Turkey Day Football in LR – Little Rock High vs NLR

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Scott

After 20 years of playing a variety of schools on Thanksgiving, in 1934 Little Rock High School had started the new tradition of playing the North Little Rock High School Wildcats. These cross-river rivals had played a few games previously in the 1910s and early 1920s. The competition was resumed in 1931, but was not on Thanksgiving Day until 1934. With that game, the Tigers of Little Rock would begin a 49-year tradition of taking on their biggest rival on Turkey Day.

For much of the 1920s and 1930s, a Thanksgiving Day game for Little Rock High School meant rain. That was the case in the 1934 meeting at Kavanaugh Field. (Located at the current spot of Quigley Stadium, it was a baseball field on which football games could also be played. In 1936, the current stadium opened.) The Tigers and Wildcats played to a 2-0 win achieved by the southside Bengals of Earl Quigley.

Another notable matchup was the 1938 game. Little Rock won 12 to 7. With that win, it captured its first official state football championship. (Though the Arkansas Activities Association does now credit LRHS with several prior championships.)

The 1939 edition took place on Arkansas Thanksgiving. That November featured five Thursdays. President Roosevelt issued a proclamation that Thanksgiving would be the fourth Thursday, as it traditionally was. However Arkansas and a few other states chose to observe it on the final Thursday. Little Rock won 6 to 0, but it was a messy game. Some sports fans joked that the game was FDR’s revenge on Arkansas for ignoring him regarding Thanksgiving.

In 1941, only a few days before the US would be plunged into World War II, North Little Rock achieved its first Turkey Day win over Little Rock. The score was 26 for the Wildcats and 0 for the Tigers. This was only the third ever loss for the Tigers on a Thanksgiving Day. The Tigers were so dominant on Turkey Day games, a student had once remarked to a Gazette reporter that the matchup against Pine Bluff should be moved to Thanksgiving since the Tigers always seemed to win on that day. (Pine Bluff was the state’s other football powerhouse at the time and often gave the Tigers fits in games.)

North Little Rock repeated as winner in the 1942 game, this time with a 31 to 12 score. Writing for the Gazette, Orville Henry wondered if this would be the final meeting for the duration of the war. He opined that many of the players might be in a different type of uniform for future games and that rubber might be needed for the war effort instead of athletic equipment. While some colleges and high schools did drop football during the war, neither LR nor NLR did.

The Tigers were back on top in 1943 by a 13-7 score. (It would be the last football game for the NLR coach who had been drafted.) The 1944 game also featured a 13-7 score, but this time it was flipped and the Wildcats were winners. The 1945 edition ground to a 13-13 tie.

In 1947, both teams were undefeated heading into the Turkey Day classic. The inky wretches and scribes were predicting another evenly matched slugfest. Instead Little Rock owned the game and came out with a 13-0 win.

The teams met eight times in the 1950s on Thanksgiving. Little Rock won seven of the eight, losing the 1951 game by one point (13 to 14).

With the anticipation of a second Little Rock high school to be opened in a few years, Little Rock High School was rechristened as Little Rock Central High in 1954. The new school, named Hall High, opened in 1957 but played much smaller schools for its first year on the gridiron. Plans were underway for Hall and Central to meet on Turkey Day in 1958, so the 1957 meeting of Little Rock and North Little Rock would be the final time the two teams would meet on Thanksgiving Day.

Little Rock Central High had dominated world headlines in September and October 1957 with the integration of the Little Rock Nine. The sports coverage of this game however belied all the drama off the field. News reports focused on Turkey Day as the final game between the longtime rivals and on the fact that it had a morning start time instead of the traditional afternoon start time. In the end, the Tigers had the same result as they did in the first Turkey Day meeting: a win. The Bengals scored 40 while the Cats only managed 7.

After 24 meetings on Thanksgiving Day, Little Rock had 19 wins, 4 losses, and one tie. Seven times they shut out the Wildcats, and one time the northern team blanked them. The fewest total points scored were 2 in the 1934 game, while the 1950 game produced a cumulative total of 71 points (LR 64, NLR 7). The Tigers scored a total of 517 points over 24 games and gave up only 203.

