Southwestern is a member of the NCAA Division III
Southern Collegiate
Athletic Conference. The school mascot is the pirate. Southwestern has not played
football since the late 1940's, after the program fizzled following World War II. During the war years of 1944 and 1945 and the
Navy's V-12 program based at Southwestern, the Pirates won the Sun Bowl in El Paso, TX.Southwestern hosts several national social fraternities and sororities, including the fraternities Pi Kappa Alpha, Phi Delta Theta, Kappa Sigma, and Kappa Alpha,
along with sororities Alpha Delta Pi, Delta Delta Delta, Alpha Xi Delta, and
Zeta Tau Alpha. Over the past
couple decades, the Greek dominance of social life has been phased out, with fewer than a third of campus belonging to the social
Greek organizations, especially following the four year suspension of the Kappa Alpha order on campus. There are also over 100
student organizations on campus, from political to special interest groups. The school also hosts chapters of several academic
honor organizations, including Alpha
Chi, and Phi Beta Kappa. The national co-ed service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega also has a
chapter.