The Season of Justin and J.D.

            Among Fayetteville High School’s (FHS) many memorable sports teams, the 1961-62 basketball team must be rated as one of the best for both its talent and accomplishments.The team had a 27–2 record and did not lose a regularly scheduled game to a team in Arkansas. It was ranked first in the state during most of the basketball season. One of its players scored more points during the year than any other Bulldog basketball player had ever scored in a season. Another set a record for most points scored during his years playing for the FHS team.

            The 1961-62 basketball season belonged to Justin Daniel, who set the single season scoring record, and J.D. McConnell, who set the record for most career points by a Bulldog. These two tall, talented basketball players led a dominant team, backed by a good supporting cast of players, to the best season an FHS basketball team had ever had. 

Silk and Wool

            Both Justin and J.D. were extraordinary athletics, but in different ways. Though both were tall, J.D. was a finesse player with a smooth game built on deceptive, deadly passing skills, a classic jump shot, and elusive drives to the basket. J.D. glided up and down the court exerting little apparent effort.  With his head turned to the right, he would spot a teammate open on the left and hit him in stride for an easy layup or short jump shot.  His was a thinking man’s game, more the nuance of small moves than the bombast of slam dunks.  For him, the action was not only in front of him but also on the periphery of his vision, where a teammate might break free or an opponent become inattentive.  Then came a quick pass, a solid screen, or a sudden jump shot, usually with good results.  

            Besides his fluidity and uncanny passing, J.D. had one other huge advantage playing guard and, sometimes, forward.  He was usually much taller than the player guarding him, while just as quick. He was 6 feet 4½ inches in a league where guards rarely reached six feet and forwards were only a little taller.  When J.D. was at the guard position, it often seemed an adult was playing with kids.  

            Justin was not a finesse player.  If J.D. was silk, Justin was scratchy wool.  At 6 feet 4 inches, a little shorter than J.D., his job was in the middle with his back to the basket, getting rebounds and taking the ball to the basket with alacrity.  Yet, he also had, when needed, a delicate touch with his jump and hook shots.

            Justin typically was guarded by the opponent’s tallest player, so he rarely dominated his matchups with superior height -- many teams had centers as tall as him or taller.  Justin did his damage with a hard charging game of getting the basketball, whatever it required, and putting it into the basket, however it needed to be done.  

           Justin got his height early. I know because he was my cousin, who lived just a few blocks away, both of us within a half-block of Jefferson Elementary School.  Although he was four years older, I saw him often in my grade school years because I sometimes hung out with his brother Morris, who was only a year older than me.  I think I was in the third or fourth grade when Justin -- who was already tall -- had such a fast-growing spurt that, for a while, he found it difficult to do such basic tasks as bend over and tie his shoes.  

            During my first year in Little League (I was 9 and Justin was 12), he was a terrifying baseball player. He was by far the best player in the league and famous for how hard he pitched and for hitting eye-popping home runs at the Fayetteville City Park that not only left the field, but went over the street and hit a big apartment building a few hundred feet away. If you were a batter facing his fast ball, you went to the plate regretting that your mother had let play baseball so young. If you were a pitcher standing barely 40 feet away from this guy, you had to fear for your life.

            I learned much about how to play baseball from Justin, Morris, my cousin Jerry Durning (aka Monk, who was a very good catcher), and others who lived in the south part of town.  On Sundays during the school year, and almost any time during the summer, pickup games were formed on the lower field of Jefferson. Justin lived just a few steps from this field and usually was one of the people who picked the teams.

            In those games, which were great fun, we were scared about one thing in particular:   We feared that Justin would hit a ball about 350 feet over the trees in left field and break the picture window of the car repair shop across the street. If that happened, we would all be in big trouble.

            Later, for a couple of summers, Justin, Morris, Jerry and I (and others) played “sock ball” using the Jefferson building as a backstop.  I think Justin started game; I continued playing it years after he quit.  The first step in the game was to make the sock ball.  To do that, we cut open an old golf ball and extracted the little rubber ball in the middle.  Then we took old socks with holes in them and started wrapping them around the little ball.  With two or three socks properly wrapped around the little rubber ball, then sewn together, you had a baseball size “sock ball” with some heft, but also one that would not travel too far when hit or hurt too much if it hit you.  

            A strike zone was drawn in chalk on the side of the building and a batter’s box outlined on the asphalt.  Some rocks were set down around an imaginary infield to delineate where a ball, if passing there on the ground, would be a hit.  Otherwise, grounders were outs as was anything caught in the air.  A fence beckoned for home runs.  Other trajectories of hit balls were subject to prolonged, sometimes bitter, debate as to whether they were hits or outs.  

