Inter-Ac League

Germantown Academy is a founding member of one of the nation’s oldest and most respected independent school athletic leagues.

The Inter-Academic Athletic League (Inter-Ac) traces its origins to 1887, when George H. Deacon of Germantown Academy helped organize the Inter-Academic Association of Private Schools of the State of

Pennsylvania. Alongside Episcopal Academy, Rugby Academy, Rittenhouse Academy, and William Penn Charter School, Germantown Academy established a league dedicated to promoting athletics and competition among leading independent schools in the Philadelphia region.

The League’s earliest competitions included football, baseball, track & field, and even tug of war, with the first official Inter-Ac event held in Penn Charter’s gymnasium in 1887. That same year, Germantown Academy and Penn Charter began one of the area’s most storied athletic rivalries. Over the decades, the League expanded both its membership and athletic offerings, adding sports such as basketball, tennis, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, squash, and golf, while maintaining a commitment to sportsmanship, tradition, and educational excellence.

The Girls Inter-Academic Athletic Association was established in 1982, with Germantown Academy again serving as a founding member. The boys’ and girls’ leagues formally merged in 2013-14, creating today’s Inter-Ac League, which sponsors competition in 25 sports among many of the region’s premier independent schools.