Land Grant colleges were established in 1862 via passage of the First Morrill Act. To fund these schools, the federal government gave land (land grants) to the states to be sold and the proceeds were to be used to build the school. Each school was to teach the "Agricultural and Mechanical Arts" (hence A&M for a lot of the "cow" colleges) and military science (hence they all must have ROTC, quite a problem back in the 60's). Also, the state could not be in rebellion against the United States. After the South lost the war, the southern states started their land grant colleges. These schools, as you can imagine, did not want to educate the African Americans. So in 1890, congress passed the Second Morrill Act (Act of 1890), that established "separate but equal" land grant colleges for colored students. These are your historically black colleges of today. They have the same rules and regs as the 1862 schools. The 1890 act also set up an annual payment of $50K to each 1862 and 1890 school. This amount was increased via Bankhead-Jones. All amounts were terminated in the 80's. We now have land grant colleges in all 50 states, DC, and the territories. In 1994 Congress established land grant colleges on (primarily) American Indian reservations. These colleges are funded through an endowment fund that is just getting off the ground. Now for the hockey angle. Div 1 hockey schools that are land grant institutions: U Maine, U of New Hampshire, U-Mass Amherst (Hockey East) Cornell (part) and UVM (ECAC) Michigan State, Ohio State, Alaska - Fairbanks (CCHA) Wisconsin, Minnesota (WCHA) A number of other schools (Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Iowa State, for example) play club. I think North Dakota State (Fargo), not U of ND is the land grant in North Dakota. With the exception of Notre Dame, Denver and CC (?) all the other Western schools are state schools, just not land grants. All the other Eastern schools are private. You think that makes a diffeence when it comes to recruiting?? A copy of the original Morrill Act of 1862 is in the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, MD. It is kinda neat to see Old Abe's signature. Joe LaCour PS I've worked with these schools most of my working life. If you want to know more, e-mail me privately. HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.