Hendrix studies adding football Hendrix has announced it will create a committee to study the feasibility of bringing football back to the Conway, Ark., campus. The sport has been absent from Hendrix since the 1960 football season. Hendrix is one of three schools in the SCAC without football. Composed of alumni, students, faculty and staff, the committee will conduct an extensive study to determine the financial feasibility, along with student and alumni interest in the program. The process is expected to take a year, and the college’s Board of Trustees would ultimately have to approve the implementation. "This will be an inclusive process, and it will be an objective process," President J. Timothy Cloyd said. "Given the development of the facilities and the growth in the SCAC, I think it's the ideal time to start asking some questions about adding football on the Division III level here at Hendrix." Colorado College and Birmingham-Southern are joining the conference for the 2007 football season. Hendrix, Southwestern and Oglethorpe are the only three schools that don’t field a football team. The athletic scholarships offered by other Arkansas colleges was a major reason Hendrix dropped football in 1960, according to historical accounts. In the late 1940s, Hendrix officials became frustrated because other schools in Arkansas began to subsidize athletics -- football players room, board, tuition and oftentimes spending money in exchange for their participation in athletics -- according to the 1984 book Hendrix Collage: A Centennial History written by James E. Lester Jr. That development meant that some schools “will have the best football teams that money can buy,” former Hendrix president Matt Locke Ellis said at that time. Hendrix football teams were then at a disadvantage. By the fall of 1955, the Hendrix football team included only 22 players, and over a three-year span the Warriors won only one game. These factors, combined with the mounting expense of fielding a football team, forced the discontinuance of football at Hendrix in 1956. Football returned briefly in the late 1950s but was discontinued following the 1960 season. Hendrix is scheduled to open its new 100,000 square-foot Wellness and Athletic Center this summer, a facility that includes a new artificial turf field for the college’s field hockey and lacrosse programs. The field could also accommodate football. Additionally, a new field house being constructed near the facility could be conformed to add football dressing facilities. |
| Permalink | Apr 26, 2007 |
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