            The main thing to avoid in the game was hitting a hard line drive to the left of third base, which could bust a window.  Mr. Tincher, the Jefferson custodian, was a really nice guy, but he had to charge you 50 cents for a window replacement, and that was enough to buy a few visits to the Palace Theater.

            And so we played a schedule of round robin games, kept standings, and had fun for a summer or two, until Justin and Jerry outgrew sock ball and went on to organized sports.  I still traded baseball cards with Justin every once in a while, but once you get into high school you don’t want to mess around with kids.
            The year that Justin was terrorizing the Little Leagues, I was on the McIlroy Bank team with J.D.  I have a picture somewhere that proves it, but without that I would not remember it for sure.  The picture shows that J.D. was plenty tall when he was 12 years old.  With the age difference, we weren’t pals.

One Fine Team

            In addition to Justin and J.D., the 1961-62 FHS team had several very good athletics.  One of them was George Coppage, who excelled in football and was not afraid of contact on the basketball court. You could usually count on him to give you four good fouls a game.  He was listed in the program as 6’ 2’’.  I doubt he was quite that tall. (Coach Smith listed me as 6 feet 1½ inches three years later, which would have been true only if I had been measured standing on a very thick book.)  After he graduated, Coppage was signed by Frank Broyles to play football for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

            The team also had Freddie Rice, a junior who was listed at 6’ 7’’, taller than either Justin or J.D.  Freddie played forward because the center position was already occupied, and he had several high scoring games.  Though Freddie lacked some of the athletic ability of Justin and J.D., he was good enough to get a University of Arkansas basketball scholarship after he graduated in 1963.  He averaged over 14 points a game for freshman Razorback team and had a memorable game in which he broke the record for most points scored in a game by a UA freshman. He played a few games his sophomore year at UA, but did not return after that.

           The picture of the team shows one African-American player, Thomas Lackey.  I do not know if he played in any games during the season.  Likely, FHS’s Arkansas opponents had no black basketball players and, at this time, would not have taken too kindly to integrated teams. (That was still true in 1964-65 when we played against teams from segregated high schools in Hot Springs, El Dorado, Texarkana and other cities.)  Also, FHS likely would not have been able to play a black player in the Arkansas state tournament.  (In 1964, Robert Wilks and Louis Bryant were the first African-Americans to play in the Arkansas state basketball tournament.)  The schools in Missouri probably had African-American players during the 1961-62 school year, so Lackey may have played in some games against those teams

The Season 

            The season was one of streaks.  Fayetteville won its first fifteen games, lost its 16th in Missouri, then won twelve straight.  Early in the season, the team was ranked first in the state by the two major polls that did such rankings.  It stayed at number one through the end of the regular season.
            I attended a few of the games and listened to Wally Ingles broadcast many others. When FHS played at home, the gym was packed.  The action was inspiring for a fledgling basketball player like me.  Justin always looked confident, though often scowling; apparently he was frequently irritated at something or someone.  J.D. was always relaxed, moving around like he was taking a stroll between classes. (One thing that struck me about J.D.:  big feet. His shoes seemed twice as long as mine.)  Both Justin and J.S. had plenty of swagger on and off the court.

From FHS Yearbook. Justin is shooting, J.D. (42) and Coppage (back to camera)are running in to rebound.
I think No. 14 is Troy Steele and no. 40 is Freddie Rice

            One other FHS player that I particularly liked to watch was Troy Steele, a 5’ 10” (or smaller) guard who was quick and a hustler.  At least early in the season, he played quite a bit and seemed to energize the team.  Sadly for the team, he was no longer playing for F.H.S. at the end of the season and missed the state tournament. He had to leave the team because he got married during the season and was expelled from the high school.

            As I watched the two dominant players on the court, and thinking about it later, I often wondered how Justin and J.D. got along.  They had such different personalities (cool vs. intense) and backgrounds (north Fayetteville white collar vs. south Fayetteville blue collar), I doubted that they were inclined to be close friends.  I never found out if there were any conflicts between the two. I hope that they saw each other as good teammates and had healthy doses of mutual respect.  

            After winning the Ozark Conference and going undefeated in Arkansas, FHS traveled to Little Rock in early March to play in the state tournament.  I am sure that the team members and Coach Smith expected to win the state AA-AAA championship.

