Benton Athletics Memorial Museum Wall of Fame

We all have our own unique talents, an aptitude for subjects and topics of interest. Spending just five minutes with Donnie Burks, executive director of the Benton Athletics Memorial Museum (BAMM), you have no problem spotting one of his key talents: Benton sports history.

The 65-year-old is 1967 graduate of Benton High School, but even today, he’s as entrenched in the school district’s growth and progress as he was when walked its halls.

“It all started for me by accident,” Burks remembers. “I was helping a friend of mine who did the [Benton] Panther radio show every Friday night. I had the idea of doing the ‘Benton Panther Football Flashback.’”

Burks says he got the idea from a segment delivered by legendary broadcaster, Howard Cosell, during ABC’s “Monday Night Football.”

“I started collecting newspaper clippings from old seasons and came up with the ‘Flashback,’” he said. “I would write the story about something from a past season and read it at halftime. It got bigger and bigger from there.”

From that segment, Burks’ responsibilities grew with the establishment of the BAMM under a former football and track coach familiar with the school’s storied past.

“The idea came around in 1994 with former Panthers head coach Tom Hardin,” Burks said. “People in the business community were sitting around with him talking about the ‘good old days’ of Benton High School football.” From that conversation sprang the museum, and almost immediately, the “artifacts” of years gone by began rolling in.

“We started getting all of these trophies from the school,” he said. “Then people started donating their old football jackets, cheerleader uniforms, band uniforms and everything high school related.”

From there, Burks began tracing the history of the school dating back to 1906, or as he puts it, “dating back to when God created dirt.” But that history wasn’t confined only to athletics. “Coach Hardin wanted it to encompass the entire School District, he said. “We have a history for every superintendent to the Benton School District, every principal of Benton High School, even the Benton School Board.”

But in time, Burks and Coach Hardin saw that something was missing. What about those standout athletes, students, teachers and staff who’d made such a contribution to Benton Schools and to their community? How can they be remembered? Burks said the answer to that question was easy. They needed there own wall.

“Our first Wall of Fame Banquet took place in 1996,” he said. “We inducted the first 15 people. When our next banquet happens in 2015, that will mark the 20th anniversary for the Wall.”

In those 20 years, a lot has changed for Burks. When the BAMM first started, he served on its Board of Directors. However, at the prompting of Coach Hardin in 2007, he became the executive director. Coach Tom Hardin passed away that same year.

Since beginning the Wall of Fame, Burks says the BAMM has also welcomed in more than 90 men and women who forever left their marks on Benton Schools. There’s even a special section honoring Benton Panther alum and Major League pitcher Cliff Lee, though he’s not done with athletics just yet.

“About half of those men and women will come back to the Wall of Fame Banquet just to see who shows up and who’s going in that year. It’s a great reunion. They all want to come home to see what’s going on.”

Easily the largest group ever inducted took place in 2013 when the BAMM welcomed in the 1977 State Football Champions. “They all received a certificate, and we had Pink Panthers all over the museum,” Burks said. “We designed a plaque commemorating the entire team as one inductee.”

If you’re curious about the Pink Panther reference, don’t worry. Burks has the story behind that. “Bryant came over in 1974 and painted our black panther pink in front of the high school,” he laughed.  “Benton took it and ran with it. We had two mascots: A black and pink panther to keep both sides happy. They ran with the pink panther through 1999 and have brought it back recently.”

While honoring the heroes of yesteryear is certainly a great treat for Burks and the BAMM, the Wall of Fame and its annual banquet also serves another, even bigger purpose.

“It helps us raise money to for scholarships to students graduating high school,” he said. “For the past several years, we’ve been giving out three $1,000 scholarships. We raise that money with the help of three corporate sponsors and group sponsors who help each year.” Think of it as celebrating the past while investing in the future at the same time.

The Benton Athletics Memorial Museum is located on the Benton High School campus and is open Sundays from 11:30am – 3:30pm
and Tuesdays 7pm – 8:30pm.