The school's sports teams are called the Maroons. They participate in the NCAA's Division III and in the University Athletic Association. At one time the University of Chicago's football teams, the original Monsters of the Midway, were among the best in the country, winning seven Big Ten titles. In 1935, Chicago's Jay Berwanger was the winner of the first-ever Heisman Trophy. However, the school, a founding member of the Big Ten Conference, de-emphasized varsity athletics in 1939. It is erroneously claimed that Robert Maynard Hutchins, president at the time, said, "Whenever I feel like exercising, I lie down until the feeling passes." [2] 

The school's mascot is the Phoenix, so chosen for two reasons: in honor of Chicago's rebirth after the great fire and also in honor of the previous University of Chicago (whose origins were unrelated to the current), which folded due to financial reasons (thus making this a second and far more glorious incarnation of the University).

One notorious tradition is the annual Scavenger Hunt, a multi-day event in which large teams compete to obtain all the items on a very long list. The event was created by a resident of the Snell-Hitchcock dormitory in 1987 and Snell-Hitchcock dorm continues with a long history of victories including 2004's Hunt. So far, each year has also involved a lengthy road trip to find many of these items in obscure parts of the United States, involving treks as far as New Jersey, or as mind-bogglingly obtuse as Zion, Illinois (where students had to "flip the switch at the last city of man," a reference to the city of Zion in The Matrix). While items such as Michael Jordan have not appeared, lore maintains that in 1999 two students built a working nuclear reactor for Scavenger Hunt. Though more accurately they irradiated thorium with thermal neutrons, and observed traces of both uranium and plutonium.

A famous former campus tradition was Sleepout, which took place each spring on the weekend before the opening of registration for the next year's classes. The tradition began when students wishing to get into the most popular courses would sleep out on the quads in order to be first in line. Eventually, the queueing was organized with a lottery for places in line taking place 24 hours in advance of registration. Forced to stay on campus and report at unannounced line checks, students found creative ways to pass the time. That this event became the biggest party of the year is perhaps a testament to the College's aforementioned reputation for academic zeal. Under the presidency of Hugo Sonnenschein, Sleepout was ended in 1997 - replaced with an Internet-based registration system.

The campus paper is the Chicago Maroon, founded in 1892, the same year as the university. It is published every Tuesday and Friday. Notable extracurricular groups include: The University of Chicago College Bowl Team, which has garned 101 tournament wins and 12 national championships - leading both catagories internationally, Model United Nations, which is an often a favorite at national conferences and hosts a large simulation annually, and the Chess Club, who likewise is a national powerhouse and whose ranks have included Masters of varying degrees. The Mock Trial and Parliamentary Debate teams have also fared well at the national level in recent years.