ARKANSAS SPORTS HALL OF FAME: Hogs hankered for Brinkley star Eckwood

There wasn't much quiet time around Jerry Eckwood's home in Brinkley during the fall and winter of 1973.

"It was pretty crazy," said Stan Eckwood, Jerry's younger brother. "The phone was constantly ringing off the hook, there were hundreds of letters coming every week and college recruiters were stopping by all the time."

Among the recruiters to stop by the Eckwood home to make pitches for their schools were two future Pro Football Hall of Fame running backs: Gale Sayers and O.J. Simpson.

Sayers by that time had retired from the Chicago Bears and was working as a recruiting coordinator at Kansas when he came to visit Eckwood.

Simpson, the 1968 Heisman Trophy winner for Southern California, visited Eckwood on behalf of the Trojans after setting an NFL record with 2,003 rushing yards in the 1973 season for the Buffalo Bills.

Eckwood, 6-1 and 195 pounds, rushed 263 times for 2,616 yards -- a 9.9-yard average -- and scored 33 touchdowns as a senior at Brinkley High School. As a junior he had 171 carries for 1,475 yards and 23 touchdowns.

"Jerry Eckwood was a phenomenon," said Robert Farrell, who played at Little Rock Central and later was Eckwood's teammate at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. "Everybody in the state knew about Jerry Eckwood. We all knew who he was and what he did."

Harold Horton was an Arkansas assistant coach who recruited Eckwood along with Frank Falks, the Razorbacks' first black assistant coach.

"Every college in the country was after Jerry," Horton said. "He's one of the best that's ever come through this state as a high school football player.

"Our biggest competition was Oklahoma, but Alabama was on Jerry hard. So was Tennessee -- and everybody else."

Stan Eckwood said it's fun to look back and recall Sayers and Simpson being among those to stop by the family's home to recruit his brother.

"It was pretty nice, man, pretty nice to have players like that in our house," Stan Eckwood said. "But I wasn't too starstruck.

"My brother had been a star to me since he was in the fifth grade as far as being the best that I ever saw. I haven't seen anybody better than my brother."

After Jerry Eckwood's stellar high school career, he persevered through back, knee and hamstring injuries to become an All-Southwest Conference running back at Arkansas and play three seasons in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Eckwood's accomplishments will be celebrated when he is inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame on Friday night.

Unfortunately, Eckwood isn't expected to attend the induction banquet because he is suffering from dementia, the likely result of several concussions he sustained during his playing career.

Eckwood, 63, lives in an assisted-living facility in the Nashville, Tenn., area. He qualifies for "Plan88," which is named for All-Pro Baltimore Colts tight end John Mackey and provides expenses to pay for medical and custodial care for former NFL players suffering from dementia.

Jerval Watson, Eckwood's daughter, also lives in the Nashville area and visits her father every day.

"We're pretty fortunate that he still has a decent memory at this time," Watson said. "He's not at a point where he doesn't know who we are or doesn't know who he is.

"There are good days and bad days, as with any illness. You can still see his personality come through on his good days."

Watson will accept her father's Hall of Fame award on his behalf.

"My greatest hope is that people begin to view mental illness in a different light and remove the stigma around it, because there are so many levels to it, and it often comes from depression and brain trauma," Watson said. "Someone who has a mental illness doesn't want it any more than the people on the outside, but the way it's viewed sometimes hurts the family members of the people who are dealing with it."

Watson and Stan Eckwood said the family is appreciative Jerry Eckwood is going into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

"It means the world to the family and everybody that knows Jerry," Stan Eckwood said. "Because we all remember what a great player he was."

Horton said Arkansas Coach Frank Broyles and the rest of the staff understood the importance of signing Eckwood.

"It was pressure on of all of us because Jerry was one of the top players in the country and we didn't want him to go out of state," Horton said. "When he signed with Arkansas, that was big."

Stan Eckwood said their mother, Hattie, wanted Jerry to sign with Arkansas.

"It was important to our mother that he go to Arkansas, and all of our family and friends wanted Jerry to go there, too," Stan Eckwood said. "So that's where he went to make everybody else happy.

"Jerry probably would have been happy playing football anywhere, because that's what he loved."

Eckwood finished his Razorbacks career with 340 carries for 1,985 yards and 15 touchdowns. He also caught 18 passes for 123 yards and completed 6 of 14 passes for 128 yards.

"My freshman year we needed some help on defense and they switched me over to safety for a few days," said Ron Calcagni, who played quarterback at Arkansas from 1975-78. "I'll never forget in a scrimmage I had a one-on-one with Jerry. I had the sideline as my buddy -- I was making sure I pinned him towards the boundary -- and he just lowered his shoulder and basically ran me over.

"He had some kind of power. I didn't want to have anything to do with tackling Jerry after that. They rushed me back to quarterback pretty quickly.

"Physically, Jerry was a man amongst boys. He just had unbelievable talent."

Farrell, who played receiver at Arkansas, said Eckwood was good even when he didn't have the ball in his hands.

"What folks may not remember is that he was a dynamic blocker," Farrell said. "If somebody else was running with the ball, he certainly would open a clear path."

As a freshman in 1974 Eckwood had four carries for 13 yards after undergoing back surgery. The next season he rushed 104 times for 792 yards and earned All-SWC first-team honors on Arkansas' 10-2 team that won a share of the conference title and beat Georgia 31-10 in the Cotton Bowl.

Eckwood rushed 122 times for 494 yards as a junior in 1976, redshirted in 1977 because of a knee injury and had 110 carries for 595 yards as senior in 1978.

"It's unfortunate he had so many injuries," Farrell said. "Because as good as Jerry was at Arkansas, there's no telling what somebody with his talent and size would have done in college and then in the NFL had he not had to deal with all that stuff."

Jim Howard came to Arkansas from Colorado as a running back, but said he was glad to move to defensive end so he wouldn't have to compete with Eckwood for playing time.

"Practicing with Jerry, he did something amazing every day," Howard said. "I played against some great backs like [Heisman Trophy winners] Earl Campbell and Billy Sims, and I think Jerry was up there with those guys."

Eckwood was selected by Tampa Bay in the third round of the 1979 NFL Draft with the 60th overall pick.

In three seasons with the Buccaneers, Eckwood played in 47 games and helped Tampa Bay reach the playoffs in 1979 and 1981. He rushed 515 times for 1,845 yards and had 93 receptions for 956 yards before injuries forced him to retire.

When Eckwood played for Tampa Bay he led a project that distributed more than 3,000 pairs of shoes for children in the community.

Eckwood's teammates at Arkansas said he also was generous with his time and had a warm personality.

"Jerry was very helpful to the younger guys, especially if you weren't from Arkansas," Howard said. "Being from Colorado, he made me feel wanted here."

Farrell said Eckwood was always supportive.

"If you did something good, he'd celebrate with you," Farrell said. "If you missed an assignment or did something bad, he'd still encourage you.

"He was behind you in the good times and the not so good times. He was somebody that you could depend on in all situations. He was a friend as well as a teammate. He was right there with you."

Stan Eckwood said he has wondered what his brother could have accomplished as a football player if he hadn't been injured.

"I think if Jerry had stayed healthy, he could have won the Heisman Trophy," Eckwood said. "But that's just something we'll never know.

"What I can tell you is Jerry loved his time up there in Fayetteville. He loved being a Razorback. That meant everybody in the state was cheering for him."

Sports on 04/04/2018