Pioneer Conference (junior college)

The Pioneer Conference, also called the Pioneer Athletic Conference and the Pioneer Junior College Conference, was a junior college athletic conference with member schools located in Texas and Oklahoma that operated from 1950 to 1961. The conference was formed on December 20, 1949, at a meeting in Brownwood, Texas, by representatives of its four charter members: Arlington State College—now known as the University of Texas at Arlington, San Angelo College—now known as Angelo State University, Schreiner Institute—now known as Schreiner University, and Tarleton State College—now known as Tarleton State University. W. C. "Heinie" Weir, the dean of men at Schreiner, was elected the conference's first president.^[1] Ranger Junior College—now known as Ranger College—joined the Pioneer Conference in 1951.^[2] The conference expanded to six members in 1957 with addition of Cameron State Agricultural College—now known as Cameron University.^[3]

In 1958, the Pioneer Conference absorbed four schools from the disbanded Longhorn Conference: Del Mar College, Kilgore College, Victoria College, and Wharton County Junior College.^[4] Soon after joining the conference, Kilgore dropped out and moved to newly-formed Texas Eastern Conference.^[5] The same year, Ranger left the conference for the incipient Texas Junior College Conference.^[6] Arlington State left the Pioneer Conference in 1959 when the school became a four-year college.^[7] Cameron left in 1960 and returned to the Oklahoma Junior College Conference.^[8] The Pioneer Conference disbanded in 1961. The league's final competition was a track meet held on April 29 of that year, in Stephenville, Texas.^[9]