Countdown to College Football Kickoff 2015: Day 15: Some Southwest Flavor
The 2015 college football kickoff is only 15 days away, and 100 years ago, in 1915, one of history’s greatest college football conferences saw its start.
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Just as college basketball fans mourn the loss of the once great Big East conference and all it brought to the sport, college football fans also have fond memories and lament the end of one of its greatest conferences, the Southwest Conference.
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In 1915, the Southwest Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (later to be known as just the Southwest Conference) began its first season of play in football, and it was a conference loaded with future champions that would give us some of football’s greatest names.
Some of the great head coaching names who were part of the SWC included John Heisman, Paul “Bear” Bryant, Darrell Royal, Frank Broyles, Lou Holtz, Bill Yeoman, Gene Stallings, and Grant Teaff. The SWC also produced some of the best ever players, including Davey O’Brien, Sammy Baugh, Bobby Layne, Doak Walker, Tom Landry, Bob Lilly, Don Meredith, Earl Campbell, Andre Ware, Mike Singletary and Eric Dickerson.
The original SWC lineup consisted of Baylor, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Texas A&M, Rice, Oklahoma A&M and Southwestern – finishing in exactly that order in their inaugural football season. Baylor and Oklahoma were the conference co-champions, both going 3-0 in SWC play, and the Sooners marched to a perfect 10-0 season.
image – ncaa archives
The Sooners were also one of three national champions that season, although only Cornell and Pittsburgh claim their championships. There was no clear-cut winner.
Despite having an undefeated team and only two teams playing under .500 that season, the Southwest Conference did not have any players selected to the All-American team, nor any postseason award winners. Respect was something for which the conference would have to fight.
Fight they did, and win they did. They were a conference that helped shape the world of modern college football.
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