UALR football receiving early study

LITTLE ROCK — After last fielding a squad in 1955, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is considering whether to add a football team and a marching band.

UALR announced Wednesday that it will join the city of Little Rock and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism in a feasibility study about the issue.

Chancellor Andrew Rogerson and UALR athletic director Chasse Conque have fielded questions about bringing back a football program since Rogerson joined the university last September. This spring, a group of students presented the chancellor with a petition bearing 1,000 signatures in favor of a football program.

Judging responses from other students, alumni, community members and business leaders, Rogerson said “an objective study seems like the right approach to determine if a football program and marching band would be a wise and meaningful addition to the university and our community.”

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola and Arkansas Parks and Tourish Director Kane Webb were among community leaders who favored a feasibility study. War Memorial Stadium offers what Webb termed “a natural, ideal home for the Trojans. The timing of this is good, too, as the stadium is currently undergoing an outside study of its own to help us best plan for the future.”

(The Arkansas Razorbacks’ contract to play at least one football game a year at War Memorial Stadium expires in 2018.)

Conque said the study should be completed in spring 2018. The university will use private funds from the athletic department for its share of the expense.

UALR has been a NCAA Division I member since the late 1970s and a Sun Belt Conference member since 1992. Along with Texas-Arlington, UALR is one two full member universities in the Sun Belt Conference without a football team.

The Trojans fielded a successful football team when UALR was Little Rock Junior College. UALR claimed the national junior-college championship in 1949 with a 25-19 victory over Santa Ana in the Junior Rose Bowl. The Trojans also played in the Little Sugar Bowl in 1948 and captured the Mississippi Valley Conference championship in 1954.