The members of the Ivy League are:
The term "Ivy Plus" is sometimes used to refer to the eight plus Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University for purposes of alumni associations and university gatherings. However, the term "Ivy League" refers strictly to the original eight.
Caswell Adams of the New York Tribune made a passing comment about the schools in 1937, referring to the ivy growing on their walls. Stanley Woodward, a fellow sportswriter, coined the phrase in a column soon thereafter, informally dubbing the eight competitive universities the Ivy League, in advance of any formal sports league involving the schools.
In 1945 the athletic directors of the schools signed the first Ivy Group Agreement, which set academic, financial, and athletic standards for the football teams.
In 1954, the date generally accepted as the birth of the Ivy League, the agreement was extended to all sports.
An apocryphal etymology attributes the name to the Roman numerals for four (IV), incorrectly asserting that there was such a sports league originally with four members.