{"id":1706,"date":"2010-12-20T08:07:26","date_gmt":"2010-12-20T14:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/library\/"},"modified":"2012-03-07T13:17:10","modified_gmt":"2012-03-07T19:17:10","slug":"overstreet-cancels-football","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/archives\/history\/illustrated\/am\/overstreet-cancels-football\/","title":{"rendered":"President Overstreet Cancels Football, 1937-1939"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Columbia<\/a>

Columbia Stadium, site of Mulerider football in 1935-36, 1940-41, and 1945-48 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

(Excerpted from James F. Willis, Southern Arkansas University: The Mulerider School\u2019s Centennial History, 1909-2009<\/em>, pp. 143-45)<\/p>\n

While basketball prospered in the 1930s, Mulerider football did not. The great success of the 1929 team raised fan expectations and brought improvements in facilities, but neither more spirit nor more expenditure made a difference. Magnolia businessmen formed a nonprofit corporation to obtain New Deal assistance to build Columbia Stadium in 1935 to be the home field of both the high school and college teams. The lights\u2014twenty-four large reflectors\u2014that the high school and college had purchased for Smith Field in 1934 for their night games were moved to the new location on the west side of Magnolia about halfway to the college. Columbia Stadium was used for all home college games until after the Second World War.<\/p>\n

There was a concerted effort to promote campus and town support for the Muleriders. Instructor Harriet Key wrote a new Loyalty Song; a drill team of twenty-five girls decked out in blue and gold cowgirl costumes was established; and the band featured a high-stepping drum major, Harry Crumpler, the mayor\u2019s son. Crumpler on one occasion marched the band, cheerleaders, drill team, and entire student body, a parade 1,320 feet long, to the courthouse square for a huge Mulerider rally.<\/p>\n

\"Alma<\/a>

Alma Mater Loyalty Song for A&M, 1927-50 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Muleriders after 1929, however, had only one winning season over the next six years. That occurred in 1930 aided by players remaining from the championship team. The worst losing season was in 1936 with only one win and eight losses. Overstreet at the conclusion of that season decided to abandon Mulerider football. Many schools across the nation and several in Arkansas abolished football programs in the depression-plagued 1930s. Money was certainly a major factor in those decisions. Another issue was disillusionment with college football\u2019s increasing professionalism and loss of amateur innocence. A Carnegie Foundation report in 1929 had exposed lavish costs, systematic cheating, illegal recruiting, and subsidies for players. College football in Arkansas had these same problems although on a lesser scale. The North Central Association in 1932 withdrew Ouachita\u2019s accreditation due in part to \u201cunsatisfactory athletic relations,\u201d and the AIC [Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference] suspended Henderson State in 1934. Overstreet worried about such troubling episodes and certainly was aware of disparities in funding. He kept a tight rein on expenditures, spending an average of $4,202 on all athletics (not just football) from 1926 to 1936. In contrast, Magnolia\u2019s chief rival, the Monticello Boll Weevils, at times ran a deficit as high as $12,000 every year in football. Overstreet was also aware of a national trend among some colleges favoring more intramural and less intercollegiate competition.<\/p>\n

\"A&amp;M<\/a>

A&M Band Drum Major Harry Crumpler, 1933-34 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

He expressed these concerns when in March, six months before the terrible 1936 season began, he attempted to persuade the board of trustees to discontinue not only football but \u201call forms of intercollegiate sports.\u201d He declared that he was prejudiced in favor of it, but he was in \u201cdoubt whether intercollegiate athletics have contributed anything to the institution really worthwhile.\u201d He told the board there were four reasons for his recommendation: (1) winning was unlikely for A&M as a two-year school competing against four-year schools with more experienced players; (2) recruiting experienced players with money would violate rules and alienate A&M students; (3) some 90 percent of the $7 activity fee went to athletic programs, giving other students \u201cpractically nothing in return for their money\u201d; and (4) as for \u201cstudents taking part\u201d in athletics, \u201cI believe it has done the students more harm than good.\u201d In place of athletics, Overstreet urged establishment of \u201ca well-balanced intramural sports program for all our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board ignored Overstreet\u2019s recommendation but did address some of his concerns. It issued a \u201cstatement of Athletic Policy\u201d affirming that A&M would \u201cconduct all intercollegiate athletics according to the spirit and letter of rules and regulations\u201d of the AIC and \u201cthe policies of North Central\u201d and that the faculty athletic committee would monitor compliance. It also directed the athletic program to operate as other departments and for the faculty to grant no special favors to athletes.<\/p>\n

When the 1937 fall semester began, Overstreet essentially discontinued football. He told the board that \u201cthere were not enough boys reporting for practice to develop a team,\u201d and it acquiesced in his suspension of football for the year. Overstreet told a Bray<\/em> reporter later that there were sufficient players to field a team, but that they were not experienced or talented. He said, \u201cOur policy has been to adhere to the letter of conference rules. We cannot subsidize players. As a result football material did not come our way.\u201d Mulerider football did not resume until the fall of 1940 and then only at the board\u2019s initiative, not Overstreet\u2019s. In those years without football, a much more elaborate intramural program for men and women was instituted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n
\"A&amp;M<\/a>

A&M President Charles A. Overstreet in 1940 (Click photo to enlarge)<\/p><\/div><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Excerpted from James F. Willis, Southern Arkansas University: The Mulerider School\u2019s Centennial History, 1909-2009, pp. 143-45) While basketball prospered in the 1930s, Mulerider football did not. The great success of the 1929 team raised fan expectations and brought improvements in facilities, but neither more spirit nor more expenditure made a difference. Magnolia businessmen formed a… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":1724,"menu_order":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-1706","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1706\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.saumag.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}