 Nicknamed the "Airplane Conference," the five former PCC schools would have played with other major academically-oriented schools, including Army, Navy, Air Force, Notre Dame, Pitt, Penn State, and Syracuse.The effort fell through when a Pentagon official vetoed the idea and the service academies backed out.On July 1, 1959, the new Athletic Association of Western Universities was launched, with California, UCLA, USC, and Washington as the four charter members.