            FHS easily won its first two games.  The second game was against the Green County Tech Eagles, whom they beat 66 -59, though they did not shoot very well.  Their scoring for that game was:

Player              FG/FGA          FT/FTA            Rebounds       Fouls   Total Points

Rice                 5-13                 2-4                   17                    3          12
Coppage         3-9                   2-2                   3                      4          8
Daniel              6-12                 2-2                   10                    1          14
Faucette          3-6                   4-8                   5                      5          10
McConnell       4-10                 3-4                   10                    0          11
Backus            5-7                   1-2                   5                      2          9
Stuckey           0-2                   0-0                   2                      0          0
Adams             0-1                   0-0                   0                      2          0
Durham           1-1                   0-1                   2                      0          2
Allen                0-0                   0-0                   0                      1          0
TOTAL            26-61               14-23               62                    19        66

            The stats show that Freddie Rice had big game with 17 rebounds and 12 points.  Justin and J.D. had so-so nights for them, but Coppage, Faucette and Backus had joined with Freddie to make up the difference.  Coppage had his usual four fouls.

          The next game was the tournament semi-final game against North Little Rock, which had a 21–6 record.  Over 7,000 people showed up at Barton Coliseum to watch it.  The night was frustrating for the FHS Bulldogs.  Though NLR was smaller, it out rebounded the Bulldogs and, according to the Northwest Arkansas Times account, intercepted “seven key passes.”  Clearly, the team suffered from the loss of Troy Steele as a ball handler.

            Fayetteville lost the game by 59-54, but had chances at the end to pull out a win.  Ultimately, the game was decided by free throws.  FHS hit 10 of 15 free throws while NLR made 19 of 25.  In comparison, FHS made 22 baskets while NLR made 20.
          Both J.D. and Justin had big games, scoring 42 of FHS’s 54 points.  Unfortunately, the other FHS players were mostly shut out, unlike during the previous game.  Only four players scored points.  Here is the FHS box score for the game:

Player              FG/FGA          FT/FTA            Rebounds       Fouls   Total Points
Rice                 2-8                   2-2                   4                      2          6
Coppage         2-5                   2-2                   2                      4          6
Daniel              7-10                 4-8                   7                      2          18
Faucette          0-0                   0-0                   0                      2          0
McConnell       11-18               2-9                   9                      2          24
Backus            0-4                   0-0                   0                      2          0
Stuckey           0-1                   0-0                   1                      2          0
Durham           1-0                   0-0                   0                      0          0
Allen                0-0                   0-0                   0                      0          0
TOTAL            22-46               10-15               62                    16        54

            Though the season ended sadly for the FHS team, it still was a fabulous year.  This team had the best winning percentage in the history of FHS basketball team.  The next closest was a 28-3 record in 1947-48.  
            During the season, Justin scored more points (504) than had ever been scored in a season by an FHS player.  Also, J.D. set the record for the most career points scored by an FHS player (869).  Both were showered with honors, including all-district and all-state.  Both were selected to play in the Arkansas High School All Star game in August 1962.  

           
          
 Although Kentucky scouts had come to watch J.D. play, he (apparently, I don’t know for sure) did not receive a basketball scholarship offer from them.  According to the NWA Times, both Justin and J.D. received basketball scholarship offers from the University of Arkansas and some smaller schools.  Some people expected Justin to sign to play professional baseball.  
            Both accepted the UA basketball scholarships. They were joined at UA by two Arkansas players who also were in the 1962 Arkansas All-Star basketball game: Ricky Sugg of Berryville and Steve Rousseau of Dewitt, Arkansas. 

And After The Season
            Justin and J.D. played on the Razorback freshmen basketball team (the Shoats) during the 1962-3 season.  At the time, freshmen were not eligible to play varsity sports.  In a dozen games, J.D. scored 156 points, 13.1 points per game.  Justin scored 116 points, averaging less than ten a game.  He decided not to return for his sophomore year.

          One day, I think it was in late summer 1963, I got a call from Bubba McCord who told me that a baseball scout who was thinking about signing Justin to a pro contract wanted to see him in a tryout.  The guy asked if we would help him with it. I was needed to pitch to Justin and Bubba would catch.  Of course, I jumped at the chance.

