Once a Bobcat, now a Mustang

LITTLE ROCK — Jim McMullen has a secret.

McMullen, the first-year principal at Hoxie High School is a native of Walnut Ridge.

Hoxie? Walnut Ridge? Together?

Maybe it was unheard of years ago, but the long-time rivalry between the two towns has faded now that the schools are in different athletic classifications. The schools still open the football season playing each other and the basketball games have a must-watch quality.

"Not as much as it used to be," McMullen said of the rivalry. "It is still one, but it has settled down now."

McMullen isn't the only Walnut Ridger teaching at Hoxie. Dedra Riggs, who teaches Advanced Placement English Language and Composition and AP Literature at Hoxie, also graduated from Walnut Ridge in 1994.

Back in the heyday of the friendly feud, it wasn't unusual for a Walnut Ridge student to come to school and see green hooves - Hoxie's mascot being the Mustangs andthe school color being green - painted on the road leading up to the school.

Then the next year, orange paw prints - Walnut Ridge being the orange-clad Bobcats - painted on the street that went to Hoxie High.

"I don't think it has been like that for several years," McMullen said. "It is more like any other rivalry now."

Hoxie, with a population of 2,817, is the smaller of the two towns, as Walnut Ridge has 4,925 people in the most recent census numbers. But Hoxie is the larger of the two schools. In the Arkansas Activities Association's enrollment numbers for reclassification, Hoxie had an average high school enrollment of 209.3, while Walnut Ridge's average was 172.

If the two schools combined, it would make the combined schools the 81st largestschool in the state by enrollment with 381.3 combined students and only slightly smaller than Ozark at No. 80 with 382.67.

Talk of consolidation has come up in the past.

"I don't think there has been any talk of that in several years," McMullen said. "In the early '90s there was a little bit of talk, and it seems like we might have had a public meeting on it, but nothing else came of it."

The towns share a border, and McMullen concedes that "I'm not even sure where the line is. You really can't tell. Everything is right together. People will go to the cafe and they won't know if it is in Hoxie or Walnut Ridge."

McMullen is no stranger to consolidation though. He had been the principal at McRae before it was consolidated with the Beebe School District. That's when McMullen returned to Lawrence County and taught at Walnut Ridge before accepting the principal's job at Hoxie this year.

- jpeppas@arkansasonline.comby the numbers 91,574 Gross square feet of high school campus 929 District Enrollment 512 High School Enrollment 92 Seventh-grade 91 Sophomores 91 Eighth-grade 83 Junior class 82 Freshmen 73 Senior class 7-12 Grade at a glance Mascot: Mustangs Principal: Jim McMullen Sports: Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Football, Golf, Softball, Tennis and Track Arkansas Activities Association classification: 3A Conference assignment in 2008: 3A 3 Conference football opponents in 2008: Cave City, Corning, Earle, Harrisburg, Hoxie, Manilla, Piggott and Rivercrest.

Conference basketball opponents in 2008: Brookland, Corning, Earle, Harrisburg, Hoxie, Manila, Piggott, Rivercrest and Tuckerman Address: P.O. Box 240, Hoxie, AR 72433 Phone number: (870) 886-4254 On the Web: http://green.nesc.k12.ar.us/