Southwest Athletic Conference
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- 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)
The Southwest Conference (SWC) was a college athletic conference in the United States that became defunct in May of 1996. It consisted of schools in the states of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
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.
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[edit] History
[edit] 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.
The conference's primary weakness was its geographic focus on the state of Texas. Eight of the conferences nine universities were located within Texas. This narrow focus limited the conference's national appeal even though the quality of athletic competition at times was second to none.
[edit] Final years
The 1980s saw most 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, the Southern Methodist University football program in 1987 became only the second program in NCAA history to receive the so-called "Death Penalty" (after Kentucky basketball in 1952-53). The NCAA forced SMU to disband its football program for the 1987 season, and limited it to seven road games for 1988; SMU chose not to play at all in 1988. 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. Arkansas left for the Southeastern Conference in 1992, but the real deathblow to the SWC came in 1993 when Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor accepted invitations to join the Big Eight Conference, creating the Big 12 Conference. 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 Dallas to 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.
[edit] Where are they now?
| Team | Left For | Current Home |
|---|---|---|
| Arkansas | Southeastern Conference | |
| Baylor | Big 12 Conference | |
| Houston | Conference USA | |
| Rice | Western Athletic Conference | Conference USA |
| SMU | Western Athletic Conference | Conference USA |
| Texas | Big 12 Conference | |
| Texas A&M | Big 12 Conference | |
| TCU | Western Athletic Conference | Mountain West Conference(*) |
| Texas Tech | Big 12 Conference | |
(*) TCU left the WAC to join C-USA, then joined MWC.
[edit] Conference commissioners
- 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)
[edit] Conference football champions
- 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
"*" -- Denotes shared title
[edit] Conference men's basketball regular-season champions
- Arkansas (22 titles, 14 outright): 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1935*, 1936, 1938, 1941, 1942*, 1944*, 1949*, 1950*, 1958*, 1977, 1978*, 1979*, 1981, 1982, 1989, 1990, 1991
- Texas (22, 12): 1915, 1916, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1933, 1939, 1943*, 1947, 1951*, 1954*, 1960, 1963, 1965*, 1972*, 1974, 1978*, 1979*, 1986*, 1992*, 1994, 1995*
- SMU (13, 8): 1935*, 1937, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958*, 1962*, 1965*, 1966, 1967, 1972*, 1988, 1993
- Texas A&M (11, 9): 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1951*, 1964, 1969, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1986*
- TCU (10, 2): 1931, 1934, 1951*, 1952, 1953, 1959, 1968, 1971, 1986*, 1987
- Rice (10, 4): 1918, 1935*, 1940, 1942*, 1943*, 1944*, 1945, 1949*, 1954*, 1970
- Texas Tech (6, 4): 1961, 1962*, 1973, 1985, 1995*, 1996
- Baylor (5, 2): 1932, 1946, 1948, 1949*, 1950*
- Houston (3, 2): 1983, 1984, 1992*
- Oklahoma A&M (1): 1925
"*" -- Denotes shared title
[edit] Quote
- :... why, some say the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why - 35 years ago - why fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the Moon, we choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard ... – John F. Kennedy, Rice Stadium, September 12, 1962
