JACKIE SHULTZ
A runaway rumor that Texarkana College was dropping football from its athletic program recently prompted a meeting of the Bulldog Booster Club with the college Board of Regents and other interested persons. Statements by the college administrative officials bore out that it was just a rumor, although much concern was expressed over the continuously rising costs of the football program.
The group, consisting of about 50 persons, heard a report by Mark Soderquist, President of the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce, who headed a businessman’s committee that investigated junior college football at other schools and made a survey of the sentiment of local businessmen concerning football at Texarkana College. The extensive research of the committee carried all the way to Austin, Texas, where Mr. Soderquist met with Dr. C. C. Cluver, junior college consultant at the University of Texas.
Financial Problems
The findings of the committee revealed many problems around the financial problems facing a junior college in maintaining a football program. The football program in some of the junior colleges runs upward of $60,000 deficit per year. Last year, local football teams, including Del Mar junior colleges, dropped football for financial reasons. The recent Paris Junior College, which dropped football, was said to have a $57,000 deficit and declining student support. At Texarkana College, costs of the football program over the past seven years have shown deficits of these amounts: 1955 — $16,000; 1956 — $13,000; 1957 — $22,000; 1958 — $30,000; 1959 — $26,000; 1960 — $28,000; and 1961 — $26,000 (estimated). Notably, Texarkana College lost the most money in the best records and drew the biggest crowds.
Texarkana Wants TC Football
However, interviews with local businessmen showed that football for TC is still wanted. Most of them felt that football is a very important part of the college curriculum and should be continued if at all possible. Many of them felt that if football were to be dropped at TC it would tend to reflect that the school is becoming “second rate.”
John Dunn, president of the Bulldog Booster Club, stated the purpose of the meeting was to extend further financial aid to the football program and to scotch the rumors that football would be dropped at TC. He pointed out that college programs must be self-sustaining and that the college was awarded football scholarships.
Jim Evans, chairman of the Board of Regents, declared that any rumors of football being dropped at TC were entirely without grounds, and that the Board had never even discussed dropping football. He stated, however, that there was great concern over the financial problems of the football program.
Mr. Evans summed up the board’s feelings by saying, “We will keep football at Texarkana College as long as the people of Texarkana want it and support it.”
Gazette Statement Refuted
L. J. Aycock, local wholesaler and Booster Club member, declared “completely untrue” a statement appearing in the Texarkana Gazette which he stated “implies that Coach Fox blamed cuts in football scholarships for the record of the Bulldogs this season.” Aycock emphatically stated that he did not know of anyone who heard Coach Fox “alibing.”
Jim Evans stated that there had been no cuts in the number of football scholarships at TC, and that the college was awarding 25 fulltime football scholarships, the maximum allowed by the Texas Eastern Conference rules. He stated further that if the Booster Club sold 500 season basketball tickets there would be no cut in athletic scholarships next year. Fulltime basketball scholarships were discontinued earlier. However, boys who already have them promised will be allowed to receive them this year.
TC Recruiting Criticized
Mr. Aycock said that better and larger crowds would come to the Bulldog games if more boys in Texarkana and the outlying towns were recruited. He stated that Bulldog recruiting should be concentrated in the outlying towns such as Ashdown, DeKalb, Atlanta, Nashville, and New Boston. “People in these towns will flock to see players from their towns, where they don’t care too much about seeing boys from across the country.”
Former TC coach Kenneth Braden said that most of the recruiting by the college is carried on in this area. But he added, “Have you ever tried to recruit against the University of Arkansas? Every good football player in Arkansas wants to play at the U of A. This is not the case in Texas, though.”
TEC—Where Now?
Braden questioned the future of the Texas Eastern Conference now that Paris is out. C. C. Burrus, TC chemistry instructor and President of the TEC, answered that conference play will continue on the round-robin schedule as it did this year. He stated that the loss of Paris was “regrettable,” and added that this posed a problem to the TEC colleges because they are becoming isolated and travel is becoming an increasing expense to the schools, especially when they have to schedule new opponents who will undoubtedly be from another part of the state.
With the drop of Paris, only Texarkana, Tyler, Kilgore, and Henderson County remain in the conference. It is rumored that Navarro County and Wharton may seek to join the conference.
At any rate, football will be at TC for a while. Whether costs continue to rise and necessitate dropping of football at the college depends largely on the efforts of the fans of Texarkana College and the support they show for the Bulldogs.