In its Dec. 2 issue, Sports Illustrated devoted eight pages to a feature story on the Battle of the Ravine football game between Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University. I can't remember the last time Sports Illustrated gave that much space to an event in Arkansas, but it's well-deserved coverage for one of the greatest rivalries in college football.
"How did we get here?" Alex Prewitt writes. "How did two D-II universities with such rich football traditions--since it was established in 2011, the now 12-team Great American Conference has handed its title to a school outside Arkadelphia just once--end up so close that their stadium press boxes are within eyeshot of one another?
"Appropriately enough, the story starts with a rivalry. Named for the river whose shores run along the campus' eastern edge, Ouachita first convened classes in September 1886, part of a larger effort by religious groups to establish institutions of higher education across Arkansas. Not to be outdone, according to author Bennie Gene Bledsoe's history of Henderson, local Methodists followed suit four years later and founded Arkadelphia Methodist College, choosing a 'high and beautiful site ... about the highest point in the city.' Higher even than their new neighbors'."
Prewitt says of Arkadelphia: "The windswept bluff on the western side of the Ouachita River was settled around the turn of the 19th century as Blakelytown, after a local blacksmith believed to have overseen construction of the area's first building. Decades passed before the name Arkadelphia was adopted, but its meaning--arc of brothers, basically--remains fitting. After all, the Battle of the Ravine is filled with family members facing off from opposing sides."
It was a needed shot of positive publicity for Henderson, where most of the news has been bad news for the past year--financial problems, chemistry professors arrested on drug charges, you name it.
Regular readers realize that I'm a Ouachita graduate and bleed purple when it comes to sports. But as an Arkadelphia native, I realize how important Henderson is to the south half of this state. I'm among those who believe that Henderson's merger into the Arkansas State University System will be a good thing for the school.
Chuck Welch, the ASU System president, is a former Henderson president. He loves the school along with its history and traditions--the only state university that was once a private school, the only state university named after an individual, Arkansas' public liberal arts school. Welch will do right by Henderson.
The merger, which requires approval from the accrediting agency known as the Higher Learning Commission, is expected to be completed by Jan. 1, 2021. Henderson will keep its name, and its athletic teams will still be the Reddies.
"We will make every effort for the transition of Henderson into the ASU System to be as smooth as possible for everyone," Welch said. "The inclusive process for identifying the next chief executive of the institution will be similar to what we've successfully done at each of our campuses. I'm confident that affiliation with the ASU System will strengthen Henderson, our institutions and all of higher education in Arkansas."
Henderson has been through major changes before. Fourteen years after it was founded as Arkadelphia Methodist College in 1890, the name was changed to Henderson College to honor Charles Christopher Henderson. It later was changed to Henderson-Brown College to honor Walter William Brown.
C.C. Henderson was born in March 1850 in Scott County. The third of eight children, Henderson was 14 when his father died. His mother later moved the family to Arkadelphia to be near her brother and sister.
"Henderson married Laura Bell Hall in 1880 and constructed a home in Arkadelphia the same year," writes Arkansas historian David Sesser. "The couple had two daughters and a son. Henderson worked in a number of industries after arriving in Arkadelphia, including cotton and dairies. He began investing in timber and sawmills in the early 1880s and became a partner in a number of firms, including the Arkadelphia Lumber Co., the Nashville Lumber Co. and the Brown-Henderson Improvement & Timber Co.
"These investments in timber led to additional interests in 10 railroad companies, including the Memphis, Paris & Gulf Railroad. In turn, Henderson became active in banking in order to finance various projects and served as the president of Elk Horn Bank from 1905-16."
Henderson was active in the Methodist Church. He raised funds for the construction of a church at Arkadelphia and served as a delegate to numerous Methodist conventions.
"As Henderson prospered, he built a large home on the north side of the city, directly across the street from Arkadelphia Methodist College, which was founded to educate Methodist students south of the Arkansas River," Sesser writes. "Henderson was appointed to the board of trustees of the college in December 1891. Henderson's wife was active in the movement to establish the college and took classes at the institution. Henderson served on the board for more than a decade before he began to make large donations to the college.
"The college was chronically short of funds and for approximately 14 years operated under a lease with the first president, George Jones. The board repeatedly tried to buy out Jones' lease but was unable to do so until Henderson found a solution."
C.C. Henderson donated $11,000 in 1901 to pay off the school's debts and led efforts to give the board complete control. Jones finally left in 1904. Henderson was chairman of the board from 1903-22. After Jones departed, a three-member committee consisting of Henderson, Eli McDaniel and John Hinemon was established to run the college's day-to-day operations.
In 1905, Henderson paid $5,250 to settle a claim against the school. Four years later, he gave another $10,000 to pay off debts. Brown, Henderson's business partner, also gave $10,000 that year. The name was changed to Henderson-Brown College in 1911. After a 1914 fire destroyed the school's main building, Henderson donated another $5,000.
Henderson moved to El Paso, Texas, where he had banking interests, in 1913, but continued to serve on the board of the school named after him. After resigning from the board due to poor health in 1922 (he died in June 1923), Henderson was replaced as board chairman by Arkansas Power & Light Co. founder Harvey Couch.
The decision by Methodist leaders to close Henderson-Brown in 1929 and combine it with Hendrix College at Conway proved highly unpopular with students and residents in the south half of the state. Powerful business interests in that region convinced legislators to take over the school, which was renamed Henderson State Teachers College.
"After becoming a public institution, Henderson State Teachers College began to expand at a rate never envisioned while it was a Methodist college," Sesser writes. "Six major buildings were built during the Great Depression alone. Accreditation was attained in 1934, and after World War II, enrollment more than doubled to 500. In 1929, only 153 students attended the college."
Henderson now has about 3,600 students. Graduate classes were first offered in 1955. The name was changed to Henderson State College in 1967 and Henderson State University in 1975.
Now comes another turning point in the long history of an institution that has produced Rhodes Scholars, Fulbright Scholars and hundreds of notable Arkansans. Arkansas needs Henderson to be strong.
------------v------------
Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Editorial on 12/08/2019