Saturdays In Jonesboro
Saturdays in Jonesboro is the definitive pulse of Arkansas State Athletics, led by the "Voice of the Red Wolves," Matt Stolz. The series blends Matt’s veteran play-by-play insight with an all-access look at the traditions and red-turf grit that define the program. By humanizing the athletes and the game-week grind, we transform passive spectators into an active community with a true stake in the A-State legacy.
Saturdays In Jonesboro
From Kays Field To Centennial Bank Stadium With Robert Speer
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An undefeated 11-0 team with no bowl invite sounds impossible now, but Arkansas State lived it, and the echoes still shape how we talk about fairness, money, and recognition in college football. We’re joined by Jonesboro native and A-State Hall of Honor defensive end Robert Speer, a walking historian with stories that stretch from the 1960s to today’s Red Wolves era.
We go back to the roots: growing up around A-State coaches, falling in love with the program before ever wearing a uniform, and navigating a recruiting world that relied on landlines, persistence, and personal pressure. Robert also relives a legendary Arkansas high school football moment, a seven-quarter state championship played in freezing rain and mud, and then brings us onto campus for the final season at Kays Field, where students walked in, the stands shook, and game day traditions included the Indian family ceremonies and a horse sprinting the track after touchdowns.
From there, the conversation opens up into the Louisiana Tech rivalry, the grassroots effort that built what fans now know as Centennial Bank Stadium, and the blueprint behind the dominant 1975 Arkansas State football season. We also talk about the history that can disappear if nobody records it, including the experiences of early Black athletes at A-State, and why those voices deserve time, respect, and urgency.
If you care about Arkansas State Red Wolves football, Sun Belt Conference history, stadium traditions, or the human side of college athletics, hit subscribe, share this with an A-State fan, and leave a review. What’s one Arkansas State story you think needs to be recorded before it’s gone? @Arkansasstatemedianetwork.com.
0:00 Welcome and Why Robert Matters
2:21 Kays Field Life and Old Traditions
4:43 Recruiting Stories and a Muddy Classic
13:21 Centennial Stadium is Born
15:21 Louisiana Tech Rivalry and Hard-Nosed Era
25:46 The 1975 Team That Went 11-0
33:50 No Bowl Invite and Saving History
46:07 Helping Today’s Athletes Thrive
Welcome And Why Robert Matters
SPEAKER_00And we welcome you into Saturdays in Jonesboro. I'm Matt Stilts, and glad you're with us for our third episode of this brand new podcast. Really excited to be providing a new look at A State football, A-state athletics in general. So many things to talk about. And the purpose of this podcast is to just show every angle what's happening on the field, off the field, everybody that has a hand in game day, past, present. We're talking to all sorts of people as we go along here, and we've had some great guests already. But we're joined today by somebody that I've grown very close to in my time at Arkansas State, somebody that is a member of the Hall of Honor here at A-State. He's a Jonesboro native, a four-year starter at defensive end for the then Indians back in the mid-70s, three-time All-Stafflin conference election, big part of that undefeated 1975 team. We're going to talk a lot about that team today. That team, by the way, just celebrated their 50th anniversary this past year. And he's also as good of a historian when it comes to A-state football and just Arkansas State and Jonesboro in general as anybody I know. Robert Speer, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_03Well, thank you so much, Matt. Uh you know, everything you're saying about me, I guess the title means I'm just old. I've been around a long time. It's uh I mean it's experience history with age.
SPEAKER_00It's really neat just hearing some of the stories that you've been able to tell me over the years. And I know you like to stop and talk to everybody that you meet and and kind of get to know about them, but I want people to get to know your story, those who haven't heard it before. And one thing about you is it's not like you grew this love for Arkansas State once you set foot on campus. You grew up here in Jonesboro and you were introduced to Arkansas State at an early age.
SPEAKER_03Oh, you're correct. You know, my dad was a state trooper, and we were transferred from uh Monticella to Jonesboro in 1965, and I was so fortunate that they bought a house in the neighborhood with a lot of a lot of kids. And one of my neighbors, five houses up, was uh coach Bull Davidson, Bill Davidson, and he was offensive line coach at here at the university at that time. And so I mean, from day one, you know, his kids were in the neighborhood. We played, his uh his daughter Sharon and his son Billy Gene. And we were up there at his house. So I got to see all those legendary football players back in the 60s come to his house. And they were, you know, they were just huge men back then. You know, I was 10 years old and they were 18 and 19.
SPEAKER_00They were your heroes, right?
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. And and so, of course, went to all the football games. Uh my dad would work days football games there at the OK Stadium on campus. And uh, you know, it meant a lot more that you knew some of these players by seeing them over coaches' house, especially the offensive linemen who were just huge back then. And most of them might have weighed 200 pounds back then compared to 300 and something now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the offensive linemen have grown over the years.
SPEAKER_03Oh, oh, exactly. You know, I don't know if they're as athletic, but it's a different ball game back then. You know, that that type of game was um a whole different and it's hard to compare teams when you go from one era to another, but yeah, that that especially that 1970 team that was undefeated that Coach Davidson was a big part of, and Biddy Eller was a coach. And oh, I mean, I could go through the whole starting list right now of players, you know, that year. They were just they were just heroes. And I continued knowing them over the years.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That's the thing. You you got to know them then and have remained in contact with so many over the years, but you were a great player at Jonesboro High School, and I know there were several schools, several opportunities for you coming out of high school. And I know Arkansas was one of those schools that was after you, but I know your heart was with Arkansas State. Can you kind of go back to making that decision? Was it even a decision at all?
