McCollum's Column: Back in the days when Conway let down its hair

Tim Horton, an assistant football coach at the University of Arkansas, got one of his first views of the University of Central Arkansas-Hendrix basketball rivalry shortly after he had fallen in love as a Conway High student.

One of his first dates with Lauren Malpica, who would become his wife, was to a Hendrix-UCA basketball game at the old Grove Gymnasium. The couple sat four rows behind the UCA bench with Horton’s father, Harold, UCA’s football coach at the time, along with several UCA officials. Horton noted that Scottie Pippen scored, and he and all the UCA fans around him cheered loudly — except Lauren, who had strong family ties to Hendrix. The Warriors’ Kerry Evans scored and Lauren was the only one in the section who cheered. “I had really fallen for Lauren at this time, but I told her she couldn’t be cheering for Hendrix in this section,” said Horton during an appearance before the Arkansas Sports Club last year. “She looks at me and says, ‘If I can’t cheer for Hendrix, we just might not need to be dating.’”

Horton added, “I kept quiet after that.”

Tim and Lauren have now been married more than 20 years and are rearing two children.

But that relationship might have hit a dead end right there.

When Hendrix and UCA met in basketball, close friends, neighbors and co-workers became rivals and enemies — for an undetermined period.

It was a time in which almost all of Conway let down its hair. There was both the fun and bitterness of a natural rivalry.

The games were always hotly contested, attracted crowds that hardly any Conway sporting event has done before or since and meant something because the two schools were both on the same level — in the NAIA’s old Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference.

Those in Conway who can remember the rivalry (and so many businessmen were students at the time) can recall the usual scenarios: UCA usually won the game, but Hendrix would win in digs and smack. Almost every longtime UCA fan remembers the usual chant after a Bear win, “That’s all right. That’s OK. You’ll be working for us someday.”

There’s the legendary tale of how the two teams’ mascots got in a fight — well sorta. Hendrix had the traditional Warrior mascot, who would carry a makeshift spear. One year, Benjie Lipscomb, a UCA football player often known for his high-strung antics, donned a purpe super-hero costume (kind of like Batman meets Spiderman) to drum up support and provide the Bears a meaner-looking mascot than Huggy Bear. 

Before a game at Grove Gymnasium, the Warrior was working the Hendrix fans into a frenzy when the Bears’ “Super Fan” ran across the court to charge up the UCA crowd. Somewhere at midcourt, they collided — Lipscomb brushed the Warrior with his leg on a slide and the Warrior shoved his spear in that direction. They squared off in a little shoving match before the late Bob Courtway, Hendrix’s athletic director at the time, broke things up, cleared the court, grabbed a microphone and gave both sides a lecture on sportsmanship.

When games were at UCA’s Farris Center, both sides were almost always filled like they never have before or since for UCA. When the games were at Grove, fans had to get there early. For a big game, the line outside the lobby would stretch around nearby sidewalks to the dormitories.

Some of the Hendrix faculty would serve as spies in the stands to try to make sure the language and behavior did not stray too far from the traditional lines of “Methodistism” — although in the case of UCA, the scope of what was considered outside of traditional Wesleyan boundaries was extended.

But sports in Conway were never more fun and exciting as when UCA played Hendrix.

It’ll be interesting how things develop tonight when men’s basketball teams from the two schools play for the first time since 1992, when each institution went its separate ways as far as athletic affiliation and philsoophy. 

Many people in Conway will love reliving the old days. But students from the two schools have had little athletic mingling and rivalry in two decades.

“Our students are used to our biggest rival being Rhodes or DePauw or Millsaps,” said former Hendrix coach Cliff Garrison, who coached in as many games of the rivalry as anyone. “It’ll be different for both teams.”

One difference is the game tonight counts for UCA as its official season opener.

But the main way things are different is less than a week after UCA plays Hendrix, it will take on Kansas University, the clear No. 1 team in NCAA Division I basketball.

By the time the Bears reach Lawrence, Kan., they will realize they aren’t at Hendrix anymore.

(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)