Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Sports rivalries are major source of entertainment in ’60s and ’70s
Seeing that horrible burnt orange all week leading up to the national championship brought back memories of the great rivalry that existed between Arkansas and Texas during the ’60s and ’70s.
During the days leading up to those games, students took turns running mile relays to deliver the game ball from Little Rock to Fayetteville, Orville Henry wrote page-long sports editorials on the coaches and players and the games were attended by presidents and broadcast nationally. Even churches got into the mix with the First Baptist Church of Fayetteville sporting a church sign stating, “Football is only a game, eternal things are spiritual, nevertheless, BEAT TEXAS.”
Those games were truly rivalries and those raised during that era still view Texas as the ultimate foe.
Not to be forgotten, during that same time period, were the great in-state rivalries that existed within the old Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference (AIC). The AIC was made up of five state colleges and five private colleges and sported some of the most intense and exciting sports found at the small college level. The schools were located within short driving distances of each other, they recruited the same kids and were similar in size and educational offerings.
Those in south Arkansas talk about the Battle of the Ravine between Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist, both located in Arkadelphia, but in my neck of the woods the real battle was between my alma mater Arkansas Tech and the University of Central Arkansas. Located less than an hour’s drive apart and both sporting exceptional football teams, both schools developed rabid fan bases that carried the competition to extremes.
The 1971 ATU team were runner-up national champions in the old National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and featured a running back from Fort Smith named Benny Shepard plus several other exceptional athletes. But UCA had an exceptional team as well.
Russellville was packed for the annual game and cars were parked all along the highway. A colleague, with whom I later taught, arrived just prior to game. He parked a good distance from the field and as he hiked toward the distant stadium sporting a purple UCA jacket when a car pulled up beside him. “Need a ride,” they asked? “Jump in, were going right by there.” They let him out at the bridge over the Arkansas River four miles down the road. “We said we were going by the field, no one said we were delivering a SCAB (the pet name for UCA’s prior title of State College of Arkansas Bears) to the game.”
That was minor compared to some of the shenanigans I observed and some that I heard about later as a student. It was a yearly occurrence to play the football game on a field featuring your opponents team colors painted in your end zone or the turf oiled and killed featuring your opponents’ initials. The purple bear statue on the UCA campus was 6 inches thicker than original due to the alternating layers of purple and green paint left by student vandals.
During my freshman year UCA students delivered a purple Buick to the Tech campus during the middle of the night. Removing all the wheels, it was left directly in front of the student center. Not to be outdone, ATU cheerleaders obtained several sledge hammers and allowed students to whack the car into pieces for a dollar a hit. Tech students heard a rumor that UCA was on the way to Tech that night and had a scout placed at Atkins who was supposed to be watching for a long line of cars coming up 65 highway from Conway. Unfortunately, he was unable to report the incident due to his visit to the emergency room. He climbed into a tree to better observe the highway, fell asleep and then fell from the tree breaking his arm.
During my sophomore year, students abducted the UCA student body president and kept him in a dorm at Tech for the week leading up to the annual game. Most of the incidents were just childish pranks supporting your team but, on occasions such as the one above, the various campus authorities had to remind students that we were neighbors and friends and would one day be working together at our various jobs.
In 1993, UCA moved from the AIC and NAIA and joined Division II NCAA. Henderson State soon followed and the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference ceased to be. Today, the rivalry no longer exists as UCA has moved to Division I-A athletics and most of the remaining conference members have joined with the smaller Oklahoma universities to form the Great American Conference.
My son and daughter-inlaw graduated from UCA, my stepdaughter loves the school and I enjoy the planetarium and science activities there. I guess I am going to have to give up my wishes for a good can of green spray paint every time I walk by the purple bear statue.
Curtis Varnell, Ph.D., is a longtime teacher in the area, the author of several books on local history, a regular columnist on that topic and the science and social studies coordinator for the Guy Fenter Education Service Cooperative at Branch. Email him at curtis.varnell@wscstarfish.com.