LITTLE ROCK — Not at all recently, in fact some 50 years ago, a constable on patrol at Amagon in northeast Arkansas pulled over a college bus and handed out a speeding ticket.
The bus, filled with college basketball players, was on its way to Jonesboro, where Southern Arkansas University’s Muleriders had an important game against Arkansas State. Both teams had their eyes on winning a playoff at Pine Bluff a couple of weeks later and representing Arkansas in the NAIA Tournament at Kansas City, Mo.
“We got stopped sort of in the middle of Amagon,” senior center Jim Solomon recalled recently. “Technically, I guess the driver is supposed to get stuck with the ticket, but this one was a different situation. Earl Miller or Porky Hammonds did most of our driving, and I can’t remember which one was on this trip. Coach Duddy Waller and [Athletic Director] Auburn Smith went outside the bus to talk, but it didn’t do us any good.”
After considerable telephone conversations between Magnolia and Amagon, it was agreed that SAU would wire the money for the speeding ticket. That seemed to require a hostage, which turned out to be Smith - but not for long.
Some things happened to speed the process.The SAU bus departed. SAU wired the money for the speeding ticket. Smith, free at last, either hitchhiked or coaxed a truck driver for a ride to Jonesboro.
“It was getting a little late in the afternoon when our bus pulled out of Amagon,” Solomon said. “We had about 40-some miles to Jonesboro, and by then we were running late on the pregame stuff.”
About the middle of the game, Smith thanked his truck driver, entered the gym and probably got a shock from the scoreboard.
“We’d had a tough time beating Arkansas State at Magnolia, and we knew it would only get tougher at Jonesboro,” senior guard J.W. Evers said afterward.
“The score wound up 79-78. Wenever led in regulation time. In the last minute, we were down 78-75. Jimmy Solomon made it 78-77 with a jump shot.”
In 1956-1957, with Arkansas Tech and SAU barred from the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference basketball schedule, the Muleriders won the Kansas City trip by beating any Arkansas-based team that would schedule them. (They lost their opening Kansas City game, but enjoyed the rest of the NAIA Tournament week.)
“Just about the time the final buzzer was going off, somebody hacked me,” Evers said. “A two-shot foul. I used to fight off pressure by yawning. I hit the first free throw and it was tied 78-78. I yawned again and we had it, 79-78. Oh, and I scored 21 points, which didn’t happen very often.”
Sports, Pages 16 on 12/26/2012