The SMU Mustangs is the name of the athletic teams representing Southern Methodist University. The Mustangs participate in the NCAA's Division I (FBS for football) as a member of Conference USA. In 2005, SMU accepted an invitation to the Western Division of Conference USA, and left the Western Athletic Conference. From 1918 to 1996, the Mustangs were a member of the Southwest Conference, until it formally disbanded. The Mustangs faced off against the UCF Knights in the 2010 C-USA championship, losing to them, 17–7. The Mustangs will join the Big East Conference in 2013.

1911 • SMU was founded

1915 • In June, Ray Morrison became the school’s football, baseball, basketball and track coach, as well as a math instructor. Morrison came to be known as the father of the forward pass” because of his use of the pass on first and second downs instead of as a last resort. • First year of varsity football – team was nicknamed “The Parsons” because primarily of theological students • SMU won its first football game, 13–2, over Hendrix College.

Ernest Dale Tubb (February 9, 1914 – September 6, 1984), nicknamed the Texas Troubadour, was an American singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of country music. His biggest career hit song, "Walking the Floor Over You" (1941), marked the rise of the honky tonk style of music. In 1948, he was the first singer to record a hit version of "Blue Christmas", a song more commonly associated with Elvis Presley and his mid-1950s version. Another well-known Tubb hit was "Waltz Across Texas" (1965), which became one of his most requested songs and is often used in dance halls throughout Texas during waltz lessons. Tubb recorded duets with the then up-and-coming Loretta Lynn in the early 1960s, including their hit "Sweet Thang". Tubb is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Tubb was born on a cotton farm near Crisp, in Ellis County, Texas (now a ghost town). His father was a sharecropper, so Tubb spent his youth working on farms throughout the state. He was inspired by Jimmie Rodgers and spent his spare time learning to sing, yodel, and play the guitar. At age 19 he took a job as a singer on San Antonio radio station KONO-AM. The pay was low so Tubb also dug ditches for the Works Progress Administration and then clerked at a drug store. In 1939 he moved to San Angelo, Texas and was hired to do a 15-minute afternoon live show on radio station KGKL-AM. He drove a beer delivery truck in order to support himself during this time, and during World War II he wrote and recorded a song titled "Beautiful San Angelo".