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Posted on January 31, 2020 by Scott

100 months ago, on October 1, 2011, the Little Rock Culture Vulture blog was started. In that time there have been over 5200 posts (this is the 5,209th post to be exact).

But all things must come to an end.

The day before the blog started, the Clinton Presidential Bridge was dedicated on a very hot day. My favorite memory from that day was seeing Skip and Billie Rutherford along with Rosi Smith escorting Bill Bowen and Sen. Dale Bumpers to the event and away from it. The trio wanted to be sure these two longtime Clinton friends who had an appreciation for history were present at this milestone event. Now over seven years later both of those legal and political giants are gone.

The next day kicked off 2011’s National Arts & Humanities month, as well as this blog. The first entry focused on the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra concerts on October 1 and 2. The theme of the evening was Italian Vacation. The program consisted of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 in A, Op. 90, Rossini’s, Overture to The Italian Girl in Algiers, Puccini’s Chrysanthemums, and Respighi’s Pines of Rome.

A lot has changed in these 100 months. There have been leadership changes at almost all of Little Rock’s cultural institutions. Quite a few legendary arts leaders and supporters have died. Robinson Center Performance Hall closed for 28 months and re-emerged as a state-of-the-art performance and event facility. The Arkansas Arts Center has temporarily left MacArthur Park while its facility is completely reimagined (with a renewed emphasis on its original 9th Street façade). The Arkansas Rep ceased operations for 10 months and then returned (but still needs continued local support). Scores of sculptures have been placed in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden and throughout Little Rock. The Little Rock Zoo has welcomed many babies and bid farewell to some longtime favorites. We said goodbye to Riverfest and the Little Rock Film Festival and welcomed both the ACANSA Arts Festival and Arkansas Cinema Society. And the list could go on. (You can look back over the past 100 months to see everything.)

A look back through this blog sees some features started and abandoned. (The Architeazer and the Monday Musings became too tedious to keep up.) As the blog progressed, the historical looks at Little Rock’s past and the features on individuals emerged as the most popular entries. Food, sports history, and civic engagement were added as entry topics.

The blog is not going to disappear. It just won’t have new content added to it. If and when I do decide to take it down, rest assured it will be archived. The historian in me could not allow it to simply vanish and be lost to time and the cyberether.

I will still appear on other platforms sharing information from time to time. My social media accounts will still promote cultural events. I’m not going away. I’m just closing this chapter.

So why stop?

Honestly, the blog has become a chore. I don’t have the time for it. And I don’t believe in a sporadic updating of it.

I am trying to finish a book on the decades-long effort to construct a municipal auditorium in Little Rock, and have ideas for three future books. (You can hear a little about my Robinson Auditorium project at the Clinton School at 6pm on Wednesday, February 19.) I need to focus my free time on writing so that I can conclude the book period of time shorter than it took to actually get the edifice in Little Rock. I have also taken on more volunteer duties with my beloved Missouri State University and am now serving in a leadership role with Americans for the Arts. Each of these require more attention.

When I started this, I wanted it to be fun–for me as the writer and for you as the reader. For the most part it has stayed that way. I had no thought about how long it would last, or how I would know it was time to end it. Now I do know.

I am grateful for opportunities this blog has afforded me. I can never fully express how much the compliments and comments from readers have meant to me. I have met people and made friendships as a result of this blog. I am definitely a better person because of this undertaking. (This blog has kept me occupied as I recuperated after a broken ankle, through the mourning of my grandmother’s death, and during several other personal challenges.)

I’ve never run out of things to write.

It was amazing. I would normally sit down between the 10th and 15th of a month and start mapping out the next month’s entries. Often that first look at the month would see enormous gaps. I’d wonder if THIS would be the month I would not have much to say. But then, each month, it would fill up. There were Clinton School speakers, Oxford American concerts, CALS Ron Robinson Theater offerings, the Rep, the Symphony, the Arts Center, the Museum of Discovery, etc., etc., etc. Even this week, as I was working on the final entries, I kept coming up with additional things to add to these last few days.

