By DR. CHARLIE MARLER
ACU Professor Emeritus of Journalism and Mass Communication
ABILENE – Purple and White loyalists at Abilene Christian College grew tired of their five-year independent status in 1958-63 and made their discomfort obvious to all listeners.
What's an athletics program without a championship to play for?
David Spradlin, columnist of the ACC
Optimist student newspaper, captured the frustration in October 1962 when he wrote about Abilene Christian's “unofficial football conference” – the five institutions that were playing one another – Trinity University, Hardin Simmons University, McMurry College, Arlington State College and the Wildcats – in what he termed a “pseudo-conference.”
The Wildcats also played for Abilene's three-way city title among HSU, McMurry and ACC, which was further accentuated by a popular city Touchdown Club that met in the Wooten Hotel ballroom each week.
Even then, behind the scenes, the presidents and athletics directors (ADs) of five colleges were working on a new conference through correspondence. The
Abilene Reporter-News ran a story March 3, 1963, about the scuttlebutt heard around the Southwestern Recreation Track and Field Meet in Fort Worth. The non-bylined story said the talk about a new conference included ACC and HSU.
On March 16, this banner headline in the
Reporter-News announced, “ACC, 4 More Form Athletic League,” news generated from a meeting of the presidents of ACC, Trinity, Lamar Tech, Arlington State and Arkansas State. It would be an NCAA conference with “high academic standards.” The respect in which Wildcat athletics director A.B. Morris was held as dean of Texas college and university ADs was a major factor in the conference development.
Morris said in the
Optimist, “We in the athletic department are happy to be in a conference, and especially to be associated with these particular schools.” He said his coaches “feel that the privilege of playing for a conference championship will give athletes more incentive.”
ACC Greek and Bible scholar Dr. J.W. Roberts served as the Wildcats' faculty representative and was selected as chair of the new conference's Constitution and By-laws Committee, which eventually led to Roberts' election to a two-year term as first president of the conference. An April 6 meeting in Austin pulled together the presidents, ADs, coaches and sports information directors.
A public relations council was formed in Austin including chair Mike Kantus of Trinity, vice-chair Charlie Marler of Abilene Christian, Mike Kantu of Trinity, Tom Manning of Arkansas State, Jerre R. Todd of Arlington State and Joe Lee Smith of Lamar. The council was assigned the job of proposing the name of the conference to the ADs and presidents.
The council vetted names such as the defunct Gulf Coast Conference and others lost in the dust bin of sports lore. “Gulf Coast,” even though ACC and Trinity had been in that conference, quickly was rejected because of it restrictive regional nature. “Southland” quickly rose to the top of the list. Its downsides were its similarity to the Southwest Conference – ironically now a moot issue – and its use by a well-known Texas insurance company. “Southland Conference” went forward to the ADs and presidents as the council's unanimous recommendation because its geographic breadth would permit the conference's growth that has since happened.
The presidents unanimously approved the name, and
The Dallas Morning News beat the Texas press with an April 6, 1963, story written by Texas AP Sports Editor Harold Ratliff. The
Morning News headline read, “Southland Loop To Include Five Charter Schools” – the first public appearance of the name of the now 50-year-old organization.