            When we showed up at the fairgrounds, it was clear that I was much more nervous about Justin’s tryout than Justin, who seemed to be nonchalant about the whole affair.  Bubba and I did our best to impress the scout while Justin did his thing.  I tried to throw strikes so Justin could blast them, which he did.  Justin was sufficiently impressive:  he signed a professional contract with the Kansas City Royals.
            In 1964, at the age of 19, he played for Wytheville, VA in the Rookie League.  His stats are on-line:  he hit .288 in 212 at bats with seven doubles, 3 triples, and 4 home runs.  Not bad, but before the season was over, he was sent home.  The word was that he had an injury.
            During the next ten years, Justin was a top player in the Northwest Arkansas Industrial Basketball League and on Fayetteville semi-pro baseball teams.  In 1964-65, he averaged almost 30 points a game in basketball and in 1965 his baseball team, Ken’s Sporting Goods, won the semi-pro title with the benefit of his pitching and hitting (including two home runs in the final game).  In 1971, Justin was the MVP in the Arkansas semi-pro baseball tournament and his team, Farmers Insurance Group, won the state championship.  And on it went year after year.  
            At some point, I think it was in the early 1970s after I had left Fayetteville, Justin started a business dealing in baseball cards. This grew into a retail business selling sports cards and memorabilia, with a store, Justin’s Clubhouse, just off of College Avenue.  Justin ran the business until his death in 2006, at the age of 61.

J.D. and Freddie Rice as Sophomore Razorbacks, 1964

            J.D. had a good four seasons with the University of Arkansas basketball team.  His stats for the four years are as follows (from HogStats.com):   

                        GP   FG-FGA   Pct  FT-FTA   Pct  Reb  Avg   PF  Pts   Avg
1962-63+         12   69-156      .442  18-25   .720  131 10.9   23  156  13.1
1963-64           23   80-187      .428  19-33   .576  123  5.4    40  179   7.8
1964-65           22   99-227      .436  43-63   .683  153  7.0    44  241  11.0
1965-66           23  120-259     .463  37-46   .804  196  8.5    47  277  12.0
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                68 299-673      .444  99-142  .697  472  6.9  131  697  10.3
+ Stats on freshman team, not included in totals
           

             After graduating from UA, J.D. studied medicine and became an M.D.  When I was living in Little Rock in the 1970s, I would occasionally see him at the Y.M.C.A or at some city league basketball game. I do not know where he is now or what he is doing.  However, when I googled “J.D. McConnell” and Little Rock recently, I got a picture showing a tall, gray-haired guy with big feet hitting a drive at a Little Rock golf course. It was J.D. The picture’s caption was: “J.D. McConnell of Little Rock watches his tee shot on the first hole while playing a round of golf with friends on a spring-like day at War Memorial Park in midtown Little Rock, January 31, 2011.”  He retired and, the last I heard, was doing quite well.  

February 10, 2011 (updated, December 12, 2016)

Birch Bay, Washington

Dan.birchbay@gmail.com

My Ultimate Basketball Career Highlight: January 7, 1963

On January 7, 2013, I will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the all-time highlight of my career as a junior high (Hillcrest Junior High School) and senior high school (Fayetteville [Arkansas] High School) basketball player.

The setting was this: the B-team of the Fayetteville Bulldogs was playing in the finals of the West Fork Invitational Basketball Tournament against Cedarville (a "town" located somewhere in Arkansas, I think). We had won two previous games to make it to the finals. Teammates were Eddie Guinn, a high school junior, and Louis Bryant, Kenny Ramey, Bill Crook, Steve Slack, and Freddie Gabbard, all high school sophomores.

The West Fork gym was the typical small town gym that also served as an assembly meeting space and a place for plays, concerts, sermons, speeches, etc. On one side of the basketball court was a steep bank of bleachers for spectators; on the other side was a stage. Both team's benches were on the side with the stage because the bleachers (which were permanent, not sliding like at Fayetteville High School) were so close to the basketball court that there was no room for a team bench. As a result, our backs were to the stage where cute Cedarville cheerleaders were urging on their team. (The Bull Pup B-team had no cheerleaders, of course.)

As with any small gym crowded with people, it was hot that night. Mighty hot. We played a tight first half and were tied 28 to 28 at the half.

It was my night, and I was hitting everything that I shot, so during the second half, the Cedarville Needles (or whatever they were called) started guarding me very closely. A few minutes into the second half, the highlight of my career occurred, but first a little more background.

As I mentioned it was quite hot in the jammed West Fork gym. The play was all-out, up and down the court. Naturally, we were huffing and puffing and dripping sweat. That created a problem: the B-team wore hand-me-down uniforms whose shorts became translucent (some said close to transparent) when they got wet. (And the basketball shorts in 1963 were very short compared to the shorts now worn by basketball teams.) My mother pointed the problem out one night after a game, urging me to wear something underneath the basketball shorts other the customary athletic apparel. I laughed her off.

Of course, the thought that the mighty Bull Pups were running around 4/5ths naked was not on my mind as we started falling behind the Needles in the second half. Then came the play: I was on the wing and someone whipped an errant pass headed toward my feet. I bent over to catch the ball; at the same time a wild-eyed Needle crashed into me, knocking me to the floor.

