The Ohio Valley Conference

"to regulate, control, and promote all the recognized branches of intercollegiate athletics in institutions represented."

Through a gradual process, the Ohio Valley Conference was to become a league of Kentucky and Tennessee state colleges. Middle Tennessee State College joined the rolls in 1952, East Tennessee State University in 1957 and Austin Peay State College in the spring of 1962. They replaced Louisville, which became an independent in 1949, and Marshall and Evansville, which departed in 1952.

In 1963, the league took another step forward by appointing Arthur L. Guepe, former football coach and athletic director at Virginia and Vanderbilt Universities, as the OVC's first full-time commissioner.

Annually, the OVC presents an All - Sports Trophy for over-all excellence in the entire athletic program. The past three years, Eastern has won the trophy once and finished second twice.