SPEAKER_03Oh, it was a hard decision. I mean, no, I never drank the Kool-Aid from being a Razorback. You know, I wasn't one of those, my parents were not a lifetime hog fan like so many fans in Arkansas were back in, especially back in the 60s and 70s, when these other schools didn't get hardly any publicity. It was always one-sided, you know, in the papers and news coverage of that, with Orwell Henry, and of course, and Frank Brolles and all that, that, those people. But yes, I was very fortunate that Jones were able to play on a great team and a lot of great athletes. And, you know, we played that historical game my senior year, which was seven full quarters in the state championship against Hot Springs. Ended at midnight at a seven or a 14-14 tie after seven full quarters. I'm talking about seven full quarters. So if we'd had one one quarter, it'd been two full games to play. Wow. You know, and the rain was about freezing rain, 25 degrees, muddy field, and it and they finally caught it midnight. And you never want to end a game in a tie, especially a championship game. But they did it looking back for everybody's health. I mean, we were going to get some people hurt because it was just it it was just terrible, terrible conditions. I I don't guess I've ever played. If you can imagine going out there with a fire hose and watering down a a cow pasture and trying to play football on us about what it was like. Man. It was I mean, if you got tackled, your face was four inches in the mud.
SPEAKER_00How many sacks did you have that night?
SPEAKER_03Oh, not enough. Maybe if I had one more, maybe there wouldn't have been a touchdown pass. Yeah, Hot Springs was a good team, and you know, they threw the ball, they threw the heck out of the ball. And I don't know how they caught it so much that night with the conditions. But usually in muddy games, the receivers
Recruiting Stories And A Muddy Classic
SPEAKER_03have the they know what route they're going, and the quarterback knows what route they're going. And so usually they have the advantage on that when they make their cuts. Uh, and we were running game, so it was totally two different games. Um, they probably should have beat us, they missed some field goals that in regular conditions would have been the easy, easy field goals for them, but they missed them, and the rest is history. But I like I said, I was fortunate to be recruited by several schools. I told my parents I would stay within driving distance. You know, I wasn't uh I'm a homeboy. You know, I like my family, I like Jones where I like being around all my friends. I never had stars in my eyes, and it was a very intense uh recruiting time back then. You you can have to imagine um coaches calling you. I mean, they'd they would find out who your girlfriend was. Because you didn't have cell phones back then, so they'd find out who your girlfriends were, and you'd be over at your girlfriend's house and they'd hunt you down over there. And they'd talk to the girlfriends and offer them like, oh, you can come to school with them, we'll take care of you, we'll get you a job, and and all that. And and it it was a fun time. I feel sorry for these kids nowadays. I mean, they just get worn out electronically. And I'm sure some of them like it, but it can be distracting. And I I could see part of that nowadays, you know, how that's done, and it's a whole different ballgame, as you say.
SPEAKER_00You end up coming to Arkansas State, and I guess the first year you were here, you played one season at Kays Field, right? That's right. So Kays Field. People who have been around A State and A State football for a while, they still only know Centennial Bank Stadium, which used to be known as Indian Stadium, but you played in both, and you played in the final year of Kays Field. That's right. So tell us what that was like.
SPEAKER_03Well, Kays Field was a great, great stadium on campus. It probably held 7,500 people. If you're familiar with uh Arkansas State, I call it the PE Complex, they call it the Hyper Uh And that's where the stands were, where that building is sitting where the stands were. In the parking lot beside it was actually the football field. And it was a great, great field. It had a cinder track around it. And what was so unique about those days, all the students would walk across campus and go right to the stadium. So you didn't have to worry about parking or anything. Everybody could walk to the campus and it had nice crowds, real nice crowds. You know, there wasn't as many distractions uh in those days as there is now. Uh you have to realize back in the 70s, uh gas prices soared to maybe a dollar a gallon, and people couldn't afford to go home because the gas is so high. And so it was really uh I mean that's the truth. And you know, gas was rationed a lot of times back then. Each gas station would get so many gallons, and that once they used it, it was over with. So, you know, kids stayed around and really took part, and if you wanted to meet somebody, you went to the games. And what was so unique about that stadium was uh the dress room was underneath the metal stands on uh of course on the home side, and and you'd be in that dress room and you could hear them start stomping their feet and rattling that that and Coach Davidson, all five foot seven of them, and probably 250 pounds on a good day, you know, would jump up on a locker and just say, listen to that, they're ready, they're ready for us. And you know, he'd run out the run out of there and just the horse had a horse, you know, they'd run around the track and just such a great atmosphere.
SPEAKER_00So, okay, tell us about that. So there was actually a horse that would run around the stadium. Was this like a pregame routine?
SPEAKER_03Well, pregame routine, you know. He'd if you if you watch the Florida State game nowadays, that Indian go out there and throw the spear in the middle of the field like he Florida State still does, we'd do the same thing. Then the brave and the princess and the chief would all walk out there and they'd have a TP set up in the north end zone, a real TP, and just a lot of a lot of great ceremony back then.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you had the whole Indian family. That's right. And I remember the retirement ceremony. We actually had a retirement ceremony for the Indian family at a basketball game back in 2008. That was, and we had a huge crowd that night, but it was emotional for a lot of people because that was such a big part of Arkansas State and uh such a great tradition just having that Indian family on campus.
SPEAKER_03You know, being 18, 19 years old then, I did not appreciate the culture of the Indian heritage as much as I do now, as you read and get smarter in your older ages. But find out that uh they got approval from real Indians how to wear the uniforms, they were authentic, they weren't just something that you and I'd make up in a whole met class. I mean, they really paid tribute to that heritage of the Indians. And and I'll can't I'm sorry, I can't remember what tribe was big around here at that time with I don't know if it's Cherokees or you know, whoever, but yeah. I I don't like to know where that stuff's at now. Those uniforms. You think it's just a museum?