Sitting on the floor in a puddle of sweat, I knew something was badly, tragically wrong. My behind could feel the floor with no translucent polyester cloth in between the two. The behind of my sopping wet shorts had split open. Maybe I should have taken my mother's advice. I was exposed to the world.

What to do? What to do?

The refs had called a foul on the guy who had plowed into me, and I was facing a one and one at the foul line. I sat watching as players moved to take their positions for the free throws. I had to get up. What to do?

I looked over at the coach. He hadn't noticed anything. He wasn't going to bail me out. I heard no laughter or screams from the crowd. So I did what I had to do. I stood up, walked to the free throw line, and with the hot gym air streaming into the ripped out bottom of my basketball shorts, with a red face and pounding heart, I MADE TWO FREE THROWS!

After that I ran over to the bench and pointed out the breech in my decorum to the coach and the laughing Needle cheerleaders behind him. A timeout and emergency exchange of pants (many thanks Freddie Gabbard) and I could return to the game, which we lost when the Cedarville punks started making all their shots.

In retrospect, I have been prouder of those two free throws, made in extremis, than any other thing I did on the basketball court (not that there were very many highlights to choose from).

Bull Hayes: Fayetteville's First African-American Football Hero

In the fall of 1957, Little Rock's Central High School was in the headlines throughout the world as a place of turmoil, even shame, as Governor Orval Faubus attempted to stop a few black kids from enrolling in that school. The Little Rock school crisis is well documented, but another civil rights episode occurring in Arkansas at the same time is less well known.

That year, in Fayetteville, the state had its first widely known African-American high school football hero. His name was William Lee Hayes, nicknamed Bull Hayes. He played fullback and kicked. His team, Fayetteville High School, had an outstanding football team that ended the year without losing a game, outscoring opponents by 269 points to 33. Bull Hayes was the best of several very good players that led the team to its undefeated season.

Hayes was born and raised in Fayetteville; he attended segregated schools from grades one through nine. According to researcher Andrew Brill, Hayes enrolled in FHS as a sophomore in 1955 and that year was "the first African-American athlete to play against whites at the high school level in Arkansas" (Brill, p. 56). Also that year, three of FHS's seven scheduled opponents (Fort Smith, Harrison, and Russellville) cancelled their games against the Bulldogs, refusing to play an integrated team. (See the article attached at the end of this post urging teams to refuse to play FHS because it had black players.)

Apparently, Hayes was academically ineligible to play football during his junior year, but during his senior year, in fall 1957, Hayes became a celebrity, at least regionally, for his powerful running. His achievements on the football field were the stuff of legend. Equally impressive was how well he fit into the team. Speaking years later, his teammates expressed deep affection for him. Jim Shreve, the team's all-district and all-state quarterback, told Fayetteville sports writer Grant Hall in a 1975 interview, "Everybody on the team just loved Bull. We kidded him all the time and he kidded us. There were never any racial problems at Fayetteville High, even though we were only the second school in the state, I think, to integrate." (Hall, 1975).

Another FHS player that year, Jim Bob Wheeler, told an interviewer, "One of the things that I remember about [Hayes] was his tremendous leg strength -- o my word -- that was the strongest human being that I ever knew. And yet he was a very gentle person and someone that wouldn't hurt a fly. (Adams and deBlack, p.133)

 

Bull Hayes was six feet tall and weighed 190 pounds, not particularly big for a fullback. But, as Wheeler said, he had powerful legs, plus quickness and speed, that made him an explosive runner. He was a constant threat to break through the line for a long run. When the opposing teams focused on stopping him, Shreve would fake handing the ball to him and reel off long runs. 

Shreve described the successful FHS offense:

We actually ran what amounted to a wishbone," remembered Shreve. "Bull lined up right behind me, and sometimes we'd just snap the ball through my legs right to him. He would be at full speed after one or two steps. We were never timed in the 40-yrd dash back them, But I'm sure he could have run a 4.5. (Hall, 1975).

Though "Bull" seemed an appropriate name for a hard-charging fullback, and it added some panache to his persona, the name was not conferred on him because of his smash ahead running ability.  According to Shreve:

"I first met him when we were both caddying at Fayetteville Country Club about 25 years ago," Shreve began. "Everybody called him "Bob" but I misunderstood and thought they were saying "Bull". So that's how he got his nickname. (Grant, 1975)

  

With an integrated team, FHS sometimes faced difficulty on road trips finding places to eat because some restaurants refused to serve black players. According to Brill, the team began packing lunches prepared by the high school cafeteria staff. Of course, Hayes would sometimes be singled out by opposing teams. Brill described the game in Harrison:

In 1957, after the Bulldogs had resumed playing Harrison, Fayetteville players riding the team bus through the Harrison town square saw a black dummy hanging from a tree and signs in store windows that read, ‘Beat Bull.’ During the game, Hayes was verbally abused by fans, but the night passed without major incident. (Brill, p. 56).