I will be honest; it has been hard to make this transition. I still see events in February or March and start to think about them as future blog entries. Then I remind myself I do not need to do that. Walking away from it will be an adjustment. But I am ready to make that adjustment. I am at peace with decision.

I actually nearly closed it down over the summer. But I realized that January 2020 would be the 100th month, so I decided to go out with that.

What no one knows (until now) is that I also obsessed over the statistics (that is how I easily knew January would be the 100th month). I analyzed readership and compared each month to prior ones. It became a ritual for me each morning before work to see where the current month fell in relationship to all the other months in about five different categories. I’ll miss the number crunching. (I truly am a big geek.) But in time I’ll find something else to replace it. (NCAA basketball tournaments are around the corner, and then MLB baseball, the Tony Awards offer me a lot of statistics, college football, Little Rock historical election data, Missouri State University data—well, you get the picture.)

Thank you to everyone who sent me press releases, story ideas, or in other ways contributed content.

Thank you to everyone who read this, who shared this, who encouraged others to read the website, who posted it on social media.

In old school journalism the end of a story or a press release was notated with -30-. That let the editor know the story was at an end. There was no more. No further pages. No continuation.

While now people generally use ### instead, I’m old school.

So let my penultimate statement be a simple yet heartfelt “Thank You.”

For the final word….

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Happy Birthday to Skip Rutherford!

Posted on January 28, 2020 by Scott

Though a native of Batesville (and a proud booster to this day), James L. “Skip” Rutherford has lived in Little Rock for many years. While he was a student at the University of Arkansas, he probably never envisioned the impact he would have on the cultural scene of Little Rock.

After moving to Little Rock, Skip (and his wife Billie) became civic boosters which often involved attending or promoting cultural events. However, by the mid-1990s, this moved into a whole new realm.

Skip was one of the visionaries behind the creation of a Central High Visitors Center. His interest in this project combined his interests in public service, public policy, and public schools. This was an extension of his work as an aide to Senator David Pryor from 1979 to 1983 and a Little Rock School Board member from 1987 to 1991. As the 40th anniversary of the integration of Little Rock Central High approached, Skip worked with Mayor Jim Dailey and others to plan the 1997 commemoration activities as well as the 1998 recognition of the Women’s Emergency Committee.

A few weeks after the Central High 40th anniversary events in September 1997, President Clinton announced that Little Rock would be the site of his Presidential Library. As President of the Clinton Foundation, he was involved in the planning for not only the construction of the building but also the grand opening festivities. Through his efforts, the City’s major cultural institutions all had events in conjunction with the opening of the Clinton Presidential Center.

In 2006, he followed Sen. David Pryor in the role of Dean of the Clinton School of Public Service. Among his accomplishments in this role has been the expansion of the Clinton School Speaker Series. This free series of lectures and public discussions has added immensely to Little Rock’s cultural life. Topics range from foreign relations to domestic policy, from social services to community philanthropy, The lecture series has also focused on productions at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, guest artists with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, books by historians, and many other cultural topics over the years.

That he would oversee the expansion of this lecture program should not be a surprise. He is also the founder (in 1983) of the Political Animals Club. While the original, non-partisan group still meets regularly in Little Rock, several other affiliates have been created in other portions of the state. He has always been one for civil, civic dialogue.

In April and May 2018, Skip was one of the civic leaders who stepped up to promote efforts to save the Arkansas Repertory Theatre. He was also involved in the planning and promotion of the Elizabeth Eckford Bench which was installed near Little Rock Central High School in September 2018. Later that month, he presided over an event celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Women’s Emergency Committee.

Tomorrow night (January 29), the Clinton School will feature a conversation with Elizabeth Eckford at 5pm at Statehouse Convention Center.