SPEAKER_00I bet we can track that down somewhere.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I was fortunate uh a good friend of mine, Dean Massey, here in Jonesboro, was uh was one of the Braves. And and and it was really unique talking to him later on in life, how much training he did to learn the dances to go along with the music. And and how he wore his uh war paint and yeah, it took a while to get ready, I'm sure. It sure did, it sure did. And of course the princess is always a pretty, you know, and the brave, you know, he had a hard job, Matt, because he'd get on that horse and run around that track. And you imagine riding a a horse full gallop after a touchdown around there, and it was a few times that he was thrown off that roof, or that roof, that horse, right, onto a cinder track. And I guess that's the reason they wear those things on their legs, uh, whatever they call them, to protect your legs or whatever.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, you probably need to wear pads to go out there and do that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and you know, my first game at K Stadium, we played Abilene Christian, of course, is in September, and the score ended up being 56 to 46. So those that can't count, that's seven touchdowns that we scored
Kays Field Life And Old Traditions
SPEAKER_03in the summertime, and that horse, he wasn't running as fast at the end of the game as he was the first game. I bet he was. They bought ran that horse together and it was so great. And what's so odd about that game, Matt, is it had a quarterback named Steve Burks who ran for all touchdowns, seven rushing touchdowns, which is a record to this day.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't know if that's gonna get broken.
SPEAKER_03But I mean, how would you how would you like to call those games, Matt? Everything's a rushing play. How exciting was that to call? When you maybe threw the ball eight times a game.
SPEAKER_00You know, seven of those were probably incomplete.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. One thing about it is the games went fast when you're running. Right. They will go fast. You know, they were over in less than two hours. I mean, they were you didn't have all the TV timeouts, but but that stadium was so unique, and and I was blessed to play, and we were seven and three that year. Uh, of course, that pu-puh team from Brushton, Louisiana beat us as always. You know, I'm so glad they're getting back in our conference so we can maybe get some revenge on their on their bulldog butts.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I know there's a lot of people that are excited about them coming into the league. And I I don't want to spend too much time here, but but I think it's worth talking about, you know, that Louisiana Tech, there was a great rivalry there. And now they're joining the Sunbelt Conference, and we'll we'll actually be going there in November to play in Rustin against Louisiana Tech. And and this is something that you know, folks like you that understand the rivalry are excited about that.
SPEAKER_03Excited. You know, as soon as that news came out, I sent out to all my old teammates from those teams back in the 70s, and they were they still have so much despise for them. You know, I I don't want to use hated, you know. But I guess we did. Because every year we were fighting for a championship. But, you know, we they beat us there. And then the last game against Texas Arlington, we had a heck of a fight in the North End zone. I mean, it was one of those bench clearing fights of both teams came out there because we held them from scoring and got a safety and and some words were exchanged, and Texas Arlington at that time probably recruited maybe out of some uh or at least accused them as recruiting out of maybe some Texas correctional facilities or jails down there. You know, but they were big beards and you know, had tattoos on them. They were some big men, it seemed like, but yeah, we had a fight there at the end of the game, and Coach Davison gets on the locker room, and you know, just a famous saying that you've heard me say for not only do we kick their butts on the scoreboard, we kicked their butts in a fight, now I'll let us go to Roy's and drink beer all night. And Roy was a you know, a little social club up a paragol that people went up there and uh gathered and for fellowship after for fellowship, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well uh you know, you gotta understand back in the day, and it really wasn't that long ago when you couldn't fellowship quite like that in Jonesboro. Now everywhere you go, it seems, pretty much every restaurant in town you can do that. But back then you you had to go to Green County to do that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, or or down in Poinset County, you know, there's some place down there called the Study Hall that we'd have study hall stuff on Thursday night, wink wink. Or maybe it was called the library too. You know, but but but that was all about team building, you know. We were sure we were safe and responsible when uh when driving back, you know, had people that drove us. We were careful we had to get back for curfew, but yeah, I mean I could talk, you know, for days and days about about the history here, uh celebrating the all the wins and losses here. I I mean I've seen the best teams, I've seen the worst teams. I've been around all the coaches, you know, since Biddy Ellender back in the 70s, and you know, I can say I pretty well had a personal relationship with every one of them.
SPEAKER_00I I do want to kind of backtrack here a little bit. We talked about you playing in the final season of K's Field. So this brand new stadium was being built for your second year on campus and and playing Ace at A-State. So this is 1974.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_00So tell us about the excitement of the new stadium. And I know you you know a lot of the history of just how it was built.
SPEAKER_03Well, if you go to the stadium today, there's a there's a plaque with a bunch of names on it underneath the I call it the press book side, press box side, the home side. And there's people that were given $100, $50. It was a grassroot thing. And and that stadium was all built. I give all the credit to, of course, uh Don Floyd, who was a athletic director at that time. You know, he had a vision and he had the support of uh a lot of community leaders here and they went out and raised the money locally for that. You know, there wasn't any big grants or donations. It was all grassroots, kind of like standing at intersection with a boot, you know, collecting money from people. You know, uh I know I take great pride to see my parents' name there where they donated. I'm not sure how much they donated, but when you're making five thousand dollars a year, each of them, yeah, you know, a hundred dollars was probably like two thousand nowadays, if I was an economist and could figure that up. But uh, and going through there and just seeing all the people I knew uh, and still know some of them. A lot so many of them passed away. But yeah, we moved in that stadium and they're so unique. They're we were to play Southwest Louisiana first game of the season down there, and we flew down there and a hurricane came in, and that game got postponed, and that's a whole hour segment there just about getting out of town on that. First time I ever saw a bunch of raising cajun crazy people acting when they're throwing furniture in the pools and raising these silly looking flags, I didn't know what they meant, which were hurricane flags, and and they boarded up the when you say southwest Louisiana, you gotta let the younger folks know.
