By CHRIS BABB | Special to arkadelphian.com
In 2017, Southern Bancorp agreed to sponsor a banner hanging below the bleachers on the visitors’ side at Badger Stadium that served a few purposes: to add a nice welcome to the stadium for fans on the home side, to cover up the visible part of the ground under the visitor’s bleachers and provide a good opportunity for the bank to get in front of a lot of eyeballs in the community.
Southern Bancorp was kind enough to renew that sponsorship once again this summer and provide a new banner to replace the existing one that had been damaged by weather and natural wear and tear.
APSD Athletic Director Jason Jones decided the new banner would be a good place to recognize all of the state championships that the Badger football team has won. The banner would serve as a weekly reminder of the years of success Badger fans have seen and a source of pride for those who were a part of those historic teams when they come back to Badger Stadium for a game.
The banner has definitely been noticed by fans.
The state championships are listed in chronological order, recognizing the state championships for the Badger football team – or are they?
Yes, they are.
Questions have been asked about the years listed on the banner: ’15, ’79, ’87, ’17, ’18, ‘24
Some fans have thought that there’s just a typo and, since it probably cost a lot of money, the “powers that be” just decided to leave it on there and ignore it.
Some fans thought that an error was made when the year 2015 made it onto the banner – not only that it was out of order, but that it just shouldn’t have been on there in the first place.
Indeed the Badgers did not win a state championship in 2015. That season was, however, the first time the Badgers made the state semifinals since the state championship season of 1987.
Neither of those thoughts are true.
The banner is correct, but it’s no wonder that people have scratched their heads when seeing the banner. The ’15 on the banner refers to 1915. None of us were here to remember it. Jeff Root wasn’t even calling Badger games on KDEL back then. For that matter, there wasn’t even a KDEL radio station in Arkadelphia for another 64 years.
Jones had heard that there was a state championship that Arkadelphia won in the early 1900s, thanks to some research done several years ago by former head football coach J.R. Eldridge and yours truly when serving the district as the Athletic Director.
Jones researched newspaper archives through the Library of Congress website and came across the November 29, 1915, issue of “The Prescott Daily News” that mentioned the Arkadelphia football team’s success that season.
The paper mentioned that the Badgers were “…not only undefeated, but unscored on during the season” and that Arkadelphia’s head coach issued a challenge “… to meet either Little Rock or Pine Bluff high at almost any place and any time” but no replies had been received.
From the issue: “With the State high school football championship in doubt, Arkadelphia High School would welcome an opportunity to meet either Little Rock or Pine Bluff.”
The challenge was never accepted and Coach Mace and the Badgers finished their championship season undefeated and unscored upon.
Before questioning if the state title is just “claimed”, readers must remember that for a big part of the 1900s, official championships oftentimes were awarded despite no official tournament or playoff-type situation in college football for many years.
In 1951, multiple college teams claimed a national championship because there was no single determining factor like we have now with the College Football Playoff. Fans in their 40s and 50s will remember when there was no semblance of a playoff and it was just a post-season poll after the bowl games that determined who the national championship was.
Razorback fans from the 1960s will remember the controversy surrounding the 1964 national championship selection. Alabama was awarded national championship distinction because the winner was selected before the post-season bowl games, After defeating Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl, Arkansas was the only undefeated team and therefore was labeled National Champions by several national organizations.
Just this past summer, Auburn University claimed four football national titles from the early 1900s because of similar reasons.
The Arkansas Activities Association that currently is the state association that conducts the championships in the state of Arkansas wasn’t around in 1915.
It makes sense that 1915 counts as a state championship for the Badgers.
So, just think: the next time you’re at Badger Stadium this season – and you only have a few opportunities remaining with this Friday vs. Ashdown and Senior Night on November 7 vs. Malvern being the only guaranteed games left at home – you’re not only cheering the Badgers on their way to what they hope will be another year they can add to the banner in the future. You’re also celebrating the 110th anniversary of the first state championship Badger team of 1915.
Little Rock and Pine Bluff didn’t step up to meet the challenge, so you can’t blame Coach Mace and the Badgers for calling themselves the best in the state.
We think it makes a pretty good story, regardless. Happy 110th anniversary to the 1915 state champion Arkadelphia Badgers.
Dollars for Dierks
Our neighbors about an hour to the west need our help – and there are a million reasons you should click the link at the end of this portion of the column and help them out.
Dierks High School is in the final stages of trying to win the top prize of $1 million (yes, that’s the number with six zeroes) to renovate the school’s football field as a part of T-Mobile’s Friday Night 5G Lights competition.
Dierks is one of 25 finalists nationwide and the only school in Arkansas still left in the race.
And because of that, thousands from around the state of Arkansas have joined in the competition to help the Outlaws. It even reaches to celebrities who have lent their support to the cause in the way of videos on social media. Notable people in the world of entertainment and sports such as Jeff Foxworthy, Jon Gruden, Houston Nutt and many, many others have tried to drum up support for the town as it tries to stay ahead of the competition. If you have a Facebook account, you can see many other videos of support on the Dierks High School Facebook page.
As of the writing of this column on Tuesday night, Dierks is currently in first place with 1,410,575 votes. Lebanon (OR) High School is currently in second place with 1,117,155 votes.
If you would like to support the Outlaws and register your vote, visit this link and enter your e-mail address.
The contest ends this Friday, October 24.
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