Little Rock Copper Bowl: When Chiefs (of the Police variety) were involved in football in Little Rock

Posted on January 27, 2020 by Scott

Next Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday, so it seems to be a good time to remember the five year series of football games in Little Rock known as the Copper Bowl.

From December 1959 through December 1963, the Little Rock Police Department played the North Little Rock Police Department in a series of football games. The Copper Bowl games were fundraisers to help the LRPD provide food and presents for needy families during the Christmas season.

The agreement was that the teams would play for five years. The team with the most wins would permanently receive the Copper Bowl trophy. The LRPD was outfitted with uniforms from Little Rock University and Louisiana State University (thanks to the efforts of Sgt. Harold Zook). The games were played at Quigley Stadium.

Before the final game on December 1, 1963, the series was tied at 2-2. The LRPD team won the game and permanently captured the trophy. Over the five year period several thousand dollars were raised.

80 years ago today – Basketball came to Robinson Auditorium

Posted on January 11, 2020 by Scott

Coach Earl Quigley in the 1940s

While Joseph Taylor Robinson Memorial Auditorium is known today as a performance and meeting venue, in its early days it was also the home to sports. Eighty years ago tonight the first basketball game was played at Robinson.

With the renovation dropping the orchestra level down many feet, one of the basketball goals would have been approximately where the cast of Wicked is currently performing.

One of the first regular activities which took place in the lower level exhibition hall was a series of boxing and wrestling matches. Building on the success of this, basketball came to the convention hall in January 1940.

A series of games featuring Little Rock High School and North Little Rock High School were announced by Tiger Coach Earl Quigley to take place from January 11 through February 16, the official opening day for the facility.

At that time, neither high school had a gymnasium; therefore both schools played their basketball games on their school auditorium stages with fans seated in the audience. The convention hall offered a regulation size floor (made of pecan block parquet) with seating for over 1,300 people along the sidelines and in the balcony. The first men’s basketball game in Robinson Auditorium took place between the Little Rock High School Tigers and the North Little Rock High School Wildcats on January 11, 1940.

The Tigers lost the game before a crowd estimated to be 1,300. Earlier in the evening there had been an exhibition between two women’s basketball teams. The cost for admission to the games was 35 cents for the reserved seating and 25 cents for general admission.

150, 100, and 50 years ago in Little Rock

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Scott

As a new year starts, a look back to newspapers on January 1 of 1870, 1920, and 1970. (While people may debate whether those years marked the start of a decade or not – no one can argue they were new years, and were 150, 100, and 50 years ago, respectively.)

150 Years Ago
The Arkansas Gazette of 1870 was four pages. It was still, as it had been up to that point in time and would be for a decade or so, largely a combination of delayed national news and advertisements. Of the four pages, there was probably only about half of one page that was actually local news.

There were two articles in the Gazette about the requirements for Georgia to be readmitted to the Union. There was also an update on the adoption of the 15th Amendment. Locally, the Arkansas River had risen eight inches on December 30 and 31. There was also discussion about the Little Rock Police Department, which consisted of a chief, two sergeants, and ten privates. As the Arkansas Democrat was eight years away from being founded, the Gazette was the only Little Rock daily newspaper in 1870.

100 Years Ago
The January 1, 1920, editions of the Arkansas Gazette and Arkansas Democrat covered pretty much the same stories. Prices were going up, Bolsheviks were getting deported from Chicago, the League of Nations was being debated in Washington DC.

Local news in both papers included word that a trace of oil had been found in El Dorado (foreshadowing the boom which would occur later in the decade), and that Jack Dempsey was arriving in town to box. Both papers carried similar editorial cartoons on the front page of the paper with a Baby New Year theme.

The Gazette noted that planning for the 1920 Census was underway and that women’s clothes were going to be cheaper because with changing fashions, they would be wearing fewer clothes.

