The History Of The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC)

The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a college athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically Black universities in the southern United States. It participates in the NCAA’s Division I for all sports. In football, it participates in the second-tier Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), still frequently referred to by its former designation of Division I-AA.

The SWAC is one of four conferences (the others being the Ivy League, Northeast Conference, and the Pioneer Football League) which do not participate in postseason play in the FCS football tournament. It is the only one of the four whose members offer a full complement of scholarships for football. The SWAC splits its schools into two divisions, and instead plays a conference championship game. Furthermore, one SWAC match, the Southern vs Grambling State game (Bayou Classic), is positioned on the schedule after the NCAA tournament has begun. In addition to the Bayou Classic being played after the start of the NCAA Tournament, Alabama State University plays non-conference foe Tuskegee University (SIAC) annually on Thanksgiving Day (The Turkey Day Classic).

History

In 1920, eight men representing six colleges from the state of Texas met to discuss collegiate athletics and the many challenges that face their respective institutions. By the time the session in Houston had concluded, they had founded an athletic league that went on to become one of the leading sports associations in the world of collegiate athletics, the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

The founding fathers of the original “Super Six” were C.H. Fuller of Bishop College, Red Randolph and C.H. Patterson of Paul Quinn College, E.G. Evans, H.J. Evans and H.J. Starns of Prairie View A&M, D.C. Fuller of Texas College and G. Whitte Jordan of Wiley College.

Paul Quinn became the first of the original members to withdraw from the league when it did so in 1929. When Langston University of Oklahoma was admitted into the conference two years later, it began the migration of state-supported institutions into the SWAC. Southern University entered the ranks in 1934, followed by Arkansas AM&N in 1936 and Texas Southern University in 1954.

Rapid growth in enrollment of the state-supported schools made it difficult for the church-supported schools to finance their athletics programs and one by one they fell victim to the growing prowess of the tax-supported colleges. Bishop withdrew from the conference in 1956, Langston in 1957 and Huston-Tillotson (formerly Samuel Huston) in 1959, one year after the admittance of two more state-supported schools – Grambling College and Jackson State College. The enter-exit cycle continued in 1961 when Texas College withdrew, followed by the admittance of Alcorn A&M in 1962. Wiley left in 1968, the same year Mississippi Valley State College entered. Arkansas AM&N exited in 1970 and Alabama State University entered in 1982. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (formerly Arkansas AM&N) rejoined the SWAC on July 1, 1997, regaining full-member status one year later. Alabama A&M University became the conference’s tenth member when it became a full member in September, 1999, after a one year period as an affiliate SWAC member.

Today, the SWAC ranks among the elite in the nation in terms of alumni playing with professional sports teams, particularly in the sport of football. On the gridiron, the conference has been the biggest draw on the Division I-AA level of the NCAA, leading the nation in average home attendance for 19 of the 20 years Division I-AA has been in existence. In fact, in 1994, the SWAC fell just 40,000 fans short of becoming the first non-Division I-A conference to attract one million fans to its home games.

Current championship competition offered by the SWAC includes competition for men in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, indoor track, outdoor track & field and tennis. Women’s competition is offered in the sports of basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, indoor track, outdoor track & field, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball.

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