Turkey Day Football in LR – Beating a Variety of Opponents from 1914 to 1933

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Scott

From the first Thanksgiving football game for Little Rock High School in 1914 until 1933, the Tigers played a variety of opponents. They faced off against other Arkansas high schools, out of state high schools, a college and a team of soldiers. Their record in these twenty games was 18 wins and 2 losses. While the opponent may have varied, each year the Tiger eleven lined up against their foes at home in Little Rock. The team had enough of a reputation that they could invite opponents and never had to travel.

Playing games on Thanksgiving had become a tradition by the time Little Rock joined in the fray in 1914. Their first Thanksgiving Day opponent was Texarkana High School. The Tigers won by a score of 20 to 0. The crowd of 1,500 at West End Park (now the site of Quigley Stadium) not only witnessed the high school game, but also saw Arkansas College (now Lyon College) defeat Little Rock College (no association with UALR) by a score of 40 to 0. With their win, Little Rock captured the state championship – their fourth since 1907.

By the next Thanksgiving Day, the field at West End Park was known as Kavanaugh Field. It would have that name until it was replaced by Quigley Stadium in 1936. From 1915 until 1933, Little Rock would defeat three Arkansas high schools Van Buren, Benton and Hot Springs as well as high schools from Oklahoma, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Kansas, Illinois and Missouri. Three of their out of state opponents returned for a second time, so even though these schools were generally overwhelmed by Little Rock High, it was obviously viewed as a positive experience. Playing out of state teams garnered other benefits. In 1920, they played Tupelo Military Institute, which held the Mississippi-Alabama championship. By defeating them, Little Rock High School claimed the state championship of four states: Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi.

In 1917, they beat the college team of Arkansas State Normal School (now UCA) by a score of 45 to 0. (The Tigers so overpowered State Normal that the Gazette mused that the extremely muddy field was all that kept LR from scoring more than 45 points.)

The Tigers’ only two defeats came in 1918 and 1924. The first Thanksgiving Day defeat came in 1918 when Little Rock played a team of soldiers from Camp Pike. The soldiers were an average of 20 pounds heavier than the Tigers. They used that weight to their advantage to defeat the high schoolers by a score of 42 to 0. This was at the height of the US involvement in The Great War. So this game was certainly part of Little Rock’s war effort as the City worked to extend hospitality to soldiers. The Tigers’ 1924 defeat was at the hands of Atlanta Tech High School by a score of 35 to 7.

While the Thanksgiving games were serious business for the Tigers and their fans, they also provided for moments of entertainment. In 1923, the Gazette reported that the Tigers had hosted a dance at the Capital Hotel for the visiting Ensley High football team from Birmingham, Alabama. One wonders if there were a motive to their hospitality considering that the next day the Tigers won by a score of 20-7. Perhaps distracting the opposing players the night before the game was all part of Coach Earl Quigley’s strategy. On Thanksgiving 1929, Little Rock hosted previously undefeated Soldan High from Saint Louis. At halftime of the game (which would end with LR scoring 26 to their opponent’s 6), there was a performance by the Little Rock High School band as well as a group of girls called Quigley’s Quackers.

Based on their reputation as a powerhouse, Little Rock would continue to play teams from other states. But after 1933, Little Rock would play a close rival: first North Little Rock (1934-1957) and then Hall High (1958-1982). During the two decades of playing various teams, the Little Rock Tigers achieved ten shutouts and suffered one shut out. The Tigers scored 492 points and gave up 133 points.