The Democrat (an afternoon paper) ran an article stating that New Year’s celebrations in DC were somewhat muted, perhaps because of concerns about the health of President Wilson, who had suffered a stroke in October 1919. There was also an article about planning being underway for the 300th anniversary of the Mayflower with events set for England, Holland, and the US.

The Democrat also noted that Arkansas had seen 12 lynchings in 1919 (though the Elaine massacre was no doubt not included in this number).

50 Years Ago
As 1970 dawned, the Gazette and Democrat both carried stories about Vietnam and the Department of Justice seeking a delay in implementation of school desegregation. Locally, it was announced that KATV was purchasing the old Worthen Bank Building at Main and Fourth Streets. The Hogs were getting ready to face Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl (which the Razorbacks would lose by a score of 27 to 22 to the Archie Manning led Rebels).

The Gazette carried stories about Roy Cohn being indicted in Illinois for financial fraud, the US Supreme Court being asked to define obscenity, and flooding in Appalachia. The Democrat had a story about five US soldiers being killed during a 24 hour cease fire, which brought the total number of American casualties in Vietnam to more than 40,000 in nine years. That same day, Vice President Spiro Agnew had visited troops in Vietnam.

Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa, in the middle of an eight year prison term, had indicated he would share information with authorities in return for President Nixon commuting his sentence. In local crime news, City Hall and the municipal garage behind the building had been broken into. While there had been a failed attempt to pry open the Collector’s office, thieves had apparently only been able to get a small amount of cash by breaking a vending machine in the building.

The Gazette and Democrat both ran editorial cartoons (though no longer on the front page) which dealt with the start of a new decade. The former’s merely featured a calendar with “Happy New Decade.” The latter noted that Communism had been a focus of the 1960s, but that the environment looked to be a focus of the 1970s.

More Boxing Day looks at the sport of Boxing in LR. This time at Robinson Auditorium.

Posted on December 26, 2019 by Scott

Boxer Al Globe lays in the ring after being knocked down by Bob Sikes in this GAZETTE staff photo

Though the origins of the name Boxing Day have nothing to do with pugilism, today’s entry looks at early boxing matches at Robinson Auditorium.

Though the building did not open until February 1940, there were a few preview events in the lower level exhibition hall beginning in October 1939. (The construction upstairs would not be completed until January 1940.)

Wrestling was a more common sport on the lower level. But from time to time there was boxing. It appears that the first boxing matches took place on November 9, 1939.

Pine Bluff’s heavyweight Bob Sikes was the star attraction on the main card as he faced off against Chicago’s Al Globe. The two were fairly evenly matched through the first three rounds. In the fourth round, Globe sent Sikes to the mat, before the latter arose on the seventh count. (He was a bit groggy and could not name the city in which he was boxing.) Ninety seconds into the fifth round, however, Sikes delivered a knockout punch to Globe.

The warm-up bout featured Carolinian Maxie Doyle against Jimmy Merritt of Oklahoma. After the ref called the match on a TKO in favor of Doyle, the two continued to fight in the ring. It took their seconds to leave the corner and help the ref break it up. The boxers were threatened with suspension if they continued it any further.

Prior to the Doyle-Merritt bout, Bauxite’s Woody Bell edged out Young Leonard in six rounds. Charley Regan and Bobbie Lee came to a draw after their six. The first match of the evening featured two African American boxers: Little Rock’s Bill Walker, who earned a decision over North Little Rock’s Herbert Taylor.

Since the heating system was not yet operational at Robinson Auditorium, promoters for the early wrestling and boxing matches touted the fact that a temporary heating system was in place as temperatures started to drop.

Sikes was back at Robinson in another marquee match on February 9, 1940, one week before the official opening of the upstairs Music Hall. By this time permanent heating and lighting had been connected.

Boxer Bob Sikes, GAZETTE staffer Lou MacDuff and boxer Joe Regan in a GAZETTE staff photo

The headline bout was Sikes against Joe Regan of Ames, Iowa. They were scheduled for ten rounds.

