Andrew Bell | 2026 I.S. Symposium
Name: Andrew Bell
Title: Deep in the Heart of Texas: College Football, Race, and Booster Culture Through the Lens of the Southwest Conference
Majors: History; Communication Studies
Advisor: Madonna Hettinger
The Southwest Conference (SWC) was the most prominent Texas-centric organization in collegiate athletics. The conference included football powerhouses such as the University of Texas and Texas A&M University. The SWC existed from 1914 until 1995 and dominated the college football landscape for much of its 81-year tenure. In this thesis, I argue that the SWC reflected the social practices of the state of Texas. The league was built upon Texan 鈥渂ooster鈥 practices that were originally rooted in land speculation established during the founding of the territory and eventually included the oil boom. Moreover, the SWC embodied the white supremacist roots of Texas as a territory and a state, largely ignoring Black Texan football players and becoming the last major collegiate athletic association to integrate in 1970. As a result of slow integration, economic isolation from larger media markets, and conference realignment in college athletics, the SWC collapsed during the first major conference realignment of the modern era. One can correlate changes in specific economic conditions that ultimately contributed to its fall. My thesis utilizes a combined corpus of student newspapers, staff and player interviews, alumni magazines, and media reports to document the rise and collapse of the conference. I argue that the SWC and college football functioned as a political and cultural force in Texas, shaping Texans鈥 perspectives on booster culture, higher education, and race.
Posted in Symposium 2026 on May 1, 2026.