SPEAKER_00That's that's what we refer to now, where they refer to themselves as Louisiana, but Louisiana Lafayette. Yeah, that's right. Raging Cajun, so we'll go with that. Well, that's what I normally say, the Cajuns.
SPEAKER_03So we went through that period where we'd moved our stuff from K Stadium, our lockers over to our double wide trailers. So we had a it was a nice locker room at K Stadium, you know, really it was. So we moved to double wide trailers that Johnny Allison had donated over in a football field that hadn't completed. And so that game gets rained out or postponed. Then we come back and we got three weeks. So we already gone through practice, summer practice, and and fall practice. So we practiced about 10 weeks for our first game. And of course, our first game in the stadium was against Louisiana Tech. And what'd those jerks do? They beat us in our grand opening. They could have been nice enough to they could have. You know, they should have, you know, when you're having your grand opening. That just added to the rivalry, I'm sure. Exactly. They they kicked us, and and uh my good friend Stan Winfrey, Mule from Ford City, uh scored the first touchdown in the stadium. That's a good trivia question there. You know, who I think it's in the media guide. Uh, but yeah, losing out tech, they were they were a good team. They had a lot of great players, and it's always fun playing against them. Got to be friends with some of them later on.
SPEAKER_00And uh now what was the capacity back then?
SPEAKER_03Oh, about 15,000.
SPEAKER_00So fifteen thousand. We doubled. We we've doubled since then. Yeah, and of course, so much has been added over the years through the renovations, and it it's amazing. Now, and I know you get to see it just like me everywhere we go. And I'd put our stadium now with everything that's been done up against any stadium on our level in the group of five.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I agree. And you know, you and I have Oh, I I'd hate to count how many we've been to. We should sometime, how many different ones we've been to, but it's all kinds. Sure. All kinds. And in ours right now, the way it sits now, is just as good as anything. Our dress room, visitors' dress room, is too good for our visitors. I mean, when you go to places like well. Well, it's the old home like a trip. That's right. That's right. You know, we go to these places now, and it might have one shower head in there, you know, for the whole team or one bathroom for the whole team to use. And, you know, ventilation is terrible, and you gotta have the people get dressed and have to go outside because there's not enough room in these locker rooms, and ours is really nice comparable to uh to uh Coastal Carolina. I mean, coaches have to put chairs out there. They can sit in their chairs outside the locker room and get dressed and reach over and get a beer and a hot dog if they wanted to from the consensus stand. Uh I don't know if you ever noticed that. Yeah, that's one part of the stadium I haven't seen. Yeah, I mean, it just is terrible. Uh, but yeah, even a lot of big stadiums, you know, the SEC stadium stuff, they don't treat the visitors very well. And they shouldn't. You know, it should be a home field advantage.
SPEAKER_00Well, one thing that the Indians back then and now the Red Wolves do is they went at home a lot, though. So there's a lot of pride in playing at Centennial Bank Stadium.
SPEAKER_03You know, Benny Elender was such a unique guy. Uh he always reminded me kind of a Tom Landry type coach. He had his hat on, you know, that he wore and always wore a you know a coat and a tie, and that's what coaches did back then. They wore a coat and ties. They had coached in on the sideline, which is unheard of nowadays.
SPEAKER_00You just don't see it. Nobody does that.
SPEAKER_03And, you know, I don't know if you ever thought about that, but they didn't have a headset. He didn't wear a headset. Right. You know, they just had that sheet of paper, and you know, he had a couple headsets, but it wasn't very many. Uh, and the game was completely different. Uh communication for all head coaches is very important, and I've got to see some.
SPEAKER_00Or anymore, everybody's got an iPad on the sidelines, and they're watching that during during breaks.
SPEAKER_03But I think the strongest part about Benny Elneur, he had a group of uh assistant coaches, Bulldozen, Bill Templeton, and uh I could just go on list of of stuff and they were loyal to him and they recruited so strongly regional in the state of Arkansas. They took the kids that maybe they might have been bypassed by that other school and brought them in here, and everybody got redshirted
Louisiana Tech Rivalry And Hardnosed Era
SPEAKER_03back then. You know, if you're a freshman, I was fortunate to play. There's about four freshmen that got to play that year, but everybody else was red shirted. So it was always not like today, we're one year and out. I don't want to talk about that, but you know, guys stayed and was loyal to the program forever and still are. But um it was it was I was blessed. I still am blessed that I'm around. I'm I'm blessed that my family and my wife lets me do it. I'm blessed that ASU lets me do it, and and I enjoy every day of it.
SPEAKER_00Uh and I want to get into today a little bit later on and what what all you're doing as far as still being very much involved with football and athletics, but uh I do want to spend a few minutes talking about the undefeated season, 1975. Yes, a team that went 11-0. We just had a great celebration last year with the 50th anniversary, and I know there were several things done that recognized that team, but you know, there were so many things, and I've heard from you over the years just about some of the things that made that group so special. But you were part of a defense that was just as loaded as any defense that this school has ever had. And we've had some good ones, especially in the last 15 years or so. But you, Jerry Muckensturm, Roy Painter, Jimmy Litzko, Mike Malham, Dan Mullen, Roy Painter, I mean, this is um uh a group of some of the best players that that ever played at Arkansas State. And you guys were together, and kind of to give folks an idea of just how dominant you were, you gave up an average of just over seven points a game.
