University of Arkansas Monticello - Boll Weevil Yearbook (Monticello, AR)

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STEWART FERGUSON Coach FOOTBALL The 1940 “Boll Weevil’’ Football Team gained the reputation of being probably the most unique and un- orthodox team to ever play football in the United States. Several nation-wide stories on the team appeared in hundreds of daily newspapers. Feature articles on the team appeared in several of the largest papers in the country, including The New York Times, The New York Herald-Tribune, The Pittsburg Press, and The Los An- geles Times. Collier’s Magazine headlined the team with millions of readers in an article by Kyle Crichton. Almost miraculously and without precedent in the his- tory of American football, the Arkansas A. and M. Team became one of the nation’s most famed teams. Newspapers, athletic directors, school superinten- dents, and college presidents stated that the ‘’Boll Weevils’’ introduced a new theory of football which may revolutionize American football. A New York sports writer wrote that the team had given, ‘‘the most unique contribution ever made to college football.’ In spite of losing more games than winning and coming from a small college in a little-recognized section of the United States, the team attracted the attention of the entire United States—an achievement never before duplicated. Everywhere the team played, it won the crowds with its spectacular, clean, and original style of play. To see a group of boys playing football solely because they liked to and enjoying every minute of every game whether winning, losing, or tying was a refreshing spectacle to most fans. The season opened with a game with Louisiana College in Pineville. Although losing, the Weevils were asked back for a game next fall after they had attracted the largest opening game crowd in a number of years.

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ieee CHESHIER Quarterback Monticello, Ark. 2. IRA JONES Guard Helena, Ark. S LWNIS BISHOP Quarterback Little Rock, Ark. 4. FRANK CARSON, JR. Back Monticello, Ark. See ee FEVER Teh End Smackover, Ark. 6. VAN BREWER Center Cotton Plant, Miss. 7. BENNY GASTON Halfback McGehee, Ark. CaERRYareEILD Tackle Little Rock, Ark. 9. NORMAN WELLS End Hamburg, Ark. 10,.:.PAUL STEGALL Tackle Monticello, Ark. ipa vVERLSGICLE Halfback Monticello, Ark. The team played two games on their next trip to the eastern part of the United States; the first, with Eastern Kentucky Teachers in Richmond, Kentucky, and the next, with Lebanon Valley College in Hershey, Pennsyl- vania. Several large cities were visited including Pitts- burg, Washington, Baltimore, and Nashville. The boys enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of the Hershey Choco- late Company for several days and had full opportunity to enjoy their stay in one of the most beautiful spots in the nation. Hans Groenhoff, ace photographer for ee ees and Life Magazine, travelled with the team for a day. Two days after the return from the East, the team started on its trip to the West, playing the first game at Denton, Texas. During the following week, the team saw the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, the Rocky Mountains, and many other scenic spots. Three days were spent in Los Angeles and Hollywood where the team visited many of the show places, saw many movie stars, and went through Warner Brothers Studio. The team visited with Bob Burns and were his guests both at his home and at the broadcasting studio. One of the brightest events of the trip was the dating party which the boys enjoyed with a group of U.C.L.A. girls, including several who appear in pictures. Leaving Hollywood, the team travelled through the Orange groves and grape vineyards of California and up the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Reno, Nevada, where a game was played with the University of Nevada. AI- though the game was lost, the boys soon forgot the defeat in the liveliest and most rapidly-moving city in America. The most exciting travel of the season came next as the team drove to the coast. Winding through gorges, climbing past Mt. Lassen, skirting Mt. Shasta, and creeping around the peaks of the Sierras on the narrow roads carved from the side of the mountains gave the boys probably their greatest thrills. On reaching the coast, the team lost to California State in a driving rain storm. Hurriedly, the team started on their next leg of the trip, covering sixteen hundred miles of mountain and desert in the next four days to reach Rapid City in time for their game with the School of Mines. The Boll Weevils won this game in one of the best and most spectacular displays of football ever seen in the state. Fifteen hundred miles were travelled in the next three days, reaching home at midnight before playing Hendrix College the next afternoon. The Boll Weevils lost to Hendrix in the last three minutes of play after holding them to the closest game between the two teams in the past ten years. During the three weeks, the team play- ed five games interspersed between seven thousand miles of bus travel—an endurance record which has probably never been equalled by an American college football team.