This collection consists of records of the department of Athletics and Physical Education at the University of California, Irvine. It contains files on all sports administered by the Athletics Department. This includes men's and women's teams in baseball, basketball, crew, cross country, golf, sailing, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball and water polo. Files may contain player rosters, game schedules, photographs, programs, news releases, and more. The collection also includes video recordings of athletic events such as games, weekly highlights and interviews with coaches and players. There are also records and press releases from the Big West Conference organization.

The UCI Athletics Department was formed with the university's founding in 1965. Wayne Crawford, for whom the original athletic facility was later named, served as the first chair of the Department of Physical Education, overseeing both intercollegiate athletics and recreational activities on campus. By 1968 Intercollegiate Athletics and the Recreation Sports Program were part of the Student Affairs Office, while the Department of Physical Education remained under Academic Affairs. The administrative authority under which the two departments served fluctuated a number of times until Physical Education and Intercollegiate Athletics and Campus Recreation were combined into a single office in 1995. In 1995 the Office of Intercollegiate Athletics and Campus Recreation became independent of Student Affairs and directly accountable to the chancellor. Intercollegiate Athletics and Campus Recreation ascended to the level of an executive office in 1999, with the athletic director holding an administrative position equivalent to that of vice chancellor.

41.3 Linear Feet (44 boxes, 1 oversize folder and 4 gigabytes of scanned PDFs) and 0.4 unprocessed linear feet

Property rights reside with the University of California. Copyrights are generally retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where the UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Collection is open for research. Material in box 44, "Biographical Information on Players and Staff," contains personally identifiable information and is restricted for 75 years from date of creation. Access to original video recordings and disk media is restricted, researchers may request access copies. Access to Series 5, Press Releases, is made available on Calisphere.