1914	Little Rock	20	Texarkana	12
1915	Little Rock	40	Muskogee Central High	0
1916	Little Rock	46	Van Buren	0
1917	Little Rock	45	Arkansas State Normal	0
1918	Little Rock	0	Camp Pike	42
1919	Little Rock	52	Benton	0
1920	Little Rock	6	Tupelo Military Institute	3
1921	Little Rock	21	New Orleans Warren Easton High	3
1922	Little Rock	7	Bryan (TX) High	0
1923	Little Rock	20	Birmingham Ensley High	7
1924	Little Rock	7	Atlanta Technical High	35
1925	Little Rock	6	New Orleans Warren Easton High	0
1926	Little Rock	18	Birmingham Ensley High	6
1927	Little Rock	37	Wichita Central High	0
1928	Little Rock	18	Chicago Lindblom High	0
1929	Little Rock	26	Saint Louis Soldan High	6
1930	Little Rock	33	Chicago Lindblom High	13
1931	Little Rock	31	Dallas Woodrow Wilson High	0
1932	Little Rock	6	Saint Louis Cleveland High	0
1933	Little Rock	13	Hot Springs	6

Muskogee Central High has been known as Muskogee High since the 1970 integration of the formerly all-white school with an African American high school.
Tupelo Military Institute existed from 1913 to 1937.
Warren Easton High is Louisiana’s oldest high school. After Hurricane Katrina it is now a charter high school.
Bryan High School was replaced by Stephen F. Austin High School, which was replaced by a new Bryan High School.
Ensley High in Birmingham closed in 2006.
Atlanta Technical High closed in 1947. A charter school with the same name operated from 2004 to 2012.
Wichita Central High has been known as Wichita East High since 1929. It is the largest high school in Kansas.
Chicago Lindblom High now educates under the name Lindblom Math and Science Academy.
Saint Louis Soldan High now educates as Soldan International Studies High School
Woodrow Wilson High School continues to operate in the Lakewood neighborhood of East Dallas.
Saint Louis Cleveland High now educates as Cleveland Junior Naval Academy and is no longer in the longtime Grover Cleveland High School building.

PIGSKIN TURKEY DAY IN THE ROCK, Part 5 – Little Rock Catholic vs. NLR

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Scott

Following the demise of their Turkey Day rivalry with Little Rock High School, North Little Rock set their Thanksgiving sights on Little Rock Catholic. In 1958, they started a 21-year tradition of meeting on the fourth Thursday in November. (Previously Cathlolic had not been in a regular Thanksgiving rivalry. In fact, they sometimes did not even play on that day.)

The 1958 game, held at Wildcat Stadium, started where NLR’s previous Thanksgiving series had left off. A Little Rock team, now the Rockets of Catholic High, achieved a lopsided win over the NLR Wildcats. The final score was 26-0, in favor of Catholic.

The next several years saw close games. Sometimes Catholic would win, other times NLR was the victor. In 1960, Catholic lost the game, but won the conference championship (which was tantamount to a state championship at the time) due to results of other games. In 1965, NLR won the game AND the conference/state championship.

From 1966 to 1969, NLR ran up a string of convincing victories over Catholic High. This streak ended in 1970. That year, NLR had been ranked number 1 heading into the game. They lost the game to Catholic by a score of 21 to 16. This also marked the first meeting of the teams to take place at the Catholic home field of War Memorial Stadium. All previous meetings had been at NLR’s Wildcat Stadium.

Starting in 1970, they alternated hosting the game at their respective home stadium. In 1971, Catholic again won the game and a state championship. The following year, NLR won both the game and a championship. By that time, the northside school bore the name Ole Main to distinguish it from the new NLR high school: Northeast. The 1972 game would be the final time that the game between the Rockets and Wildcats had championship implications.

From 1973 through 1978, Catholic and NLR alternated winning the game with the home team coming out on top. Due to conference realignment, Catholic High dropped from AAAAA to AAAA starting with the 1979 football season. With that, they no longer played NLR on Thanksgiving Day.

Though in 1970 NLR had acquired its own cross-town rival with the opening of NLR Northeast, the creation of an all-NLR Thanksgiving Day tradition was never started. Likewise, Catholic did not start playing the new Little Rock high school, Parkview, on Turkey Day. Both would have probably created stronger Thanksgiving Day rivalries, but by this time, the Arkansas Activities Association was trying to discourage the tradition of playing on Thanksgiving. Having a game that late in the season interfered with conference tournaments. The AAA had actually tried to dissuade teams from playing on the holiday as early as 1961, but were rebuffed by the larger schools who saw no need to give up the tradition.

