Sharon and I were back in Arkadelphia, Arkansas last week, attending a 50th-anniversary event at our alma mater, Ouachita Baptist University. They lumped together the classes of 1970 (mine), 1971 (hers), and 1972, since COVID knocked out a couple of on-time celebrations. It was great to catch up with folks and, yes, to remember fondly those who’ve passed on. At the Thursday night banquet, they circulated the mic for recollections, and I mentioned a phone call I made to the sports department of the Arkansas Gazette in the summer of 1970. 

Cliff Harris and I had just graduated. I was headed to grad school at Vanderbilt, he to the Dallas Cowboys, where, undrafted, he was trying out for the team. He’d been an outstanding defensive back and kickoff returner for the Tigers, a star in the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference, an NAIA (not NCAA) entity that included our cross-town rivals Henderson State, Southern State (in Magnolia), Arkansas Tech (in Russellville), and Arkansas A & M (in Monticello), whose mascots were, respectively, the Reddies, Muleriders, Wonder Boys, and Boll Weevils. (Less exotic were the Arkansas State Teachers College Bears in Conway, the College of the Ozarks Eagles in Clarksville, and the Harding College Bisons in Searcy.) 

So, back to the summer of 1970. I was at Sharon South’s house (she being my fiancée) in North Little Rock when I heard by phone that Cliff would be starting in a pre-season game that night for the Cowboys. (BTW, her dad Rheubin South, was pastor of Park Hill BC in North Little Rock, and served as chairman of the OBU board in the era when my dad taught religion/philosophy and my mom was alumni secretary.) Of course, we OBU folks lit up the lines to pass along the exciting news. But then I saw an article by Orville Henry, the chief of sports coverage in the Gazette. He’d done a piece on college players from the state who were NFL prospects. I scanned the feature for Cliff’s name and came up empty. This had to be a mistake, so I called the paper and was surprised to get Orville himself. I esplained that he’d missed one, and he granted that he knew that Cliff was indeed scheduled to play that night, but he’d only named those players that he thought had a chance at making their teams. Oof!

This was so Gazette, so Orville Henry. We’d grown used to Razorback adoration and AIC marginalization. (I sometimes say that, if OBU won the NAIA national basketball championship, it would appear on page five of the sports section. Meanwhile on page one, we’d read what a Razorback had for breakfast.) Of course, I loved it when Arkansas beat Nebraska on New Year’s Day, 1965, in the Cotton Bowl, to win the national championship. A lot of state pride in that. But, come on, Cliff was starting at free safety for the Cowboys. 

There were other rookie Arkansans (or Arkansawyers) in the NLF camps that summer—Razorbacks Rodney Brand (NY Giants), Bruce Maxwell (Lions), Terry Stewart (Jets), Bob Stankovich (Chiefs), Cliff Powell (Cardinals), and Jerry Dossey (Cowboys), as well as Clovis Swinney from Arkansas State in Jonesboro (Saints).  (Incidentally, at ROTC summer camp in 1969, I once rode in the back of a 5-ton truck with ASU’s Bill Bergey, who’d just been drafted by the Bengals and who would go on to play in a number of Pro-Bowls with the Eagles. We’d both taken our turn at KP the day before, and we were riding out to a makeup exercise.)

None of those Arkansas guys in the 1970 draft made it to multiple Pro-Bowls, Super Bowl victories, and the Hall of Fame. But the guy from little Ouachita did. (And no, Howard Cosell, it wasn’t O-uh-cheé-tuh.) And yes, there are others from Ouachita who’ve had an impact, including Mike Huckabee. And even old Henderson across the street can boast Billy Bob Thornton. But we’re talkin’ football.

Here, in this photo, you see the mark of Cliff’s generosity toward his alma mater, the stadium he provided us. And here is his Hall of Fame acceptance speech, in which he quotes Proverbs 3:5-6. (His longtime “twin” at strong safety, Charlie Waters, has just introduced him.).

Back in 2020, I was interim pastor at FBC Henderson, Kentucky, across the Ohio from Evansville, Indiana. One day I found myself across the river in Hoosier country, and I came upon a stock of old Life magazines in a flea market. The January 14, 1972 issue caught my eye, what with Roger Staubach and Tom Landry on the cover. This was the year the Cowboys won their first Super Bowl, defeating the Miami Dolphins. The magazine featured group photos of the defensive and offensive rosters, and there’s Cliff standing in the august company of defensive backs, Herb Adderley, Cornell Green, and Mel Renfro, and behind a line including another Hall of Famer, Bob Lilly. (BTW, Mike Ditka played tight end for that team.)

I bought the magazine, and last week I passed it along to the wife of another Ouachita alum who lived in the DFW “Metroplex.” She said she lived up the street from Cliff’s son, who looked like his daddy, and she assured me she’d pass it on to him. 

So let’s sing, “Ouachita, thy sons and daughters, will carry thy flag unfurled . . .”