Earlier fights on the card were the six-round middleweight match of Gould Nix of Willow meeting Buck Buchanan of Rogers; welterweight Doyle Venable of Dierks vs. Little Rock’s Freddie Richardson; Johnny Allen of Saint Louis meeting Woody Bell of Bauxite; and, in the first match, Kid Tobey of Hot Springs vs. Bill Walker of Little Rock. The latter was a four round bout featuring two African American boxers.

The marquee fight did not go anywhere near as long as ten rounds. Fifty-four seconds into the second round, Sikes pummeled Regan with a right to the chin, a right to the cheek and a left hook to the head. After that Regan was down for the count. Though at the eight count he did manage to turn over from his back to his stomach and remained in that position until being helped to his corner following the bell.

Earlier in the evening, Nix, Venable, and Bell all won their bouts by decisions of the judges. Walker won the curtain raiser by a knock out in the second round.

It was a capacity crowd for the boxing event at Robinson Auditorium. Tickets, which were available for purchase at Rube & Scott, Inc. men’s clothing store, ranged from 55 cents for general admission, to $1.10 for reserved seating and ringside seats of $1.65 or @2.20.

On Boxing Day – a look back at Muhammad Ali in Arkansas

Posted on December 26, 2019 by Scott

Boxing Day has nothing to do with pugilism. But it is a fun day to recall some boxing-related stories in Little Rock history that are related to the sport.

Dan T. Sprick was a Little Rock Mayor for two years in the 1940s after having previously served on the City Council. From 1961 until 1970, he served as a State Senator from Little Rock and was a reliable ally for Governor Orval Faubus. Once Faubus left office and was replaced by Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, Sprick continued to wave the banner of segregation and agitation. One of his new focuses was boxer Muhammad Ali.

In 1969, the University of Arkansas announced that Ali would be one of the speakers for its public appearance series. After refusing to be drafted and go to Vietnam, Ali was barred from earning a living as a professional boxer and so was making a living giving lectures. His refusal to submit to the draft was based on his religious beliefs as a recent convert to the Nation of Islam.

Opposition to Ali’s appearance rose almost immediately, and from Little Rock not Fayetteville. The Pulaski Businessman’s Association sent a letter to UA president David Mullins asking him to bar Ali from speaking. President Mullins insisted that he had the right to speak on campus. When that didn’t work, Senator Sprick and his cohorts in the state’s upper chamber went to work. A resolution calling for Ali to be barred from speaking failed on a voice vote after much debate.

While there were certainly some racial overtones to Sprick’s opposition, he and others seemed to be more concerned over the former Cassius Clay’s conversion to Islam plus his ensuing refusal to be drafted. Senator Sprick declared that if President Nixon would draft him now he would go to serve in Vietnam. (Sprick was in his late 60s at the time.)

Ali’s speech on the campus actually caused some controversy on its own. One of the things he advocated for segregation. He praised Alabama Governor George Wallace. The Arkansas Gazette which had been following the saga in both news stories and editorials, noted that remarks like that should have endeared Ali to Dan Sprick and others.

Ali, of course, resumed his boxing career and defined that sport in the 1970s with his talent in the ring and his showmanship.

Based on an editorial, Sprick sued the Gazette for libel. The paper settled with him out of court because his health was poor. Sprick died in 1972.

Little Rock Culture Vulture

Cultural events, places and people in the Little Rock area

Category Archives: sports

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Happy Birthday to Skip Rutherford!

Little Rock Copper Bowl: When Chiefs (of the Police variety) were involved in football in Little Rock

80 years ago today – Basketball came to Robinson Auditorium

150, 100, and 50 years ago in Little Rock

More Boxing Day looks at the sport of Boxing in LR. This time at Robinson Auditorium.

On Boxing Day – a look back at Muhammad Ali in Arkansas

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