Karl Malden, the UCA Bear

We can stretch a point and label Karl Malden the second most famous University of Central Arkansas basketball player. Scottie Pippen has to rank No. 1. Yes, it's a stretch, because Malden apparently never played in a game for the Conway college.

Malden died a few days ago at the age of 97, a vintage and acclaimed actor in movies, on television and before that, on the stage.

His connection with UCA, Arkansas State Teachers College at the time, was brief. But yes, he did come to Conway from Gary, Ind., a Chicago suburb, on a basketball scholarship. The year was 1931.

Details are hazy about Malden getting to Conway, but consider the times. The Great Depression was in full swing in 1931. Malden had graduated from high school, apparently a basketball player of some ability. Jobs were hard to come by in his steel-making hometown, and a college athletic scholarship had the benefits of room and board - a place to stay and food to eat.

It's a guess, but Malden likely did not receive scholarship offers from the major colleges in his area - Big Ten schools, Notre Dame, the University of Chicago which was a major athletic power then.

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At the other end of this spectrum was ASTC in its perennial quest for something, somebody to "beat Tech." The Russellville rival was just a two-year college but held a clear upper hand in sports over Teachers. Not until 1935 when Warren Woodson arrived as ASTC coach would this change.

Whatever took place in making the connection, young Karl Malden came to Conway and ASTC. How long he stayed is lost in mists of passing time. It apparently was not long.

Show business biographies on Malden include the line that he left ASTC because he wanted to participate in a school play, and the coach would not let him. This probably is Malden's version. The coach was Orion Wray, who was at ASTC five seasons

Another version is that he did participate in the play, having already been bitten by the acting bug, and the coach "ran him off" for doing so.

A third version is when Malden arrived in Conway with his basketball scholarship, he was told he would have to play football also. He did play football in high school and twice suffered a broken nose. This version says Malden left rather than play football.

At any rate, Malden did not play in a basketball game for ASTC as far as we know. He's not mentioned in reports of games that season, and he's not on the UCA roster of former players.

Orion Wray in his five seasons as ASTC basketball coach had a 7-4 record in games with Arkansas Tech, raising a doubt that he recruited in faraway places like the Chicago area trying to get players who could "beat Tech."

In the 1931-32 season when Malden was on campus for a while, the ASTC Bears played Hendrix five times and lost all five games.

The youth from Gary, Ind., was not Karl Malden when he came to Conway briefly. He was Mladen Sekulovich, son of a Serbian father and a Czech mother. He returned form Conway to Gary, got a job in a steel mill and three years later went to acting school in Chicago, becoming Karl Malden at age 22.

Malden's list of movies is extensive, with the best known probably Patton, A Streetcar Named Desire (he won an Oscar), and On the Waterfront. He starred in the long-running television series, Streets of San Francisco. Younger folks may remember him best for his American Express commercials "Don't leave home without it."

(Log Cabin correspondent Joe Mosby can be contacted by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com.)