CONWAY — The success of the Conway Wampus Cats on the football field this fall has had some longtime fans remembering the glory days of 1964.
This year, Conway finished the regular season 8-2 and drew the top seed from the Central Conference for the Class 7A State Playoffs. The Wampus Cats thus earned a bye for the first round and will play host to Fayetteville, the fourth seed from the West, on Friday at John McConnell Stadium.
In 1964, there were no playoffs, but Conway finished the season 11-0. The Wampus Cats competed in Class AA, and the recognized state championship went to Little Rock Hall, a Class AAA school.
Brooks Beazley, now 64, was a senior linebacker on that Conway High School team, coached by the late Rex Lovell and assistants Bill Stephens and James Clark.
“Rex did a great job with them,” Stephens said. “It was a large team with some real outstanding players. In fact, four or five of them got scholarships.”
Nearly 50 years later, Beazley called the ’64 season the highlight of his athletic career.
“Not many people can say they played on a couple of undefeated teams,” he said, referring to the seniors’ run through their junior high schedule as freshmen. “I think about it quite a bit, as well as all the guys I played with.”
Their sophomore year, they played in “B” games. As juniors, many were forced into action because of a small senior class ahead of them. They “took a licking” that year, finishing 5-7.
“But our senior year was payback time,” Beazley remembered. “That was something that stirred us on to try to do as best we could.”
The Wampus Cats opened the season against Forrest City, winning 27-6.
The second game was against Searcy, a team against which the Wampus Cats had traditionally had little trouble. They survived that one, though, by just 7-0. Beazley called it a good wake up call.
The third game was against Russellville. Beazley, who had also played fullback, fumbled twice and was relegated back to defense. The Wampus Cats survived, 14-0.
“When you’re playing, you don’t realize the implications of your mistakes, but Coach Lovell always said you can’t have penalties and turnovers because those kill you,” he said.
The rest of the schedule included wins over Jacksonville, 14-7; Little Rock Catholic, 3-0; Harrison, 47-7; North Little Rock, 20-0; Little Rock Central, 7-0; Morrilton, 54-6; Benton, 9-0; and Mabelvale, 30-7.
“We had a real stingy defense,” Beazley said.
Of the 33 points allowed over the season, the Wampus Cat first-team defense gave up just 6.
“Now everybody passes and runs up the score, but it was a different game then,” Beazley said. “We thought we’d have a good team, so we really weren’t surprised. We didn’t know we’d beat the big schools like Little Rock Central and North Little Rock, but we probably had the best defensive team in the state.”
And the Wampus Cats had all that without their own facilities. Conway played its games at Hendrix College until the mid-1970s, when John McConnell Stadium was built.
Twenty-two seniors were on that ’64 team. David Spatz, Don Henley and Jim Owen earned all-district and all-state honors. Beazley, Jim Halbrook, Terry Starkey and Bobby New were all-district. Other seniors included Ronnie Copeland, Gene Spears, Larry Holcomb, Gary White, Perry Shock, Joe Nooner, David Bailey, Bobby Allison, Chris Camp, Johnny Cole, Chip Hager, Roger Jones, Tom Hawkins, Jim Wilson and Eddie Floyd.
The junior class had some stars as well, including Ricky Kersey, who went on to play at the University of Arkansas; Sid Smith; J.B. Pendergraft; and Danny Reed.
“The big thing on Friday nights was to go to the football games,” Beazley said. “The town got behind us and supported us.”
In fact, as a reward for the undefeated season, Wampus Cat supporters raised money to send the team to the 1965 Cotton Bowl to watch Arkansas beat Nebraska, 10-7.
“We chartered a bus and bused to Dallas, spent one night at SMU, went to the ballgame and came home,” Beazley said. “We had a fun time. That was a celebration for us, and we certainly appreciated it.”
After CHS, Beazley graduated from the University of Central Arkansas and moved to Little Rock. He’s now in Maumelle, but he still follows the Wampus Cats.
“With a little bit of luck, we could’ve been undefeated again,” he said of the 2011 season. “I’m real proud of them.”
The 1964 team had a reunion a few years ago, but Beazley was unable to make it because his son got married that weekend.
“Of all times,” he said, chuckling, “but I think we’re going to have another one when we have our 50th reunion. That’s already on my calendar.”
River Valley Ozark, Pages 60 on 11/17/2011