Rus Bradburd, in his book Forty Minutes of Hell: The Extraordinary Life of Nolan Richardson, described the situation in Harrison more colorfully:

Hayes had to deal with more than the usual high school hassles. When the Fayetteville team bused into Harrison for a game, an effigy of a black man was hanging from a tree in the town square. According to the Democrat-Gazette, Harrison star Don Branison said his team was told to stop Bull Hayes no matter what it took. "We tried to kill him...We tried to hurt him real bad," Branison said.

Fayetteville beat Harrison anyway. Branison was awarded a scholarship to the University of Arkansas the following year. (p. 130)

Despite such hostility, FHS and Bull Hayes prevailed for a perfect season. Hayes received a football scholarship to attend the University of Nebraska. According to Bardburd, "Hayes had offers from Oklahoma State and Tulsa, where Arkansas played regularly. To avoid the embarrassment of a local black player making them look bad, the Arkansas staff arranged a full ride to University of Nebraska for Bull Hayes. " (Bardburd, p. 130). Bradburd does not provide a source for this assertion. Of course, at the time, the University of Arkansas football team was segregated and would remain so for many years to come. 

Picture of William Hayes in the 1958 FHS Yearbook

Hayes had a good freshman year at the University of Nebraska, but had to leave the second year because of academic difficulties. He played football for two years at Joplin Junior College and finished his college career at Arkansas AM&N. He had a tryout with either the Cleveland Browns (Brill p. 56) or the St. Louis Cardinals football team (Grant, 1975), but did not make the team.

After his graduation from Arkansas AM&N, Hayes was hired to be executive director of the Boys Club in Topeka, and he held that position until his death, at the age of 36, on September 7, 1975.  

Like others African-Americans in Arkansas who were the first to break different color barriers, Bull Hayes was a pioneer. He was hero not only for his accomplishments on the football field that won the admiration of his teammates, schoolmates, and much of the population of Northwest Arkansas, but also for his role in the integration of high school sports in Arkansas.  In truth, thanks to him, 1957 was a very good year for the desegregation of Fayetteville schools, quite a contrast to the unseemly events in Little Rock.

Sources:

Adams, Julianne L. and Thomas DeBlack. Civil Obedience: An Oral History of School Desegration in Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1954-1965. University of Arkansas Press.

Bradburd, Rus. 2010. Forty Minutes of Hell: The Extraordinary Life of Nolan Richardson.  Amistad.

Brill, Andrew. 2006. Brown in Fayetteville: Peaceful Southern School Desegregation in 1954, The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Winter, VOL. LXV, NO. 4, pp. 55-58.

Fort Smith and Russellville Football Games Cancel [sic]. 1955. Arkansas Faith, p.17.

Hall, Grant. 1975. 'Bull' Hayes Remembered by Former FHS Teammate. Northwest Arkansas Times, Sept. 14.

Ivy, Darren. 2001. Integration Found ‘Bull’ on Front Line.  Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 30.

Ivy, Darren and Jeff Krupsaw. 2002. Untold stories: black sport heroes before integration. Wehco Pub. p. 107-109

The Amethyst, 1958 (Fayetteville High School Yearbook)

********************************************************************** 

Attachment from Arkansas Faith, published by Jim Johnston., November 1955

Life and Politics of Fayetteville's J.D. Eagle

Northwest Ark.Times, July 15, 1975

As soon as I was old enough to roam around by myself, I was a weekend denizen of the Fayetteville, Arkansas downtown square. I watched most Saturday double features at the Palace Theater, bought fountain cokes at the nearby F.W. Woolworth store, checked the bone structure of my feet in the x-ray machine at Lanier’s shoes, smelled the new tires at Oklahoma Tire and Supply, shopped for gifts at Penny’s, and listened to the latest 45’s at Guisingers Music.

Like any person who spent time on the Fayetteville square in the 50s and early 60s, I often ran into Mr. J. D. Eagle, who had his real estate office in the Craven Building. As I remember him, he was a grumpy, intense, white-haired man always neatly dressed in a suit from another era. He usually seemed distracted and in a hurry. During those years, he was well-known as a long-time realtor, active in civic affairs, who had a reputation for being a bit of an eccentric.