SPEAKER_03They thought that was too much.
SPEAKER_00Three shutouts in 11 games that season, and the most you gave up in one game was 17. So talk about that side of the ball and just being a part of that group.
SPEAKER_03Well, you know, we had a great defensive coordinator, you know, Mike Malham. Uh he was a legendary coach in the Little Rock area at Catholic High and McClellan. And, you know, and all that staff in Bill and Benny Ellender's team that 11-0, and they all most of them, I guess probably half of them or three-fourths of them left with him and went to Tulane. And so there's an opening for a bunch of coaches to come in. And so Coach Mount was, like I said, was a legendary coach and and he he came up here and uh brought a lot of central Arkansas players with him, which ASU has never really had a great success recruiting out of that area, but with with Coach Mount Ham on the on the staff, we got a lot of those. And he was he was an ex-marine. Uh very, very strict, very strict, very team oriented. I think that a lot of that came from his military background. And he was such a unique person, so intense. Then you had Parker Dykes, who came in from Mississippi, and he was a defense line coach. Then you had Clinton Gore, who was a player at Arkansas State, who's a defensive back coach. Can you imagine only having three defensive coaches?
SPEAKER_00Not anymore, no.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, three defensive coaches. But only three. No, about every player has their own personal coach, a gradual assistant coach. Uh they were great. And I could go through the whole list of players. And out of starting 11, you know, we only had like two, Muckensturm and uh Terry Kinsworthy that were out of state. Everybody else was from Arkansas, which was just amazing. You know, you had Lisco from down there at Hazen, Lone Oak area. Then, of course, you had Eddie Morgan from West Memphis, had Sylvester Loving, who's from Little Rock McClellan, one of Coach Malham's players, and Bill Music. They swapped out there at Nose Guard. Then you had Dickie Dixon from the big, big city of Magna Cove outside of Hot Springs. Then, you know, uh myself being from Jonesboro, then Mal and Mike, Mickey Malham coming with his dad from McClellan. Of course, Muck, you know, followed in his brother's footsteps coming here from the St. Louis area, Illinois area, then Hedroy Painter, who's from England, still thinks he's the fastest guy that ever came from England. But David Gunn, coach David Gunn always said, no, I was faster than Roy. And uh Terry Kinsworth, he, you know, came from Texas. And then at that time, David Hines was playing safety the first three years, you know, intercepted the first ball that was ever thrown to him and ran it for a touchdown. Uh and you had Doyle Cross, who's from Stuttgart. So, you know, air base from Arkansas. He took great pride in that. Of course, Coach Davis later on admitted they didn't have enough money in recruiting budget to go out too far, you know, away from ACU. And every spring they'd bring in a couple junior college players to kind of fill in some gaps from graduation, and that that helped us.
SPEAKER_00Well, again, the defense was dominant, but offensively, you mentioned David Hines. Now, he started at safety, but moved him over to quarterback that year. 16 rushing touchdowns.
SPEAKER_03And that was thanksful to uh he ran the option stuff for Coach Mallham down at McClellan. So
Centennial Stadium Is Born
SPEAKER_03I think Coach Malhams, you know, we lost our good quarterback, Steve Burks. And they were looking for uh somebody to run a kind of the option offense and because Malham, so we got him right here. You know, he ran it all these years and had great success. McClellan running it. So he never missed a beat. He never missed. Of course, it helped having two all-Americans, real AP Associated Press All-Americans, Ken Jones and TJ Humphries as guards. Then you had Joel Mullins from Jonesboro and David Luter from Corning as tackles, and you had a great tight end named Jamie Clips, and the receivers were just used for another blocker. You know, that year we had our leading receiver, Ornham Middlebrook, caught 11 passes. 11. But that's a whole season, 11. 11 passes, and he went on and had a great career at Philadelphia Eagles. They didn't have to teach him how to block when they got up there. He knew about blocking. Sure. He just had to teach him about how to catch some balls during the game. But that was crazy. I mean It was a completely different game. You know, the running backs, we had a stable, you know, Dennis Bolden, who was about five foot six, 150 pounds, that was AP player of the national player of the week one year for his rushing like for 500 yards during a game. Not that many, but close to it. Then the famous Leroy Harris, who was fullback at played years in in uh for Miami in Philadelphia, and uh he came in from Coach Whitrow, the office line coach, had a real great connection out in Kansas. You know, Kansas has a lot of, I think every town out there has a JUCO program. And he came from there, and so he he knew how to get him in here. He'd promised them everything. But coming out of JUCO, I understand that it doesn't take much to entice them because their um their facilities aren't aren't very nice, and I think their training room is non-existence and dormitories and stuff, and so they're yeah, you talk about how rough some of the facilities were here.
SPEAKER_00I mean, yeah, much worse.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, those double wide trainers, but they made us better. You know, we didn't know any better. You know, if you don't know any better, you don't know any better, you know.
