Iowa State has attracted national attention through its extensive recreational services programs following a national survey of NCAA institutions.

The March 2005 edition of Muscle & Fitness magazine listed Iowa State as third in the nation for the amount of opportunity people have to participate in physical activity.

Garry Greenlee, associate director of intramural sports and recreational services, said Iowa State has always had a strong tradition of providing recreational opportunities.

“We have a wide variety of opportunities,” said Linda Marticke, program coordinator of recreation services. “Besides the traditional things like basketball, we have non-traditional tournaments as well.”

Marticke said there are about 50 intramural activities that students can take advantage of yearround.

The number of fitness classes also attracted the magazine’s attention. Greenlee said there are about 50 different fitness classes in a week.

Anndrea Watters, group fitness instructor and senior in exercise and sport science, said her classes bring in a good number of students.

The fitness classes and intramural programs are usually held at one of the eight recreation facilities on campus, which also contributed to the third-place ranking.

The eight recreation sites on campus include: Lied Recreation Athletic Center, Beyer Hall, Forker Building, State Gym, Maple-Willow-Larch Recreation Field, Southeast Recreation Field, Towers Recreation Field and the Disc Golf Course.

Another thing that helped Iowa State place high was the 46 sports clubs on campus, which range from badminton to weightlifting.

Greenlee said although Iowa State provides the opportunity for recreation, the number of students taking advantage of the programs is what is drawing the attention.

“Approximately 75 percent of the student body participates in intramurals,” Greenlee said. “Over 90 percent of the student body participates in some form of recreation that recreation services provides.”

Joe Wuebben, the articles editor of Muscle & Fitness magazine, said the author, Carey Rossi, did not speak to any of the schools.

“She researched them independent of any ‘inside’ help on the institutions’ part,” he said.

“She used other public references to come up with the list. As you can imagine, narrowing the list down to the ‘best’ 10 or 20 is a very daunting and imperfect process,” he said.

The Ohio State University was ranked No. 1 in the article followed by the University of Florida.

The publication only considered public institutions that have NCAA Division I-A sports teams and evaluated six categories: weight room hours, the number of sports clubs, health-related majors, intramural sport opportunities and fitness classes.