Southwest Athletic Conference
This page is about the now defunct Southwest Conference (SWC). For the unrelated and currently still active conference abbreviated as the SWAC, see Southwestern Athletic Conference. For the Ohio High School Conference abbreviated as the SWC, see Southwestern Conference (Ohio) |
A 1970's logo from the old Southwest Athletic Conference. |
The
Southwest Conference (
SWC) was a
college athletic conference in the
United States, now defunct. It consisted of schools in the states of
Texas,
Arkansas and
Oklahoma.
Established in 1914, its charter members were the
University of Texas at Austin,
Texas A&M University,
Baylor University, the
University of Arkansas, the
University of Oklahoma,
Oklahoma State University (then Oklahoma A&M),
Southwestern University (in
Georgetown, Texas), and
Rice University.
Early years
The first organizational meeting of the conference was held in May, 1914 at the Oriental Hotel in
Dallas, Texas. It was chaired by L. Theo Bellmont, who originated the idea for the athletic conference and was at the time athletic director at the University of Texas. Originally, Bellmont wanted
Louisiana State University and the
University of Mississippi to join the conference as well, but they declined to do so. The Southwest Conference became an official body on
December 8, 1914 at a formal meeting at the Rice Hotel in
Houston.
Its early years saw fluctuation in membership; Southwestern (a comparatively smaller school) dropped out of the conference in 1916, and
Southern Methodist University joined it in 1918;
Texas Christian University became a member in 1923. Rice University left the conference in 1916, only to re-join in 1918.
Phillips University (
Enid, Oklahoma) was a conference member for one year (1920). Oklahoma left in 1919 to join the
Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, and was followed by Oklahoma A&M in 1925. (The intense football rivalry between the universities of Texas and Oklahoma, however, would continue in an annual matchup between the two teams held in Dallas, often their most important non-conference game of the year.)
After its organizational years, the conference settled into regularly scheduled meets among its members, and began to gain stature nationwide. The SWC would be guided by seven commissioners, the first of whom, P. W. St. Clair, was appointed in 1938. In 1940, an agreement was reached that the winner of the conference football title would play in the
Cotton Bowl, which further established the prestige of both the bowl and the conference.
Texas Tech University joined the SWC in 1958, followed by the
University of Houston in 1972.
Final years
The 1980s saw all but two of the conference's athletic programs hit by recruiting scandals and
NCAA probations. The only programs to escape probation in the 1980s were Arkansas, Baylor, and Rice. Because of repeated major violations,
Southern Methodist University became the only school in NCAA history to receive the so-called
"Death Penalty". The NCAA forced SMU to disband its football program for one year, and limited it to seven road games the following year; SMU chose not to play at all in the second year. At that time, NCAA rules prohibited schools on probation from appearing in televised games. As a result, the conference's market share in
television coverage dwindled, and the disbandment of the SWC became inevitable after Arkansas left for the
Southeastern Conference in 1992. In May of 1996, after the completions of championship matches in
baseball and
track & field, the Southwest Conference was officially dissolved.
Over the course of its 81-year history, teams of the Southwest Conference garnered sixty-four recognized national championships in collegiate sports (nine in football).
In 1997 the official records of the conference from 1914 to 1996 were moved from Dallasto the campus of Texas Tech University, becoming part of the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library. The archive also contains an extensive assortment of images and memorabilia from each member university.
Where are they now?
Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech joined the
Big Eight Conference, forming the
Big 12 Conference, and rejoining Oklahoma and Oklahoma State after 75 years apart. These teams now form that conference's southern division. Arkansas joined the
Southeastern Conference in 1991. Rice, SMU and TCU joined the
Western Athletic Conference, and Houston the newly-formed
Conference USA (C-USA). In 2001, TCU left the WAC for C-USA. In 2005, Rice and SMU moved to C-USA, rejoining Houston, while TCU left C-USA for the
Mountain West Conference.
*P.W. St. Clair (1938-45)
*James H. Stewart (1945-50)
*Howard Grubbs (1950-73)
*Cliff Speegle (1973-82)
*Fred Jacoby (1982-93)
*Steve Hatchell (1993-95)
*Kyle Kallander (1995-96)
*Texas (25 titles, 19 outright): 1920, 1928, 1930, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1950, 1952, 1953*, 1959*, 1961*, 1962, 1963, 1968*, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975*, 1977, 1983, 1990, 1994*, 1995
*Texas A&M (17, 15): 1917, 1919, 1921, 1925, 1927, 1939, 1940*, 1941, 1956, 1967, 1975*, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1991, 1992, 1993
*Arkansas (13, 7): 1936, 1946*, 1954, 1959*, 1960, 1961*, 1964, 1965, 1968*, 1975*, 1979*, 1988, 1989
*SMU (11, 9): 1923, 1926, 1931, 1935, 1940*, 1947, 1948, 1966, 1981, 1982, 1984
*TCU (9, 7): 1929, 1932, 1938, 1944, 1951, 1955, 1958, 1959*, 1994
*Rice (7, 4): 1934, 1937, 1946*, 1949, 1953*, 1957, 1994
*Baylor (5, 4): 1922, 1924, 1974, 1980, 1994
*Houston (4, 1): 1976*, 1978, 1979*, 1984
*Texas Tech (2, 0): 1976*, 1994
*Oklahoma (1, 1): 1915
*
A Look Back at the Southwest Conference*
Southwest Conference football helmets
