USC Conference History

USC Conference Champions

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

USC’s first competition in track and field was in 1893, the first annual field day meet of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SCIAA). It can be debated whether or not this governing body be considered a ‘conference,’ so for our purposes here we will choose to recognize this association as a conference. Member schools were Chaffey, Occidental, Pomona, and USC. Also at this same time (1893) the Intercollegiate Football Association of Southern California (IFASC) was formed and member schools were USC, Occidental, Throop Institute (Cal Tech), and Chaffey.

There’s still some missing details (confusion??) as to where Track&Field fits into these associations. The IFASC is considered the forerunner of the SCIAC yet there’s no information about the status of the SCIAA. We know the SCIAA conducted a field day meet from 1893 to 1898 (no meet was held in 1899 because of a disagreement between Pomona College and USC), but after 1899 it is difficult to follow the complete status of the SCIAA’s governance in track and field as it garnered little mention in the news of the time.

In 1915 the IFASC would become the SCIAC, but nothing is mentioned about the SCIAA. To add to this mystery, USC competes in the SCIAC conference meet on 5/9/1915 against Whittier, Pomona, Redlands and Occidental. All SCIAC teams.

We’ve also discovered USC’s participation in the Pacific Coast Conference Meet (1912 to 1915) which is prior to the PCC being officially founded and prior to USC’s membership in the PCC. 

PACIFIC COAST CONFERENCE

The Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) was founded in Portland, Ore in 1915. The original membership consisted of four schools – the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, and Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University). All are still charter members of the Conference.

Pacific Coast Conference competition would begin in 1916 with Washington State College (now Washington State University) and Stanford University joining the conference in 1917 and 1918 respectively.

In 1922, the PCC expanded to eight teams with the admission of USC and the University of Idaho. In 1924, the University of Montana joined the league roster, and in 1928, the PCC grew to 10 members with the addition of UCLA.

The Pacific Coast Conference competed as a 10-member league until 1950 when Montana resigned from the Conference. The PCC would continue as a nine-team Conference through 1958. (World War II curtailed intercollegiate athletic competition to a minimum from 1943-45)

In 1959, the PCC was dissolved and the Athletic Association of Western Universities was formed. The original AAWU members were California, Stanford, USC, UCLA and Washington (colloquially called the Big Five). Washington State joined the membership in 1962 (now the Big Six). Oregon and Oregon State joined in 1964. Unofficially calling itself the Pacific Athletic Conference (or PAC-8), the AAWU formally renamed itself the Pacific-8 Conference (PAC-8) in 1968.

In 1978, University of Arizona and Arizona State University were admitted to the league becoming the Pacific-10 Conference (PAC-10). In 1986-87, the league expanded to include 10 women’s sports.

In June of 2010, the Pac-10 became the Pac-12 with the addition of the University of Colorado and the University of Utah.

Women's Track & Field

In 1974, women’s T&F would join the SCWIAC˚ (Southern California Women’s Intercollegiate Athletic Conference). Member schools were Cal. St. LA, Cal. St. Northridge, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly SLO, Cal. St. Fullerton, Long Beach St., Redlands, San Diego St., UCLA. USC would be in this conference for 3 years until it would moved into the WCAA in 1976.

In 1976-77, conference affiliation for the women changed with the founding of the Western Collegiate Athletic Association˚ (WCAA). Charter members were Arizona, Arizona State, Cal. St. Fullerton, Long Beach State, San Diego State, UCLA, and USC. (Stanford joined in 1982)

This conference functioned until 1985 when it was renamed the Pacific West˚ (PacWest) Conference for a final academic year (1985–86). In the summer of 1986, the PacWest and the Northern Pacific Conferences were retired and united and brought into the PAC-10 when the PAC-10 added women’s sports to the conference.

˚ - (these women's conference results are included with the PAC results below)

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