HEBER SPRINGS — Communities often come together around traditions. Sometimes the Christmas-tree lighting after Thanksgiving is the place to be every year. Maybe a festival welcoming spring is the one event no one wants to miss. In Heber Springs, many would point to the Old Timers Football Game fundraiser as a cherished event that area residents look forward to annually.
The Old Timers Football Game fundraiser is one of the long-standing traditions in the town known for its proximity to tourism destinations like Greers Ferry Lake and the Little Red River, but it can be difficult to pinpoint when the event actually began.
“The funny thing is, no one can ever tell you the exact year that it started,” said Jacob McCormick, one of the game’s organizers. “I’ve talked to some people who have said they played in the 1970s. I talked to a guy this year who said he left his wedding early to come back and play in this football game in the ’70s.”
The Old Timers Football Game started out as a game for Heber Springs High School alumni, but it has morphed into a event where people who are new to town — or who may not even live in Heber Springs — can play, in addition to the folks who grew up with the town. Participants pay a $35 fee, and the money goes to the school’s football program.
“The funds that are raised through this game are used for the education of our coaches through coaches clinics,” Heber Springs football coach David Farr said. “It also goes into our athletic budget, which is funneled back into what our kids need in the program. It benefits our coaches. It benefits our kids. It is used in many, many different ways.”
Despite the ambiguity of its origins, the game has solidified its importance in the city. There is a Facebook page where those planning on participating can start “trash talking” in the weeks leading up to the game. People have started coming from farther and farther away to play in the game, and it is an event that binds the community.
“It’s an opportunity to play football with guys that you played high school ball with,” McCormick said. “It’s an opportunity to play football with guys that you played against. It’s also a great opportunity for guys like me and my brother-in-law to play. We never played against each other because he’s just a couple years older than me to where we were never in high school at the same time, but we get to come out here and play football together.”
McCormick said not everyone who plays in the Old Timers Game played high school football. Because the game is open to the public, several guys who did not get a chance to play when they were teenagers jump at the chance to play now.
“There will be three guys this year who will play on the Old Timers team who have never played football before,” he said. “They always wanted to, but they either went to a school that didn’t offer it when they were younger — the school just didn’t offer the program — [or] one guy was in a military family and traveled, but he always wanted to play. This is an opportunity for him to get out there.”
For those who did play football at Heber Springs High School, this is a way to give back to the program that was a part of their high school experience. McCormick graduated in 2000, and he said he is always eager to support the football program.
“High school football was an outlet to keep me out of trouble,” he said. “I love the game for a lot of different reasons. I currently don’t live in Heber Springs, and this is a way I can give back to a program that kept me out of trouble.”
On the day of the event, participants will gather several hours before the game starts to be divided into teams and begin devising their game plans. The only requirement is that each participant must have either graduated from high school or be beyond high school age, and the teams are divided by age.
“It usually falls into people ages 28 or 29 and younger on one team and 30 and older on the other,” McCormick said. “It’s usually kids who can still run against guys who can’t.”
Farr — who will act as the head official for the Old Timers Game — said that despite the physical differences between old and young players, it is always a good game. In the past few years, victories have been split pretty evenly between the “old” Old Timers and the “young” Old Timers.
“A lot of the time it doesn’t matter about the speed of the youth because the older guys have the wisdom,” Farr said. “It’s a good back-and-forth competition.”
Even beyond physical differences, Farr said, it can be interesting to see the strategies each team brings to the game. The players generally gravitate toward what they did when they were in high school, so the differences between the two games can be stark, as strategies in football have changed from decade to decade.
“What you get is guys on both teams who will go back to what they know,” he said. “A lot of times the older guys will run those older offenses. They’ll run the triple option and schemes like that. The younger guys use more open sets, and you’ll see a lot of spread sets, a lot of slinging it.”
This year, former Arkansas Razorback Sacha Lancaster will be doing the coin toss prior to the kickoff of the game.
The Heber Springs Old Timers Game fundraiser will be Jan. 24 at Heber Springs High School. Participants should arrive at 11 a.m. to get their gear and have a chance to meet with their team and formulate plans. The coin toss will occur at 2 p.m.
The $35 participant fee includes gear — a helmet, a mouthpiece and shoulder pads — and an Old Timers commemorative T-shirt. A highlight disk will be available after the game for an additional $15.
The game is free to watch, and the community is encouraged to go out and cheer on the teams.
Staff writer Angela Spencer can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or aspencer@arkansasonline.com.