65 Years of Bryant Football

This year marks the 65th anniversary of football at Bryant High School and I had the opportunity to sit down once again with this amazing group of men to talk about the experience of starting the team that has now grown into a high profile team in the 7A conference.

Sixty-five years ago the first Bryant High School football team stepped onto the field to play their first game against Magnet Cove in 1949. The game was a disappointing loss of 38-0, but the group worked hard to have a football team and they were just glad to be playing. The first touchdown the team scored was against the Amity Lions. Donald Zuber (#34, tailback) threw a pass to John Farchman (#17, end) for the touchdown. Farchman remembers that game well. ““We had the Amity Lions beat but the clock ran out and we lost 51-6! We didn’t always know what we were doing, but we played hard.” The team’s first win would not come until the next season when the 1950 team beat Ouachita.

It was students Jack Davis and Ted Boswell who first had the desire to form a football team. The superintendent agreed to find a coach if the boys could raise enough money for uniforms. Many of them went door to door asking for donations, held pie suppers and solicited funds from local businesses to raise the money. Eventually the money was raised to buy the uniforms and Bryant basketball coach Leonard Rollins took on the responsibility of coaching the football team as well. The used uniforms they purchased were mostly blue with short white and orange stripes across the top of the shoulders and down the sleeves, even though Bryant school colors at the time were black and orange. The next year, new uniforms were purchased that were white with blue letters.

The 25 young men who joined the team didn’t have a practice field or a place to play the games. Practices were held after school at what is today Ashley Park and often lasted until dark. Floyd Ray, (#15, end) remembers how hard they worked. “We practiced after school Monday through Thursday. We dressed out in the locker room in the basketball gym and ran ¾ mile to the practice field across town, and then back to the school when practice was over. We scrimmaged against ourselves – it was like the inexperienced playing the inexperienced in sandlot football. We were only allowed to drink water from a hose after the practice was over. No Gatorade in those days.”

Players lived in areas as far away as Avilla, Salem and Sardis. Kenneth Davis (#12, running back) reminisces about his long walks home. “My father told me I could play football as long as I did my chores when I got home. So after practice, I’d walk about 12 miles home and then start milking cows, sometimes at 10 o’clock at night.”

For the first two years, every game for the Hornet team was an away game, so there was no home field advantage. A few people would go to the games to watch, but it was never more than 12. Many of those who came had never seen a football game before and Sherman Sossaman (#25, guard) added, “I’d never seen a football before we started playing.”

Jim Vandergrift (#29, wingback) joked about how he got to be part of the team. “I really wanted to be on the team but I was too small. The coach made me the manager and told me to go home and eat more beans. Within a couple of months, so many players had quit that there wasn’t enough to have a scrimmage so I was allowed to play. To this day, I think I got on the team as a blocking dummy.”

In those days every team member played offense and defense because there were so few players. When asked what position he played, Gene Brewer (#24, guard) laughs, “I played anything. We all played everything.”

It didn’t matter to that first team that the uniforms were donated and not the school colors, or that the shoes were used and the helmets were too big with no facemask. They just wanted to play football. That group of young men fought for the opportunity to play for their school and they accomplished something great together through hard work and sacrifice.

That was 65 years ago. Many years have passed and many Bryant Hornet football games have been played, but the team who started it all continues to be a band of brothers with an unbreakable bond that started with a common desire.

In 2009 when I first met with the group, there were 13 players remaining of the original team. Since that time, two players have passed away and the gentleman who took on the responsibility of leading the group of determined young men, Coach Leonard Rollins, died in February at the age of 88. There are 11 people now of the 1949-1950 team and those who can have been meeting for the last fifteen years.

The Korean War was in full force when these men graduated and all went on to serve our country in the armed forces, but according to Vandergrift, it was another era that also helped shape the character of these men. “The adults of the 1940’s were the greatest generation and we were the children of that generation. We all lived through those years where there was a national community and a common cause lifestyle. I believe this type of thinking built our desire to unite for football. In 1949, all of our desires came together at once in spite of the obstacles. We were united for a common goal; it’s what’s in your heart that unites you. You have to really want it.”

Although none of the team went on to play college ball, the lessons they learned by being a member of the first Bryant Hornet football team have lasted a lifetime. Lessons like “Play against all odds” (Floyd Ray); “You can lose a game without defeat” (Jim Vandergrift); “Good work ethics” (Bobby Samples, #23, right end and team captain); and “There were no stars but we were all heroes” (John Farchman).

It was Bryant’s 1999 Conference Championship that brought the ‘49er’s, as they have come to be known as, back together. The ’49 team took up a collection and presented the ’99 champions with a trophy to commemorate their achievement.

Shortly after that, the original team was asked by the Bryant Athletic Department to come up with a name for the Benton vs. Bryant game. According to Vandergrift, “The very idea of the Salt Bowl originated within this group. We thought it was a nice, congenial way to put the rivalry between Benton and Bryant into perspective.” The group met with then Bryant Athletic Director, Tom Farmer, and before you knew it, the Salt Bowl was in full swing although the group was never officially recognized as the originators.

Bryant is, however, recognizing outstanding athletes and athletic teams in the newly created Bryant High School Hall of Honor. The organization is led by a 20 member Board of Directors, with several subcommittees managing different aspects of operation. Each year, 8 athletes are inducted, 4 pre-1975 and 4 post-1975. Nominations, who are submitted by board members, have been submitted for the 2014-2015 year, with the hope that they will be recognized at 2014 Bryant homecoming. Nominees are evaluated primarily on athletic ability but civic involvement is also considered. Farchman represents the ‘49er’s on the board of directors.

What started as a team of 25 with used uniforms, no field, little support and a losing first season record, has grown into one of the state’s leading football programs and is part of the highest profile high school game in Arkansas – the Salt Bowl. The original team struggled, sacrificed and worked hard under tough conditions, but 65 years later, they will tell the 2014-2015 Bryant Hornets, “If it’s in your heart to win, you’ll succeed. You just have to want to.”

Thank you to the 1949-1950 team for your strength, perseverance and for leaving an amazing legacy that will continue for generations to come.