SPEAKER_00So one other storyline that goes along with that 1975 season, obviously undefeated, but you were 11-0 and had nowhere to go. No bowls to go, yeah. No bowl game after an 11-01-0 season, and now you go 6-6, and you're going to go to a bowl game. But it was a completely different bowl setup back then. And for folks who don't know, the 1975 team was a big reason why the independence bowl was actually created.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna go a little bit deeper there and say it was a reason.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It was a reason. It was embarrassing for the conference, the whole conference, and should have been embarrassing for the whole football enterprise, college football, that great team. And we, you know, we'd beat Memphis, who was good that year, and Cincinnati who was that good, and of course Louisiana Tech was always good and been national championships, you know, in Division II years prior to that. And it wasn't like we played a bunch of uh weak teams. We were just we were just that good. And it was all about money. My understanding was that for us to go to a bowl game, we'd have had to guarantee, you know, selling so many tickets, let's say 5,000 tickets, which that's a lot of tickets, lots, a lot of tickets to us nowadays, but even more back then when if I was guessing we might have had 500 season ticket holders. I I'll just take it off the top of my head, but you know, it wasn't that many. And so it's all driven by by money, and it cost us a lot of money if we'd had to go to the Tangerine Bow down Florida. And but oh, I'd give anything if we could. If you go back and and research us, they had so-called power ratings back then, and and there's one one publication that had us like in the top five, because they went by defensive strength, offensive strength, you know, we're scoring over 30 points a game and led the nation in rushing and comparable to schedules. And it was really nice to and somebody else I need to talk about too. John Lork was one of our great defensive backs, and and his son Corbin Lork, who's a state auditor here in Jonesboro, has put his so much time in researching history and he's putting together a book, over a hundred-page book of that year. That's gonna be really, really neat. I mean, he he's hunted down people and harassed a heck out of them, you know, from other schools. They're uh SID people trying to get information from schools that we played even.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's um it's great to see the connection that you guys still have. And you mentioned the reunion last year and the 50th anniversary celebration. And you know, one thing that's so apparent, and we had Darien Griswold on this podcast, our very first episode, and and one thing we always talk about with Grizz is the connection that he still has with his teammates from when he played nearly 15 years ago. But I mean, 50 years later, you've still got that kind of connection with your teammates.
SPEAKER_03Well, and I'm blessed because I've lived here, you know, all the time. I was fortunate to get transferred back here when I worked worked as a state trooper. And so in my connection issue, I'm about the only one left. Ron Carroll and I are the only ones left that have
The 1975 Team That Went 11-0
SPEAKER_03any connection really with people 50, 60 years ago. And so they reach out to us all the time, and it's really an honor to talk to a lot of these guys from the 60s or you know, and you know, they're dying every day, and it's sad. Some of the greatest players ever. And I don't know, Matt, it's just and I don't want to sound bad on this, but when you're a winner, you stay together. And you know, look at those teams that in the 90s that didn't have very much success. You know, they were they they didn't get to celebrate as winners and champions like we did, and that brings you together. Yeah, but it's also reunions and banquets for people that lose.
SPEAKER_00It's only the bond you created though that helped you become a winning team, though. Oh, yeah, no doubt.
SPEAKER_03You know, and I I played in there in the area in the time where uh I got to play with the first black athletes that ever played here. I could talk for hours and hours about that, about the David Mitchell's, uh, the Ron Meeks, uh, the great Joe Holliman from Truman and those guys that came in here uh in the stuff they went through, and it'd be great. I have uh told people on campus that especially with the Black History Month they have here, they need to go get these guys in here before they pass away and talk to them and get their story. The Thomas Hills in track. Uh, we just lost one of the greatest basketball players ever, you know, recently. Uh the first black player here at ASU, you know, he passed away. Uh so you're losing this opportunity. Joe Hallman is such a great story about being raised on the plantation down at Truman. He did not have bathrooms until he came to college here. He slept in a room with seven brothers, you know, on a plantation where they give you their own script money and you bought out of their company stores. His parents never got to see him play because they were too too I don't want to use sc word scared, but maybe a little intimidation to come to Truman to watch him play. I mean, those stories. I tell you what I did. He he had a great career in the CFL. I mean, in our Hall of Fame up at Edmonton, and very successful businessman. I said, Joe, why did you never come back? He says, There wasn't an opportunity for a black man back then as as I had up in the state of Washington in Canada area. That's unbelievable to people nowadays.
SPEAKER_00It wasn't that long ago.
SPEAKER_03No, to me, it seemed like yesterday. It seemed like to me he'd been a number one draft choice if he wouldn't have broken a leg in 1974 during the middle of the season. He went ahead and got drafted by Minnesota, but you know, he didn't have the rehab and the physical therapy that you do now. And uh now he's a very successful son, played for University of Washington. His other son played for Washington State. And I'll tell you what I did when uh when we played University of Washington a few years ago. You know, I brought him in there and to the hotel and we stayed there all night and talked. And Brad Bobo can tell you the stories that he listened to about Joe talking about being raised. And for Bobo to sit there with his mouth open for a couple hours without saying anything is a miracle in itself. Yes, it is. Just intake of all that information, thinking, how did he how did he get a degree? But I challenge the ASU people to track him down, and he wants to do it. These other guys want to now, David Mitchell, uh, you know, the first walk-on player, African-American player, ASU, you know, he has some illness right now, and he's not not able to give an interview or but but Joe.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. And it and it needs to be recognized.
SPEAKER_03I wish the players nowadays would appreciate what these guys went through. They don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00I think it I think if they heard their stories, though, they would, and they gained that appreciation.
SPEAKER_03Well, and there's been some over the years that would come up to me and and say, you know, Mr. Spear, can you tell us back in your day? And I'd tell them the history of the black players, and they were just like, you know, my recruiting class was the largest recruiting class ever. You know, I I there's I don't want to call them them, but African-American players like seven of them was recruited, the great Tommy Folkes from Mark Tree, uh, Sylvester Loving, you know, and I hate to start naming names because you always forget some. Uh Cornelius Maddox from Star City. Uh, just great guys that still love this program, the ones that are living. And and and they don't come out and say they were mistreated, but they were to some degree. They were. Uh, but but they got their degrees and part of the legacy of great football teams, and and I just I just challenge somebody to get that done about black history.
