Old news from the Arkansas Gazette
On a recent visit to the University of Arkansas library, I sorted through some issues of the Arkansas
Gazette from 1970. Before I knew it, I was perusing many items that had nothing to do with why I was there.
There were articles about a 1970 riot in the Cummins Unit of the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
The riot was fueled by the demands of inmates for segregated housing in the prison. State Police had to intervene.
In previous years, Cummins had already given Arkansas a bad name in the national media. Riots had taken place in 1966. In addition, bodies were unearthed at the prison under the suspicion that individuals had been murdered (but later forensic evidence demonstrated natural causes).
There was still evidence that atrocities had been committed at the prison. Corporal punishment with a strap was used quite liberally at Cummins up into the 1960s. Federal courts ruled that the Arkansas prison system was unconstitutional, guilty of cruel and unusual punishment. Reforms were ordered.
Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller wanted to make Arkansas prisons more humane and, during his tenure, efforts were made to provide better food, sanitation and medical treatment for inmates.
With all of that attention given to Arkansas prisons in the 1960s, it is understandable that one riot in 1970 would jar the recent memories of Arkansans and get statewide media attention.
In addition, the 1970 copies of the Gazette gave details of some sports related items (easier to stomach than the dark specter that hovered over Cummins).
A football game called The Big Shootout II, featuring the top-ranked Texas Longhorns and the fourthranked Arkansas Razorbacks, took place in Austin in early December and was the last game for both teams before bowl season.
It was expected to be a beauty since they battled it out with national championship implications on the line in The Great Shootout in Fayetteville the year before.
As a result, the rematch in Austin in 1970 was hyped to the max. Texas was 10-0 on the season and had won 29 in a row. Arkansas was 9-1, winners of nine straight games since an opening loss to Stanford in Little Rock.
The Big Shootout II, however, didn’t go well at all for Arkansas, as Texas had a dominating 42-7 win.
Reading some of the 1970 columns of Gazette sports editor Orville Henry was also very interesting. In one piece he wrote of former Razorback ball carrier Jim Lindsey and his role on the Minnesota Vikings.
Lindsey of course, was on the Razorbacks’ unbeaten national championship team of 1964 and later became the real estate icon that Northwest Arkansas knows well today.
In 1970, however, Lindsey was one of five running backs on the Viking squad
and Henry wrote of how the former Razorback shared running duties in the pros.
The Vikings had gone 12-2 in 1969 and later lost in Super Bowl IV to the Kansas City Chiefs. In 1970, when Henry wrote about Lindsey, the Vikings were finishing up another 12-2 season and hoping for another post-season run.
And speaking of Henry, readers of his columns know of his credentials. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture refers to him as “the best known newspaper sports writer in Arkansas history.”
He wrote for the Gazette (1942-1989); for the Arkansas Gazette (1989-1991); and for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (1991-1996). He was known for his coverage of Razorbacks football.
When I was a college freshman and a journalism major in the fall of 1980, one of our professors took a group of us on a tour of the Gazette offices in Little Rock and Henry walked in. Our professor knew him and said, “Hello Orville.” He introduced him to our group: “Orville Henry — Arkansas
Gazette sports editor.” I didn’t need the introduction, but as an 18-year-old, I was kind of in awe.
The Gazette pages also included a report on how the 1970 Arkansas State Indians completed an undefeated season in football. (They would do it again in 1975).
And finally, a political cartoon in the Gazette caught my eye, showing a logjam of moving vans with a caption stating “The Great Land Rush of the 1960s.” A sign on the van in the middle of the drawing said, “Californy, Texas, & Florida, or bust!”
No doubt about it, in the last 50 years the sun belt has seen a great population boom, but we can’t blame anyone for moving to warmer temperatures. It’s like they say, “You can make fun of the South if you want, but nobody ever retires and moves up North.”
David Wilson, EdD, of Springdale, is a writer, consultant and presenter, who grew up in Arkansas but worked 27 years in education in Missouri.You may e-mail him at dwnotes@hotmail.com. The opinions expressed are those of the author.