Field
Softball stadiumWilliams Softball Complex
Soccer stadiumCole Field
Lacrosse stadiumRenzie Lamb Field
Other venuesLasell Gymnasium
MascotEphelia the Purple Cow
NicknameEphs
ColorsPurple and gold[1]
   
Websiteephsports.williams.edu

The Williams Ephs (/ˈiːfs/ EEFS)[2] are the varsity intercollegiate athletic programs of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

The school sponsors 32 varsity sports, most of which compete in the Division III New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). The school's men's and women's ski teams and men's and women's squash teams compete in Division I. The Ephs' nickname (which rhymes with "chiefs") is a shortened form of the name of Ephraim Williams, the college's founder. The Ephs' mascot is a purple cow, and their colors are purple and gold.[3] The school's athletic director is Lisa Melendy.[4]

Williams, along with fellow NESCAC members Amherst and Wesleyan, is part of the Little Three rivalry, one of the oldest continually contested rivalries in college athletics.[5][6] It dates to 1899, when the three schools formed the Triangular League for athletic competitions. Today, the majority of the three schools' sports contest the Little Three championship, in which the school with the best record in games among the three is awarded the Little Three title for its sport.[7] Williams's rivalry with Amherst is particularly heated, dating back to 1821, when then-Williams president Zephaniah Swift Moore abandoned Williams to found Amherst College.[8][9] The football game played between the two is known as the "Biggest Little Game in America" and hosted College GameDay in 2007.[10]

Williams has consistently won the NACDA Directors' Cup, an annual award for the most successful athletic program in each NCAA division. Since 1996, the year of the award's inception, Williams has won the Division III Directors' Cup 22 out of 24 years (the exceptions being 1998 and 2012).[11][12] For sixteen of the past seventeen years (2004–2011, 2013-2020), the college has held a dual #1 ranking in both athletics and academics by winning the Directors' Cup and placing first in the U.S. News & World Report liberal arts college rankings.[13] Alumni of the athletic program include two Nobel Prize winners, 33 Olympians, 19 Rhodes Scholars, four Marshall Scholars, and 44 Fulbright Scholars.[14]

  1. ^ "Logos & Visual Identity Guidelines". Retrieved June 12, 2016.
  2. ^ "Why Ephs, Purple, and Purple Cows?" Williams College Athletics, Wednesday, August 4, 2010. Retrieved November 6, 2021
  3. ^ "Athletics". Admission.Williams.edu. Williams College Office of Admission. Archived from the original on January 25, 2012. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
  4. ^ "Lisa Melendy". Athletics.Williams.edu. Archived from the original on June 28, 2012. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
  5. ^ "Little Three". CollegeSquashAssociation.com. Archived from the original on May 3, 2012. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
  6. ^ "Little Three". Amherst.edu. Archived from the original on August 29, 2012. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
  7. ^ "The Little Three". Williams.PrestoSports.com. Archived from the original on April 1, 2012. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
  8. ^ Reynolds, Lauren (July 23, 2007). "Sibling rivalry: Williams-Amherst Remains Heated". ESPN.com. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
  9. ^ Shore, Phillip. "Greatest Rivalries: Amherst vs. Williams". The New England Lacrosse Journal (July 2012). Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  10. ^ Fowler, Chris (November 8, 2007). "'GameDay' Goes Off the Beaten Path to Find the Biggest Little Rivalry". ESPN.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
  11. ^ "Directors' Cup". Williams.PrestoSports.com. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
  12. ^ "Williams (Mass.) Takes 13th Straight Div III Cup". TheDirectorsCup.com. June 17, 2011. Archived from the original on March 2, 2016. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
  13. ^ "Eph Athletic Firsts". Athletics.Williams.edu. Archived from the original on April 30, 2012. Retrieved April 29, 2012.
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference distinction was invoked but never defined (see the help page).