The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate athletic conference founded on September 10, 1920, in Houston, Texas, with five historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as charter members. The conference is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, and is considered one of the premier HBCU conferences in the country. [1]
Design and History
The SWAC’s visual identity has centered on a star motif for decades. The earliest documented version, used from 1979 to 1982, featured the “SWAC Star” design at the center atop the shapes of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, with dots locating member institutions. [2]
When Alabama State joined the conference in 1982, the logo was updated. The 1982 to 2001 version kept the SWAC Star over the four state shapes, added the motto “The Super Eight” above the states, and placed the entire design on a red oval with a border labeled by each of the eight member institutions’ short names and team colors. [3]
From 2001 to 2020, the conference adopted a simpler lockup featuring a 3D star beside the “SWAC” abbreviation, with the full “SOUTHWESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE” name in red, black, and silver. [4]
In 2020, the conference updated its primary logo again. The current mark retains the 3D star beside the “SWAC” abbreviation in red, black, and silver, but both the star and the typography were altered in this revision. [5]
Meaning and Symbolism
The star has been the conference’s central symbol since at least 1979, when it appeared in the earliest documented logo. [2] The conference itself has not published an official explanation of the star’s meaning in the sources reviewed. The star’s persistence across every documented logo iteration since 1979, however, indicates it is the conference’s most enduring brand element. [5]
Typography and Design
The current logo pairs the 3D star with the “SWAC” abbreviation in red, black, and silver. The full conference name is not part of the primary lockup in the current version, which relies on the abbreviation for identification. [5] The 2001 to 2020 version, by contrast, included the full “SOUTHWESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE” wordmark beneath the star and abbreviation. [4]
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