'57 Bulldogs matched Little Rock Central in the 'game that never was'

FAYETTEVILLE -- There've been books written and documentaries filmed about segregation and the chaos at Little Rock Central High School in 1957, when nine black students attempted to enroll at the all-white school.

The nation's leading newspapers produced banner headlines for days after Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus sent in the Arkansas national guard to block the students' entrance, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower countered by sending in federal troops to escort the nine students into the school.

Throughout the turmoil that fall, the Central Tigers football team completed one of the most successful seasons in state history by going 12-0 with a team that outscored its opponents 444-64.

Led by The Sporting News National Player of the Year Bruce Fullerton, the Tigers beat five teams from out of state that season, and shared the No. 1 national ranking in 1957 with Portland (Ore.) Jefferson, according to National Sports News Service magazine. The Arkansas Activities Association lists Little Rock Central as the state champions in 1957.

The Tigers weren't the only undefeated, untied team in Arkansas that season.

Far away from the media storm in Little Rock, Fayetteville High School almost quietly went 10-0 and posted five shutouts while outscoring its opponents 269-33. Although the teams played in different classifications during an era when there were no playoffs in Arkansas, it would've been quite an attraction for Fayetteville and Little Rock Central to have met on the gridiron, and not just because they were both juggernauts.

But the fact remains, 62 years later, 12-0 Little Rock Central versus 10-0 Fayetteville remains "The game that never was."

"They were really good and we knew about them," said Jim Delano, one of the star players for Fayetteville that season. "We would've liked to have played them. We had a lot of good players, too."

Hoover Evans was another standout player for Fayetteville in 1957, and he continued his football career at the University of Arkansas, where he became teammates with some players from that great Central team.

"We probably would've lost against them, but it wouldn't have been a runaway," said Evans, who lettered with the Razorbacks from 1960-62. "From what I saw from those guys who came to the university, there were some good players but some didn't make it. We had seven or eight guys off our (Fayetteville) team that got scholarships, too, for college."

Fayetteville that season was led by quarterback Jim Shreve and fullback William "Bull" Hayes, one of the first black athletes to play at a previously all-white high school in Arkansas. Charleston was the first to integrate following the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., decision and Fayetteville was second.

Hayes, who was 6-foot, 190 pounds as a senior, had a brief college career at the University of Nebraska. He left the school after one year and played football again at Joplin (Mo.) Junior College and Arkansas AM&N (Arkansas-Pine Bluff).

He was the director of the Topeka (Kan.) Boys Club when he died at age 36 in 1975.

"(Hayes) was big and strong, and he was fast, too," said Delano Cotton, a former teammate at Fayetteville. "We never had a problem with him. Everybody liked 'Bull.' He was a good guy, and we joked with him a lot."

Not everyone was accepting of Hayes, especially some teams on Fayetteville's original schedule. Three games against teams from Missouri were counted as conference games after teams from Northwest Arkansas refused to play a team with black players on its roster.

"We had two or three (black) guys, and some teams wouldn't play us because of it," Cotton said. "Van Buren was one of the main ones, I believe, that didn't want to play."

Fayetteville coach Clayton Spencer held the team together and made sure the Bulldogs were not derailed by racial tensions and outside influences like the ones going on in the capital city.

"He was a no-nonsense kind of guy," Cotton said. "We all liked him."

Fayetteville began the 1957 season with a 26-0 victory over Siloam Springs and followed that with a 46-6 win over Huntsville, when Hayes scored two touchdowns and kicked three extra points. Fayetteville then posted wins over Seneca (Mo.), Subiaco Academy, Rogers, Springdale and Springfield (Mo.) Central, when Hayes had an 88-yard touchdown run for the longest play of the year by the Bulldogs.

Fayetteville then faced what became its toughest challenge in a road game at Joplin, Mo.

A week prior to the game, a flu epidemic swept Fayetteville High School and a handful of Fayetteville players were too sick to play that day. The game was tight, but Fayetteville survived 12-7 when Hoover Evans caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from Shreve late in the fourth quarter.

"We had guys who couldn't play because they had the flu," Cotton recalled. "It was a cold and miserable night up at Joplin, and the guys who were left at home listened to the game on the radio. We were just glad we won."

The Bulldogs then defeated Springfield (Mo.) Parkview to set up a showdown with Harrison for the District 1-AA championship. Harrison had come back on the schedule after refusing to play Fayetteville for two years, and the Goblins had a large and rugged team in 1957. But Fayetteville won 20-7 and completed a perfect season with Shreve, who was selected all-state at quarterback, leading the way.

Eight players from Fayetteville were named to the 22-man 1-AA all-district team.

"We had a lot of senior leadership that year and we practiced liked we wanted to win," Evans said. "We didn't go through the motions. We practiced hard. Jim Shreve was our bell-cow and the leader of the team. He kept the guys focused.

"He would tell guys to shut up, and nobody would say anything back."

While Little Rock Central received national recognition for its perfect season, there was little fanfare for Fayetteville except for a celebration that broke out when the Bulldogs carried coach Spencer on their shoulders after beating Harrison to finish 10-0. With no playoffs in that era, the Bulldogs disbanded after the win against Harrison and a few of the top players joined the basketball team for Fayetteville.

Fifty years later, Fayetteville won its first football state championship in the playoff era when the Bulldogs defeated Springdale Har-Ber 28-7 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, just a short distance from Central's campus.

Fayetteville has added four more state championships since then, but none of those teams went undefeated like the '57 Bulldogs, who matched Little Rock Central's perfect record that season but never had the chance put their record against the legendary Wilson Matthews-coached mighty Tigers.

Preps Sports on 12/22/2019