History of the SCAC

History of the SCAC

The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) was founded and began operation on September 1, 1962, as the College Athletic Conference (CAC). The league's first primary mark is pictured on the left.

Centre College of Danville, Kentucky; Southwestern at Memphis (Tennessee) (now known as Rhodes College); The University of the South of Sewanee, Tennessee; and Washington and Lee University of Lexington, Virginia, were the four charter members of the conference. Later in 1962, Washington University of St. Louis, Missouri, became the fifth member and the CAC remained unchanged until 1972. 

Following membership changes throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the conference went through restructuring and renaming. With the addition of Millsaps College of Jackson, Mississippi, and Trinity University of San Antonio, Texas, in 1988 and Hendrix College of Conway, Arkanasas, and Oglethorpe University of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1991, membership reached a then all-time high of eight.

That same year (1991), the conference renamed itself the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, hired its first full-time commissioner - Stephen P. Argo - and a permanent conference office was established in Atlanta, Georgia. As part of restructuring, the league also adopted its current primary mark (pictured right) and adopted blue (pms 287) and gold (pms 131) as the official colors of the conference.

Membership changes continued throughout the '90s. The SCAC added Southwestern University of Georgetown, Texas, in 1993 with participation beginning in the 1994-95 academic year. In 1997-98, the SCAC added both DePauw University of Greencastle, Indiana, and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology of Terre Haute, Ind., with participation beginning in 1998-99.

As part of a year-long celebration in 2005-06, the league celebrated its 15th anniversary as the restructured SCAC. The league adopted a special anniversary logo (pictured left) and as part of the celebration, 15th anniversary teams were selected for all conference sponsored sports.

After Rose-Hulman announced its intentions to leave the conference, Austin College of Sherman, Texas and Colorado College of Colorado Springs, Colorado, were confirmed as the 10th and 11th members of the league in 2006 with participation beginning in the 2006-07 academic year.

Birmingham-Southern College of Birmingham, Alabama, a former member of the Division I Big South Conference, was approved as the 12th member of the SCAC and began play in 2007-08.

On the national athletics stage, the SCAC has had its fair share of success - both in terms of team championships (five) and individual championships (16).

In the days when the league was known at the College Athletic Conference, Chris Trapp of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology won the men's javelin at the NCAA Outdoor Track Field national championships three straight years (1984-1986).

Nao Kinoshita of Rhodes College won the 1996 Division III women's tennis singles title, capturing the first individual national title in the SCAC era. Kinoshita also won the 1997 singles title and combined with Taylor Tarver to capture the '97 doubles title. Ryan Loftus of Rose-Hulman captured the men's pole vault title at the 1998 Indoor Track & Field championships. Heather Stone of University of the South-Sewanee claimed both the women's indoor and outdoor 1,500 meter titles in 2000. And later that same season, the league claimed its first team national championships as Trinity University won both the men's and women's tennis titles. In the winter of 2003, Matt Smith of Rose-Hulman won the 100 yard breaststroke at the Division III men's national swimming championships, and Trinity captured the women's basketball championship - all in the same weekend. In 2003, the Trinity men's soccer team gave the league title #4, and the DePauw women's basketball team became the fifth team from the conference to win a national championship when it captured the 2006-07 Division III title. Trinity's Christyn Schumann won the women's high jump at three consecutive NCAA Outdoor Track & Field national championships (2004-06), and Liz Bondi of DePauw captured the 16th individual national championship won by a CAC/SCAC student-athlete when she won the 2007 women's tennis singles title.

A bell, donated by the Norfolk and Western Railway, was adopted as the SCAC's "President's Trophy" and serves as the symbol for the conference. The President's Trophy is displayed for one year on the campus of the school with the combined men's and women's athletics program that accumulates the highest points total in the all-sports race established by the conference. The bell is awarded at the conclusion of the spring season.