In 1958, there were at least 23 high school football games played throughout the state on Thanksgiving. By 1965, that number had shrunk to 13. In 1970, there were only two games: Hall v. Central and NLR v. Catholic.

The final tally of Thanksgiving meetings between NLR and Catholic was NLR 12 wins, Catholic 8 wins and one tie. Catholic twice shut out NLR, and the Wildcats blanked the Rockets three times. The northside team scored 267 points over 21 years, while the southsiders earned 223 points.

Year	NLR	Catholic
1958	0	26
1959	6	0
1960	20	14
1961	14	7
1962	7	14
1963	0	14
1964	6	6
1965	14	7
1966	33	0
1967	19	7
1968	40	13
1969	21	12
1970	16	21
1971	6	21
1972	7	6
1973	25	7
1974	3	8
1975	9	6
1976	7	14
1977	7	0
1978	7	20

PIGSKIN TURKEY DAY IN THE ROCK, Part 4 – Horace Mann vs. Scipio Jones

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Scott

From the 1930s to the early 1960s, Thanksgiving Day high school football in Arkansas was the time for big rivals to meet. In addition to Little Rock playing NLR (later morphing into Central playing Hall), many a Thanksgiving Day schedule involved seeing Jonesboro face off against Paragould or El Dorado play Camden. Fayetteville vs. Springdale, Morrilton vs. Conway, Newport vs. Batesville, and DeQueen vs. Texarkana were all longtime traditions.

In these days, football classifications were much more fluid. It would not be until the 1960s that the Arkansas Activities Association would permanently institute state playoffs in football. This led to the demise of Thanksgiving Day games throughout the state. Either the schools were not in the same classification and/or they were in a classification that had playoffs starting in mid-November. Gone were the days when a regular football season extended from September to Thanksgiving.

The two exceptions to this were the largest classification of schools and the segregated African American schools. The largest class, which eventually became known as the AAAAA (it had previously been the Big 6, 8, 9–whatever number of schools were in it), had few enough members that they were all in one conference. A conference championship was tantamount to a state championship.

The African American schools were ignored in athletics as they were in other areas. While the schools fielded teams and played each other, they did not have playoffs or Arkansas Activities Association recognized championships. Up through the late 1950s, a mention of their games in the Arkansas Gazette or Arkansas Democrat was rare.

For several years, Little Rock’s Dunbar High School Bearcats took on the Scipio Jones Dragons of North Little Rock on Thanksgiving Day. Due to the lack of coverage in newspapers, there are few records of these games. Unfortunately the yearbooks of neither school shed any light. Due to limited budgets which led to thinner yearbooks, the football team usually got one page that was devoted to showing the players and left no room for details about their exploits on the gridiron.

In the 1955-1956 school year, Little Rock opened a new high school for African American students – Horace Mann High School. The Bearcat mascot of Dunbar (now a junior high) became the new Horace Mann mascot. Mann carried on the tradition of playing Jones on Thanksgiving.

Many seasons the African American LR-NLR football game was the second meeting of the two teams. They usually played against each other in September and then again on Thanksgiving. This second game seems to have been as much about ensuring that their students, fans, and alumni had the chance to have a Thanksgiving Day game – just as most white schools throughout the state had.

Due to the lack of African American high schools fielding football teams in Arkansas, often the LR and NLR schools would also play out-of-state teams. While it was not unusual for Little Rock’s white high school to play teams from other states, this was because of prestige, not necessity. The same luxury was not afforded African American schools. In 1963, for instance, Horace Mann played teams from Oklahoma, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas. Their in-state rivals that year were segregated schools in North Little Rock, El Dorado, Pine Bluff (two schools), Camden, Hope, Hot Springs and Texarkana. Horace Mann’s travel schedule was much more extensive than either Central or Hall had on a weekly basis.

From 1956 through 1965, Mann and Jones met at Wildcat Stadium. After that season, the Thanksgiving game would alternate between Wildcat and Quigley. Since the Central v. Hall and NLR v. Catholic matchups were in the morning, the Mann v. Jones games were afternoon affairs.