My dad told a story about J.D. Eagle, which, true or not, I found hilarious. One day my dad and a friend were standing and talking on a Fayetteville square sidewalk when J.D. Eagle rushed up to them in an agitated state. He angrily pointed to a car parked in front of them that apparently had been recently hit or scraped by another car, and he asked with an urgent voice, “Did either of you sons of bitches see the gentleman who hit my car?”

J.D. Eagle came to mind a few months ago when I bought at Dickson Street Books a reprint of an advertisement that he had written and paid to have published on June 4, 1954, in the Northwest Arkansas Times.  The advertisement was in the form of a long letter addressed "To the Reader -- whether observant or casual," and was entitled Re Segregation:  A Plea for States Rights and a Return to Local Self Government.  I have posted a copy of the reprint of this letter at the following website:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/55301224/J-D-Eagle-Fayetteville-Arkansas-Businessman-States-Rights-Advocate-and-Segregationist

The context of Eagle’s advertisement is crucial for understanding his motivation for publishing it.  On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court had issued the Brown v Board of Education of Topeka decision, which ruled that the segregation of schools was unconstitutional.  Five days later, on May 22, 1954, the Fayetteville Board of Education announced plans to integrate Fayetteville High School (it was more than ten years later before grade schools were integrated). The story of the peaceful school integration is told well by Andrew Brill in an article entitled “Brown in Fayetteville: Peaceful Southern School Desegregation in 1954,” published in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly (Winter 2006) and in a book Civil Obedience: An Oral History of School Desegregation in Fayetteville, Arkansas, edited by J. L. Adams and T. A. Black (University of Arkansas Press, 1994).

As an ardent states’ righter and segregationist, Eagle was adamantly opposed to both the Brown decision and Fayetteville’s action to quickly integrate its high school. It is clear that he published his letter to make his argument against forced integration.

Apparently, Eagle was one of few Fayettevillians who opposed the integration plans. According to Brill, the integration of Fayetteville High School did not encounter strong opposition from people living in the city, though others living in Southern Arkansas and elsewhere wrote to express their opposition. For example, a publication called Arkansas Faith, issued by Jim Johnson and the White Citizens Council of Arkansas” wrote:

As Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ for financial reasons, the Fayetteville, Arkansas, School District betrayed the South, and gave the same excuse as their reason for the integration of their school system. As a result of their integration this fall several negro [sic] students are members of the Fayetteville High School Football squad.  Rather than betray the South, the Fort Smith school and the Russellville School have cancelled football games with Fayetteville. (November 1955, p. 17)

Briefly summarized, Eagle's letter, written in a ornate nineteenth century style, is a plea against government interference in racial matters. He wrote, “The Government may make no law that contravenes the economic, social, or religious beliefs of the individual, whose conscious and his God must be the sole arbiters in such matters.” This assertion buttressed his argument that segregation should not be ended by the national government because, in many states, it is based on social beliefs of the majority of people in a state. His calmest argument was that segregation is a choice provided by the U.S. constitution and supported by local ways. He maintained that problems related to segregation would gradually be solved over time, just as -- he asserts -- slavery would have faded away if left alone.

His article veered into the demagogic when he wrote that opposition to segregation is used by the “agitator” and “do-gooder” to “sew seeds of discord and potential disruption.” He also suggested that efforts to end segregation were communistic:

Make no mistake, neither White, nor Negro, who thinks, is being misled by the Communist “line,” that in order to to defeat Communism you must ape its methods by wiping out all distinctions, whatsoever. Thus pursuing the same tactics which have proved so effect elsewhere in destroying Democracy -- “Divide and kill.”

The article ended with a plea for whites and blacks to unite -- while maintaining segregation -- to stand against the “alien elements, now crowding many of our large cities, the slums of which are bursting at the seams with the representatives of a myriad breeds, many with ideologies inimical to our form of government.”

When Eagle wrote this article he was about seventy years old and had been living in Fayetteville for around thirty years. He was born John D Eagle (the D is not an abbreviation) on April 5, 1885 in Bellefont, Arkansas (in Boone County, just down Highway 62 from Harrison). He was the son of J.B. and Mattie Walters Eagle. His uncle, James Phillip Eagle, had been an officer in the Confederate army and, after the Civil War, a farmer and Baptist minister; he served as Arkansas’ governor from 1889 to 1893.

In the first decade of the 20th century, J.D. Eagle attended the University of Arkansas, then returned to Bellefont, where he became a Realtor. The 1910 census showed that he was living in Bellefont with his parents, and a younger brother (Hugh D.) and older sister (Virginia C). Ten years later, the 1920 census listed him as still living with his parents in Bellefont, working in real estate. At some point when he was living in Bellefont, Eagle married a woman named Marie; they were divorced on December 2, 1925.

