The Texas Conference was a college

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Confe ...

in the United States that existed from 1926 to 1956. During its existence, a total of 11 different colleges in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, and one from

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, were members.

History

The conference was created by a split within the

Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association (TIAA) was a college sports association that operated from 1909 to 1932. All of its members were located in the US state of Texas. History Founded in 1909 by Southwestern University, Austin College, ...

(TIAA) between members who wanted to allow freshmen and transfers to play and schools that did not. This fault line also separated the teachers colleges that had joined over the years and the church-sponsored schools that had been founders. In May 1925,

Austin College Austin College is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Sherman, Texas.Howard Payne University Howard Payne University is a private Baptist university in Brownwood, Texas. It is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Howard Payne College was founded by Reverend Noah T. Byers and Dr. John David Robnett in 1889. The institu ...

, Simmons University (now

Hardin–Simmons University Hardin–Simmons University (HSU) is a private Baptist university in Abilene, Texas. It is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas (Southern Baptist Convention). History Hardin–Simmons University was founded as Abilene Baptist ...

Southwestern University Southwestern University (Southwestern or SU) is a private liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas. Formed in 1873 from a revival of collegiate charters granted in 1840, Southwestern is the oldest college or university in Texas. Southwestern o ...

, and Trinity University voted to leave the TIAA, but agreed to play out the fall 1925 football season within the TIAA. Play within the Texas Conference began with the 1926 basketball season. The five founding schools of the conference were all church-supported and agreed to ally themselves "along denominational lines." At the end of 1926,

St. Edward's University St. Edward's University is a private, Catholic university in Austin, Texas. It was founded and is operated in the Holy Cross tradition. History Founding and early history St. Edward's University was founded by the Reverend Edward Sorin, CSC ...

joined the conference. In 1932, Trinity University left to join other former members of the TIAA in the

Lone Star Conference The Lone Star Conference (LSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the southwestern United States, with schools in Tex ...

, while Abilene Christian,

Daniel Baker College Daniel Baker College was founded April 5, 1889 in Brownwood, Texas, United States. It was named in memory of the Rev. Dr. Daniel Baker, a Presbyterian circuit-riding minister, who helped organize the first presbytery in Texas in 1840 and Austin ...

, and

McMurry College McMurry University is a private Methodist university in Abilene, Texas. It was founded in 1923 and named after William Fletcher McMurry. The university offers forty-five majors in the fields of fine arts, humanities, social and natural scien ...

joined the Texas Conference at the end of the year. Trinity returned at the end of 1933, giving the conference a high of nine teams. Hardin–Simmons left the conference in December 1935, reducing the conference to eight teams. In May 1937,

Texas Wesleyan University Texas Wesleyan University is a private Methodist university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was founded in 1890 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The main campus is located in the Polytechnic Heights neighborhood of Fort Worth. Its mascot is th ...

was admitted to the conference, restoring total membership to nine. St. Edward's left the conference in December 1939, when it discontinued intercollegiate athletics. Due to World War II, Daniel Baker did not field a football team in the fall of 1942, then in February 1943 ended its basketball season early. The conference suspended athletics in the spring of 1943, although Southwestern continued to field a football team, winning the 1944 Sun Bowl and 1945 Sun Bowl, after the

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

seasons of

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 – ...

and

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...

, respectively. The Texas Conference reorganized in December 1945; at that time, Trinity University again departed and Daniel Baker did not return, leaving the conference with six teams: Abilene Christian, Austin, Howard Payne, McMurry, Southwestern, and Texas Wesleyan. At the end of 1946, Hardin–Simmons rejoined the conference. In 1947, Texas Wesleyan discontinued football, requiring it to quit the conference. In December 1948, Hardin–Simmons left in order to join the Lone Star Conference; they were effectively replaced by Texas A&I (now

Texas A&M University–Kingsville Texas A&M University–Kingsville is a Public university, public research university in Kingsville, Texas. It is the southernmost campus of the Texas A&M University System. The university developed the nation's first doctoral degree in bilingual ...

), who joined the conference in February 1949, again giving the conference six teams. In the early 1950s, the conference began to have trouble holding together. Southwestern discontinued its football program after the 1950 season, causing them to be dropped from the conference in 1951. Later,

Eastern New Mexico University Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU or Eastern) is a public university with a main campus in Portales, New Mexico, and two associate degree-granting branches, one at Ruidoso and one at Roswell. ENMU is New Mexico's largest regional comprehensi ...

became the only school from outside of Texas to join the conference, with participation to start in the 1954 track season. But before they could start, in December 1953, the conference was cut from six members to three. Abilene Christian announced it would leave to become an independent, Texas A&I left to join the Lone Star Conference, and Austin College, because of an eligibility feud with other members, also left to become an independent. With three remaining members—Eastern New Mexico, Howard Payne, and McMurry—the conference disbanded in May 1956.

Members

Daniel Baker was consolidated with Howard Payne in 1952.

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1925 till:1962 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:Full from:1926 till:1953 text:

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

(1926–1953) bar:2 color:Full from:1926 till:1935 text: Hardin–Simmons (1926–1935, 1947–1948) bar:2 color:Full from:1947 till:1948 bar:3 color:Full from:1926 till:1956 text: Howard Payne (1926–1956) bar:4 color:Full from:1926 till:1951 text: Southwestern (TX) (1926–1951) bar:5 color:Full from:1926 till:1932 text: Trinity (TX) (1926–1932) bar:5 color:Full from:1934 till:1945 text:(1934–1945) bar:6 color:Full from:1927 till:1939 text: St. Edward's (1927–1939) bar:7 color:Full from:1933 till:1953 text: Abilene Christian (1933–1953) bar:8 color:Full from:1933 till:1943 text: Daniel Baker (1933–1943) bar:9 color:Full from:1933 till:1956 text:

McMurry McMurry is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Frank Morton McMurry (1862–1936), American educator * John E. McMurry, whose name is given to the McMurry reaction *Lillian McMurry (1921–1999), American record producer See also ...

(1933–1956) bar:10 color:Full from:1937 till:1947 text: Texas Wesleyan (1937–1947) bar:11 color:Full from:1949 till:1953 text:

Texas A&I Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...

(1949–1953) bar:12 color:Full from:1954 till:1956 text:

Eastern New Mexico Eastern New Mexico is a physiographic subregion within the U.S. state of New Mexico. The region is sometimes called the "High Plains," or "Eastern Plains (of New Mexico)," and was historically referred to as part of the "Great American Desert". The ...

(1954–1956) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1926 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:^"Texas Conference membership history" #> If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#

Football champions

*1926 – Simmons *1927 – *1928 – *1929 – *1930 – *1931 – and Simmons *1932 – *1933 – St. Edward's *1934 – *1935 –

*1936 – *1937 – *1938 – *1939 – and St. Edward's *1940 – , , and *1941 – *1942 – *1943 – ''No season'' *1944 – ''No season'' *1945 – ''No season'' *1946 – Abilene Christian and Southwestern (TX) *1947 – and

*1948 – *1949 – *1950 – *1951 – , , and *1952 – Abilene Christian *1953 – , , *1954 – Howard Payne *1955 –

Basketball champions

1939 –

References

External links

List of Conference Football champions 1926-1954
{{Authority control Sports organizations established in 1926 Organizations disestablished in 1956