As the Little Rock School District was gradually integrating its high schools in the 1960s, the Mann vs. Jones game continued. (North Little Rock was even slower in integrating its high school than LR had been with its high schools. Both seemed to be more focused on the “deliberate” part of the Supreme Court directive than on the “speed” aspect.) With the demise of Jones High in the spring of 1970, the Mann vs. Jones series ended.

Because of the lack of records of the Dunbar games, here is the breakdown only of the Mann games. In the fourteen Mann vs. Jones games, Horace Mann won ten of the outings, while Jones captured four. The Bearcats shut out the Dragons twice, while NLR only once blanked LR. Horace Mann scored 332 points over the fourteen Thanksgiving games to Scipio Jones’s 126 points.

	Horace Mann	Scipio Jones
1956	14	0
1957	27	13
1958	0	13
1959	40	7
1960	45	0
1961	31	6
1962	31	18
1963	14	20
1964	27	6
1965	51	9
1966	20	7
1967	13	14
1968	19	13
1969	8	19

PIGSKIN TURKEY DAY IN THE ROCK, Part 3 – Little Rock vs. NLR

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Scott

The teams met eight times in the 1950s on Thanksgiving. Little Rock won seven of the eight, losing the 1951 game by one point (13 to 14).

With the anticipation of a second Little Rock high school to be opened in a few years, Little Rock High School was rechristened as Little Rock Central High in 1954. The new school, named Hall High opened in 1957 but played much smaller schools for its first year on the gridiron. Plans were underway for Hall and Central to meet on Turkey Day in 1958, so the 1957 meeting of Little Rock and North Little Rock would be the final time the two teams would meet on Thanksgiving Day.

Little Rock Central High had dominated world headlines in September and October 1957 with the desegregation of the school. The sports coverage of this game however belied all the drama off the field. News reports focused on Turkey Day as the final game between the longtime rivals and on the fact that it had a morning start time instead of the traditional afternoon start time. In the end, the Tigers had the same result as they did in the first Turkey Day meeting: a win.

PIGSKIN TURKEY DAY IN THE ROCK, Part 2 – Hall vs. Central, or Central vs. Hall

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Scott

For many years Little Rock dominated the state in football. First as Little Rock High School, then as Little Rock Central, the City’s oldest high school won over 20 state championships from the 1910s through the 1950s. With the emergence of Little Rock Hall, the 1960s were dominated by the City’s newer high school. Together these schools led the state in football for over 60 years.

While the 1970s and 1980s saw less consistency in the quality of gridiron prowess at Little Rock’s two oldest public high schools, it did not matter. A Hall vs. Central Turkey Day football game was often like a football season unto to itself. The previous weeks of the football season did not matter – all that mattered was the Warriors against the Tigers.

The games were always played at Quigley Stadium, which was at the time the home stadium for all three of the Little Rock School District’s high schools (the third high school Parkview opened in 1968). Each year Central and Hall would alternate which was the “Home” team.

The week leading to the game would feature skits and pep rallies at both high schools. Pranks, rumors of pranks, and threats of retribution would abound between the schools. Cars wrapped in orange and white would circle the Central campus one day, while black and gold cars would encircle Hall’s campus another day.

On game day there would be special performances at the stadium by the drill teams, cheerleaders and bands of both schools. The Tiger and Warrior mascots would taunt each other. Friendships between students at the rival schools were put on hold. It was all about the tradition and THE GAME. Church services, family dinners and any other activities were scheduled around the festivities at Quigley.

Hall High opened its doors and started playing football in 1957. As a new school with a largely younger student body, it only played smaller schools that initial season. The first Hall vs. Central game was set for Thanksgiving 1958.

During the 1958-1959 school year, Little Rock’s high schools were closed for the ill-conceived and ill-advised reason that they would not have to operate as integrated schools. Though classes were not in session, football teams practiced and played. The Arkansas Gazette noted that most of those games that season drew only 1,000 spectators, which was down from the usual 5,000 to 8,000 a game.