In 1925, J.D. Eagle moved to Fayetteville, where he started his own real estate firm. The 1930 census shows him living in Fayetteville, married to Mildred R. (she was 26 at the time; he was 44). They were divorced sometime in the 1930s, and Eagle married Ruth Myers. According to his WWII registration (undated, but likely completed in 1940), he and Ruth lived at 24 Duncan Street in Fayetteville and had telephone number 616.  They had a son, John Phillip, in February 1941.

Eagle had a long career in real estate; his advertisements starting appearing in the local newspapers soon after he arrived in Fayetteville and they continued nearly until his death in 1975. In 1974, he received a 50-year service citation from the Fayetteville Board of Realtors.

Northwest Arkansas Times, Oct. 22, 1948

A man with strong views, Eagle was also attracted to politics. In the 1940s, Eagle became actively involved in the Democratic Party and was elected in 1942 as Committeeman for the 1st Ward, a position he held for several year. In 1948, he bolted the Democratic Party to head the Washington County States’ Rights Democrat Party that had nominated Strom Thurman and Fielding Wright for President and Vice-President. This party was strongly pro-segregation and anti-civil rights.

Eagle’s name appears as “Temporary Chairman” on two large display advertisements published by the “Washington County States’ Rights Democrats” in the Northwest Arkansas Times.  The first ad, dated October 22, 1948,  was headed in large letters, “THIS is the last FIGHT for STATES’ RIGHTS and your way of life as you know and like it.”  It provided a form to complete and return with a contribution to the presidential campaign.

The second ad, dated November 1, 1948, proclaimed, “Thurman-Wright are the ONLY hope of Southern Men and Women,” and stated the party’s opposition to legislation that would end the poll tax, prohibit lynching, promote the intermingling of the races, and end racial discrimination in hiring.

Northwest Arkansas Times, Nov. 1, 1948

The Thurman-Wright ticket got about thirteen percent of the votes cast by Fayetteville residents, coming in third behind Truman, who received about 46% of the vote and Dewey, who got nearly 40%. Statewide, Thurman-Wright garnered 16.5% of the votes for presidential candidates, and Truman received Arkansas’ electoral votes after getting 61.7% of the popular vote.

Although Eagle continued to be associated with the States’ Rights Party for a couple of years after the 1948 election, I can find no newspaper or magazine articles that indicate that he again was publicly active in electoral politics.

During his fifty years in Fayetteville, Eagle was engaged in many civic organizations in the city; for example, he was a Rotarian for 48 years.  Also, he was a long-time member of the local chamber of commerce.  His wife, Ruth, was energetically involved in different music, arts, and social groups in Fayetteville over a long span of time. For over three decades, she played the viola and violin at many of the city’s musical events. Both J.D. and Ruth Eagle were active members of the First Baptist Church.

J. D. Eagle died on July 14, 1975.  He was 90 years old.

From Fayetteville to Wikipedia: David Mullins, Jr

Looking through a large pile of old clippings, I found a picture of the 1960-1961 Hillcrest Junior High (Fayetteville, Arkansas) basketball team, and one face in the picture surprised me.  It was David Mullins, son of the man who was at the time president of the University of Arkansas.

In this picture, David is in the back row, fourth from the right, standing between Ronnie Cole and Jim Nail.  The picture was taken after the Hillcrest team had won the annual Northwest Arkansas Junior High Invitational Basketball Tournament.

I didn't remember that David was on that team, though I recalled that he attended Hillcrest. He was in the class before mine.

David spent some time at Fayetteville High School (FHS).  We sat next to each other one year in Mrs. Andrews' Latin class.  I think -- but am not sure -- that David had attended a private school in the East for some years, but returned to finish up at FHS.  Anyway, I recall that he kept me amused with his drollery, and I tried to do the same for him.  Mrs. Andrews was a hoot, but the subject matter was, literally -- and I literally mean literally -- dead.

David got a Ph.D. from MIT and taught at the Harvard Business School.  He was an assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Bush-the-First years.  In about 1986 or 1987, one of my public policy students at Duke University had an internship at the Treasury Department and did some very enjoyable work for him.  In 1990, he was appointed to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

I recall reading somewhere that at Harvard David was famed for writing all of his lecture notes in a spiral, with tiny letters, on a small scrap of paper.

Among his former classmates at Hillcrest and FHS, David has distinguished himself by having his very own Wikipedia entry.  See:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_W._Mullins,_Jr.

David's career is proof that a good jump shot is not a requirement for success as an economist.