‘Carry the Rock’
Catholic High is leading Central 27-20 with just minutes left in the game.
The Rockets are driving toward another score when a long, wobbling pass takes flight into the dark autumn sky. I’m tracking it, watching it fall back to Earth when I see hands reach into that sky and clutch the football.
Cheers erupt into the night and I realize they’re coming from the opposing bleachers. An interception has placed the Tigers on their own one-yard line.
It’s 2007 and I’m a young principal standing on the visitors’ sideline at Quigley Stadium. Though I’ve watched thousands of athletic events in my career as an educator, I understand this is a game I’ll remember. Jay Jennings, a Catholic High graduate, makes sure I do.
Jennings is a former reporter for Sports Illustrated and editor at Tennis magazine. He’s contributed to The New York Times, Travel and Leisure, and was an editor at Oxford American. Lately, he’s known for editing a collection of Charles Portis’ works.
For me, I’ll always know Jay as the guy who wrote an excellent book that I’ve used as part textbook, part guide, titled “Carry the Rock.”
The backdrop is a football season. The theme is Little Rock’s struggle with a legacy of racial tension. Much has changed since Jennings wrote the book in 2010, but it remains an important chronicle of our city’s efforts to move forward in challenging times.
Jennings gets into the lives of the Central High players, describing that mix of teenage boy bravado and angst very well. Bernie Cox, the legendary Tigers coach, has a pivotal role as he becomes a study in integrity, perseverance, and grit. Assistant coaches make appearances, as do Little Rock notables who tie much of the city’s success to the school’s success.
Jennings handles all the moving pieces very well, but the book really shines when he turns his eye to Little Rock’s historical struggle with racial issues—from the lynching of John Carter in 1927 to the Central High Crisis in 1957 all the way to school board maneuvers in 2007. He describes civil rights attorney John Walker’s battles in the courtroom and he covers so much in between.
Today presents an opportunity to make sure this holiday— set aside to honor Dr. King’s uniquely vital contributions to the history of humankind—overflows with introspection. It’s the opportunity to explore and aspire to new understandings.
For Little Rock specifically, Jay Jennings provides an intriguing blueprint from which discussion, exploration, and aspiration can spring.
When I’ve used “Carry the Rock” as a textbook, my students have complained about only one thing: the ending. Central drives 99 yards in less than eight minutes and scores. The extra point sails through, thereby providing a comeback for the ages.
I stood on that sideline in 2007 understanding it was the 50th anniversary of Central High’s integration. Now those kids playing in that game are grown men, most in their 30s.
I wonder how they’d describe Little Rock today.
Steve Straessle is the Head of School at Little Rock Catholic High School for Boys. You can reach him at sstraessle@ lrchs.org. Find him on X, formerly Twitter: @steve_straessle. “Oh, Little Rock” appears every other Monday.