With the future of Little Rock’s high schools in doubt, there was some hand wringing about whether the 1958 game would be not only the first meeting between Hall and Central, but perhaps also the last. In only its second year of playing, Hall was undefeated and poised to win the state championship heading into the Thanksgiving game. Central surprised the Warriors by winning 7-0 before a crowd of 5,000, which cost Hall the undefeated season and the championship (El Dorado became state champs). This game set the tone for the high stakes of the rest of the series.

The next year classes were back in session at Hall and Central. The future of the series was not in doubt. Hall achieved its first win with a 16-13 victory over the Tigers. Hall also captured a state championship with the win.

Over the years, the Thanksgiving Day game would deliver state championships to Central in 1960, 1975, 1978, 1980 and 1981. Hall walked away on Thanksgiving Day with championships in 1964, 1966, 1969, 1977, and 1979. On several other occasions, Central or Hall kept the other team from winning a championship.

Three times the teams fought to ties: 1962, 1963 and 1969. (The latter two games ended in 0-0 ties.) The 1980 game was notable for being played in snow at Quigley Stadium. While the Thanksgiving Day games at Quigley (and its predecessor Kavanaugh Field) had often been played in the rain, snow was a new experience for the day.

With the changes of state athletic conference classification, the 1982 game was announced as the final Thanksgiving Day game between Hall and Central. The top two classifications were being combined which would necessitate conferences and playoffs to determine the state champion. This would mean that Hall and Central would need to meet before Thanksgiving. Going into the game Hall led the series with 13 wins to Central’s 8 wins.

The 1982 edition lived up to the hype. This was the 25th edition of the Hall and Central rivalry. While there was no doubt that Hall would end up with the most wins, Central wanted to make sure that they ended it in the way they started it in 1958 – with a win.

Central boasted a 4-1 record. Pine Bluff and LR Parkview were both 4-1-1. Hall was 3-0-2. As long as Central or Hall won outright, the winner would be state champ. A tie (and there had been three previous ones) would result in a four-way tie for first place. Hall’s coach C. W. Keopple had led the team since 1964 and amassed a 10-6-1 record against Central. The Tigers were mentored by Bernie Cox who was 4-3 against the Warriors since taking over in 1975.

Nearly 9,000 fans packed Quigley Stadium for a cold but dry day. As the buzzer sounded after four quarters, the Hall High Warriors were jubilant. They had won the game 14-3 after putting together a nearly flawless offensive effort. The win moved them into first place with a 4-0-2 record. Central, which had sat atop the conference most of the season, ended up in fourth place with a 4-2 record. The defeat also ended the Tiger’s hopes for a third consecutive championship. This game, like so many before it, provided high drama and excitement as it confounded some pundits yet also lived up to billing.

And with that, the series concluded. In the end, Hall had fourteen wins while Central had eight. There were also three hard-fought ties. Central achieved four shutouts of Hall, while the Warriors blanked the Tigers three times. In the twenty-five games, Central scored 228 points, and Hall scored 297 points.

	Central	Hall		Central	Hall
1958	7	0	1971	7	28
1959	13	16	1972	7	10
1960	20	0	1973	7	3
1961	6	9	1974	25	24
1962	14	14	1975	26	6
1963	0	0	1976	10	11
1964	0	8	1977	8	18
1965	7	20	1978	17	14
1966	3	7	1979	0	17
1967	0	28	1980	7	0
1968	14	17	1981	15	0
1969	0	0	1982	3	14
1970	14	35

PIGSKIN TURKEY DAY IN THE ROCK, Part 1 – The Beginning and the End

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Scott

101 years ago, Little Rock High School (then located on Scott Street) kicked off a 69-year tradition of playing football on Thanksgiving Day. (Though the date of Thanksgiving floats anywhere from the 22nd to the 28th, as with this year, Thanksgiving Day 1914 was on November 26.)

From 1914 until 1933, the Little Rock High School Tigers played a variety of different schools. Then from 1934 until 1957, they played North Little Rock. From 1958 until 1982, the Little Rock Central Tigers took on the Warriors of Little Rock Hall.

