[5][6][7] The UW-Stevens Point Pointers compete in 14 intercollegiate sports in NCAA Division III and have won 13 championships.

In 1857 a Normal School Board of Regents was established to allocate funds to institutions in the state that supported teacher training.

After a final 1868 split, limited funds furnished to universities that provided teacher education meant many did not invest in this field.

[9] In 1891, the Board of Regents authorized the establishment of a sixth normal school to serve the northern half of the state.

In addition to teacher preparation, "domestic science" (home economics) and conservation education were offered; the latter formed the basis for the College of Natural Resources.

[9] The Board of Regents selected Theron B. Pray as the first President of the University and allowed the hiring of 12 more faculty members.

[9] In 1927, Stevens Point Normal School became Central State Teachers College and began offering four-year teaching degrees.

When post-World War II enrollment became less centered on teacher training and more focused on liberal arts education, the Wisconsin State Legislature intervened, changing the school's name to Wisconsin State College–Stevens Point with the authority to grant bachelor's degrees in liberal arts.

It was during this period, in 1964, that the college was elevated to university status as Wisconsin State University–Stevens Point and began offering graduate degrees.

[10] On April 5, 1976, Jimmy Carter gave a speech at the Fieldhouse's Berg Gymnasium to an estimated crowd of 2,500 during his first presidential campaign, discussing abortion, a temporary suspension on the construction of nuclear power plants (with attention being drawn to the nuclear power plant in Rudolph, Wisconsin that was being proposed at the time), and strip mining.

The site features upland, wetland, and wooded habitats where students study ecological restoration, including plant propagation, invasive species removal, and training in the use of forestry tools.

[14][15] List of UWSP's chancellors and presidents:[16] The Main Campus of the university is in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, a block north of State Route 66 and southwest of Interstate 39/U.S.

[18] Housed within the Chemistry Biology Building is a Tropical Conservatory which is home to 400 different species and cultivars from Central and South America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific islands.

There were multiple efforts to save the building from demolition, including listing Old Main on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Built in 1915 and designed by the Milwaukee firm of Henry Van Ryn and Gerrit de Gellecke, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The earliest mention of a museum at UWSP goes back to the founding of the campus and the construction of the Normal School Old Main Building in 1894.

Currently, the museum is divided into 10 areas of natural history: Anthropology, Botany, Entomology, Geology, Herpetology, Ichthyology, Mammalogy, Ornithology, Parasitology, and Paleontology.

A Noteworthy specimen includes the only Wisconsin fossil of the extinct elk-moose (Cervalces scotii) found by a farmer in Bevent.

Recently, historic research showed the campus encompasses what was at one point a Native American camp and burial ground of the Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Ojibwe and Potawatomi.

In the 1860s, scarlet fever devastated a diverse group of Native Americans who were living outside of Stevens Point after being forced out of their ancestral homelands by settlement.

[34] A mural was dedicated on May 5, 2023 that memorializes Native Americans buried on campus as well as the annual Pow Wow.

[41] The first use of a "Pointer" mascot was on a student newspaper from 1916, with a side-profile view consistent with the current UW-Stevens Point athletics logo.