SPEAKER_00So we've we've talked about a a lot of the things that happened back in the 70s, but the thing about you is go ahead.
SPEAKER_03Well, uh let me tell one thing about Joe Holliman. I mean, I can almost tear up. When I came back, I probably spent 40 hours in the public library. If you ever want to know anything about Jonesboro, go down there. It's all on Michael. Or now it's on computer. You can punch in Matt Stotes' name. Any article that's ever been written by Matt Stotes and the Jones Borough Sun will come up and you can read it. That's how far advanced they are now. Used to have to go through all the Michael Femme and old newspapers. So when I came back, I challenged myself, and I went through and got all of Joe Holliman's high school articles about him in high school, in college, and sent them to him because his sons they didn't know about it. And, you know, it's not like Joe's parents got the newspaper down at the plantation, you know, every morning.
SPEAKER_00I'm sure that meant a lot to him.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. I mean, he said, Robert, he said, you couldn't give me a million dollars in this as much. I wish I'd been enough uh have enough savvy to organize it better. But he was a great basketball player, a great track athlete. You know, he did not get a scholarship to the All-Star Game, and he had to hitch a ride to the All-Star game, Arkansas High School All-Star Game down at Little Rock. Had to get a hitch ride down there to the All-Star Game with a coach, and he didn't really have a scholarship. And some Arkansas State coaches were down there and they said, Joel, we thought you were going to Arkansas. He said, No, they told me they already had there enough, meaning they already. Had their black player, they didn't want any more. And so he said, he sat down there and they said, Well, someday it's you. After the game, he did not have a ride back. He found some kids from Truman High School that came down there watching play, had no money, and they gave him money and give them a ride back to Truman. Man. Yeah. Just these kids nowadays are spoiled out here in Athletics compared to those days.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that um that's something. Oh, yeah. And I'm sure you found out a lot more just going back and researching.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, stuff that uh he he hadn't told, but now it's grown men and and and I appreciate that a lot. I really did. Because in my line of work of as a true robe, I was involved a lot of seeing a lot of discrimination, you know, during back in the 70s and 80s, and still to this day there, you know, there's some, and it's just a sad situation, and we still have that in our country.
SPEAKER_00I do want to turn the page here because you've still been involved with A-State football for the last 50 years and and been right there to watch. And you you talked about it earlier. You've seen the good, you've seen the bad, you've seen some great teams. Obviously, you've had a very unique view as well. You were a state trooper for a very long time, and you still continue to be on the sidelines during games. I know you love still traveling with the team and being a part of it. And it's it's amazing just the the things that we've been able to witness just in the last 15 years, starting in 2011 with the great run of success of you know, those nine straight winning seasons and nine straight bowl games and five conference championships. But it's been fun the last few years to kind of start going back to bowl games again. That's right. Three straight bowl games, two straight bowl victories, and it seems like we're getting into a good period once again of A-state football, and it's fun to be a part of what Coach Jones is doing.
SPEAKER_03You know, and these kids don't appreciate it. They will later on in life. It's just like Grizz, his first full full or first bowl games, you know, winning down there. I guarantee you he didn't appreciate that time. But now, 15 years later, like it seemed like it was yesterday Grizz was out there playing in that great team, but I guarantee you he appreciates that ring and those memories more than than you do when a teenager, just like I appreciate my friendships and success we had back then more than I did earlier in life. And and I'm glad to be a part of it. I'm glad that had the opportunity when I was a trooper to travel with the team, and I was blessed that when I retired that Marty Boy are a great sheriff, uh, let me continue being a part of this program as a deputy sheriff. And you know, and I see my role, Matt. And you you see what I do behind the scenes. I I try to develop relationships because a lot of times these kids nowadays uh for for various reasons do not have good relationships with law enforcement officers. Uh just the way our sighty, and it's always been that way, but it's more publicized now because of the world we live in, live in of instant news. And so much of that is it's fake news. You don't you get to hear one side story, but you don't get to hear the other side story about stuff. And so I try to be where uh where they can come to me if they have a problem with law enforcement or other any other problem and kind of getting through it and uh and help them any way I can. And and uh I I take great pride in that and I've been able to help a lot of them in the past. And some of them you can't help, some of them are their own worst enemies, and you know, and I've ran across some of them later on that come back and say, Golly, I wish I had a listened to you or listened to coach, you know, instead of being a knucklehead. And and I said, Well, I played with knuckleheads. You know, every generation has knuckleheads that that did stuff that they were great at later on in life. And especially with athletes, because you only get one chance. Well,
No Bowl Invite And Saving History
SPEAKER_03in LA's they get like 50 chances, you know, 50 years of availability, but you know, back then you you get to jump around everything. But you know, the other thing, uh I drive I have my commercial driver's license, so I'm probably the only one on campus get that gets to test or touch, not physically, but touch uh verbally and and talking to every athlete in the team or on on campus, all the sports, you know, tennis, golf, uh bowling, uh, track, of course, basketball, because I drive into the airport all the time, you know, when they're flying out of town. Sure. And so I get to meet meet all these different teams, and I get to meet all the coaches on campus, and I don't guess you even have that opportunity to be around all those players.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, I'm around the football and basketball and baseball teams and and obviously have built relationships with with other coaches on campus, but I don't get to spend time with them like you do, and that's right up your alley.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, because you know, go over to Memphis at midnight on Sunday night because they always leave at 4:30 in the morning or midnight on Sunday night when they return. And and I'm disappointed in myself. I never went to ASU girls tennis match to two weeks ago. And those girls are so nice and unique, and they're great athletes. And their coach of staff are just so much fun. See how they interact with the athletes. They get on there and sing, and they're singing in like seven different languages because they're from everywhere, everywhere, and listen to them try to sing our songs are just funny, and they say Robert in seven different languages, you know. And anyway, I went to my first match the other day, and they were warming up, and when I they saw me, they all come running to the fence, you know, and thanking me for coming and getting their picture taken. And and since then I've been to two other games, and holy cow, I mean, I I know a lot about a little bit about tennis, but you know, never studied game. And I took a good friend of mine that who's a good player, you know, and he explained the game to me and told me the all the little ins and outs, and there's so many little secrets and coaching and and and it, you know, once they if a one of our girls did something good, it they'd call her out, go red. And I figured out they must be telling everybody else on the court they just made a good play. Because later on you hear somebody else say, go red. And so it's kind of unique because they play on all different different courts. You know, you got your ones usually playing against ones and your twos and stuff, and uh and all great, and I challenge anybody, I mean, our season's over now, but great athletes and so much energy and and so much fun in the bowling team. I mean, uh, they're so unique, the bowling team is. It gets so close to national championships. Sure.