Thanksgiving Day football was a tradition not just for high schools in Little Rock but also all levels throughout the state and country. The Friday after Thanksgiving, newspapers carried stories and scores for professional, college and high school football. It was probably the only day of the year to see all three levels of football covered in the paper, and often high school games received the most ink. This mix of football continued for decades. In 1969, there were four football games played in Pulaski County on Thanksgiving Day: Little Rock Hall vs. Little Rock Central, Little Rock Catholic vs. North Little Rock, Horace Mann vs. Scipio Jones, and the Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Texas Tech.

By the 1970s, both high school and college football games on Thanksgiving were on the wane. While college games on Turkey Day have regained some popularity, they are nowhere near approaching the level they once had. High school football on Thanksgiving disappeared in Arkansas following the 1982 game between Hall and Central. That rivalry had been the final series on Turkey Day to still be played.

While they lasted, Thanksgiving Day high school football games were civic focal points. They were about bragging rights. For students who had grown up attending the games, the chance to play or cheer in a Turkey Day classic was a rite of passage. Alumni home from college or visiting the family for Thanksgiving would descend on the stadium ensuring the largest attendance of the season.

High school football on Thanksgiving Day in Little Rock tells the tale of not just football; it reflects changes in the city and society. What started out as two small high schools from neighboring cities changed as both schools grew. The addition of a second Little Rock high school reflected the city’s growth. (Indeed the 1954 Little Rock High School yearbook, in discussing the school’s new designation as Central High, mentions vaguely that the second high school would be built at some yet to be determined location in “west” Little Rock.)

The presence of segregated high schools in separate but unequal football rivalries (lasting nearly two decades after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board decision) is an indictment of an unjust parallel education system. As Little Rock continued to grow and diversify, the two high schools playing on Thanksgiving were no longer always the predominant schools in football – or other activities. With state championships once again on the line, the last few years of the Hall and Central Thanksgiving rivalry were, in a way, a return to the halcyon days of the early faceoffs (though this time, thankfully, with fully integrated teams). In addition to trading the top spots in football, the two schools were piling accolades. In fact, all three Little Rock public high schools had achieved a stasis that inadvertently rotated areas of excellence academically, athletically and artistically fairly equally among the three.

There were undercurrents at work that hinted at future instabilities to come. Indeed by 1982, the same year of the final game, Little Rock had filed suit against the North Little Rock and the Pulaski County Special School Districts claiming the schools in those neighboring districts were siphoning off white students from the Little Rock schools. The ensuing realignment of schools and districts would probably have brought an end to Central vs. Hall games even if athletic reclassification had not.

Central is now over twice the size of Hall, Parkview is a magnet school, two formerly county high schools (and several elementary schools and junior highs) were brought into the LR school district in the late 1980s. Where once the Little Rock high schools were roughly equal in enrollment, they now are so varied they play in three different classifications.

It is up to the alternative historians to envision what continued Turkey Day classics would have looked like after 1982. Little Rock has grown and diversified. There are five public high schools and five private high schools playing football within the Little Rock city limits each season. With all these competing interests it is unlikely to envision the same citywide level of interest in one football game.

But back in the day…

Little Rock Culture Vulture

Cultural events, places and people in the Little Rock area

Tag Archives: Thanksgiving

Turkey Day Football in LR – Little Rock High vs NLR

Turkey Day Football in LR – Beating a Variety of Opponents from 1914 to 1933

PIGSKIN TURKEY DAY IN THE ROCK, Part 5 – Little Rock Catholic vs. NLR

PIGSKIN TURKEY DAY IN THE ROCK, Part 4 – Horace Mann vs. Scipio Jones

PIGSKIN TURKEY DAY IN THE ROCK, Part 3 – Little Rock vs. NLR

PIGSKIN TURKEY DAY IN THE ROCK, Part 2 – Hall vs. Central, or Central vs. Hall

PIGSKIN TURKEY DAY IN THE ROCK, Part 1 – The Beginning and the End

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