SPEAKER_00Went back to the Final Four recently.
SPEAKER_03And those girls are totally different than a tennis team or a golf team. They're very vocal and they can they could be some football players, the spirit they have. Well, we could sit here in the golf team, the women's golf team with MJ. Great group. Oh, great group. And the men's golf team with Mike. I mean, just I mean, they're having such good success.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's amazing. We're at a period right now where just across the board in athletics, it's as good as it's ever been. And nobody knows that better than you.
SPEAKER_03And the track team, you know, if you go in their facilly, that I mean, they got they got so many trophies in there that there's not enough room. I mean, it's just unreal. They could have a whole facility just with trophies of success they've had out there.
SPEAKER_00And as much as we talk about success, nobody knows this better than you. It's all about those relationships that you form. And and I think people that have been around our programs, been around you, have got to know you, know how much you care about everybody that you meet and those relationships, and that's what that's what makes it all worthwhile.
SPEAKER_03You know, uh if you get behind the scenes of these football programs, and you know, you you and I have been to Michigan, Ohio State, Southern Cal, uh, Texas, Texanium, all those big programs. And it you sit there and you, dang, this would be nice. But you know, I wouldn't take our program for anything. Right. Because those big programs, they don't have the they got all the money and all the fancy stuff, but I don't believe they have the inner relationships that we do here with the community and the faculty and everybody that they uh just everything that surrounds this great university.
SPEAKER_00Do you agree with that? I mean, I I agree completely. It it is a special, special place.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, especially in your business. I I was assuming that football has their own announcer and basketball has their own announcer, that they don't have a Matt Stolz that gets to be involved in there. And the baseball team's a great bunch of guys too. I don't want to leave the baseball team out. Let me brag on a men's basketball team this year. Okay. For the first time as long as I've been doing this, which is over 20 years, it's the first time a basketball player has not stumped his toe and needed my advice during the year. That's amazing. I told the athletic director Chris that the other day, and I told the coach, I said, you know, I on weekends a lot of times in the past, I just dreaded with my phone ranging night because I thought some knucklehead has messed up and on the verge of losing their career and maybe their freedom, you know, some things that's been done. And this year is wonderful. I mean, and every team. But when you got this many athletes on, you know, somebody's gonna make a mistake. And this has been the best year ever where those mistakes, Coach Jones is doing a good job of preaching, you know, have accountability, you know, do what's right. Everybody in this community knows who you are. So when you're at Walmart or somewhere like that, you know, people know who you are. Do the right thing when you're in public. And so it's been a sometimes I'd look at my phone and say, boy, did I miss a call during the night? Because coaches, you know, like well, that's a good thing. Yeah, yeah, it surely is. But and I I I just think the you know the word culture gets used way too much. It does. I'm sure there's other words in the dictionary that can be used for other than the culture, but it is a good culture, but it's the truth, though. I mean, we're having a good job, and I love our our our you know, airbate issue. We're just getting better
Helping Today’s Athletes Thrive
SPEAKER_03every day.
SPEAKER_00Well, we could sit here and talk for days about Arkansas State and its history and everything good that's going on right now. But this has been fun. Appreciate you coming in.
SPEAKER_03Well, it you're right. We could talk eight hours about what everything that we've seen over the years and I've seen. You being from Texas, you know, you didn't get to experience you know everything up close and personal like I have since the 60s.
SPEAKER_00Not since the 60s, but 21 years now being at this place now, it it it is so special to me just being here in Jones.
SPEAKER_03It's just like talking about part of history. We had the first black broadcaster for ASU football games, Rob Wiley back in the 70s. That was unheard of having a black. He worked for a TV station in Little Rock, and Governor BB talked him into talked him into coming up here and Rob be a great story to tell. And and there just wasn't anybody like him back then, you know, with his uh and and the reason he came, they wanted somebody out of the Little Rock Network area to host a coach's show, and Rob came in here and he came in at the best time in the world, you know, as with the 1975 season. You know, how could how do you top that coming in and being undefeated and you know, and and giving a call? But later, you know, we didn't appreciate him being an African-American male at that time. We didn't realize that there wasn't others out there, and there wasn't any. No, there was not. We've talked about it for with him, and and he said, especially in the South.
SPEAKER_00Great story.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, well, again, thanks to Robert Spear coming in and joining us today. We appreciate you listening to Saturdays in Jonesboro. Make sure you check out the website with all of our podcasts over at Arkansas State Media Network.com. Subscribe, and we uh certainly hope you join us again next time for Saturdays in Jonesboro.