Sports Reflectlons on ffie post and a look at tfle present Sports, on both the intercollegiate and intramural level, has played a colorful role in the history ofthe college. From a small and meager beginning, the athletic program has proven itself by producing many championship teams. In making the college known for its excellent program, athletics has influenced the lives of a vast number of those associated with the school and benefited those directly involved. "Harding College will never be able to compete successfully against the state-supported colleges of Arkansas and losing seasons will have an adverse effect upon enrollment and school spirit" were arguments made against resuming intercollegiate athletics in 1957 after having only intramural athletics at Harding for 18 years. However, at the close of the 1975-76 school year, Harding College won the All-Sports trophy of the Arkansas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, winning championships in four of the nine sports in which AIC schools participate. This was the first time any AlC member had won four championships in one season. For the past decade, Harding has been a positive contender through the very last sport of the season, finishing second by only one point in 1968 and by only two points in 1975. At the same time that the intercollegiate program at Harding College has developed into one of the best programs in the Conference, the AIC itself has developed into one of the most outstanding conferences in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics that has 525 colleges and universities in its membership. For 1976, Henderson State University was runner-up in the NAIA basketball tournament and the University of Central Arkansas was runner-up in the NAIA football playoffs. Over the last few years, Harding College has won four NAIA national bowling championships and has been 220 - SPORTS REPORT a top contender in the NAIA bowling tournament for more than a decade. In the spring of 1939, M.E. Berryhill, successful coach of the Bisons at the time, recommended that intercollegiate athletics be dropped. In his undergraduate days· at Harding, Berryhill had been an outstanding athlete earning letters in football, baseball, basketball and tennis. in the fall of 1939, the college had an enrollment of only 311 students and had very limited financial resources. Eighteen years later, on January 25, 1957, Berryhill recommended to the faculty that intercollegiate athletics be reinstated at Harding College under a faculty committee since the enrollment had increased to 908 in the fall of 1956 and the financial resources of the college had improved. On March 2, 1957, the faculty approved by a wide margin on a secret ballot the resuming of intercollegiate athletics on a nonsubsidized basis. In 1957-58 teams were fielded in basketball, baseball, track and tennis under an athletic committee composed of Berryhill as director of athletics, Dr. Clifton L. Ganus, then Vice President of the College, and Dr. Joseph E. Pryor, Chairman of the Department of Physical Science. Hugh Groover, after five years of coaching at Harding Academy with a very successful record, was appointed basketball and track coach. Harry 0lree, who joined the Harding faculty that fall, was tennis coach and Berryhill was baseball coach. In the fall of 1958, Cecil Beck, who had directed Harding's intramural athletic program for five years and had developed it into one of the outstanding college intramural programs in the nation, urged the Athletic Committee and the administration to field a football team in the fall of 1959. After careful study of the feasibility of adding football to the intercollegiate program, an affirmative decision was made and Harding College immediately made application for membership in the Arkansas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The college was admitted to the AIC on December 13, 1958, on the assurance of the college that a football team would be fielded the following fall. On January 23, 1960, the faculty approved, by a narrow margin on a secret ballot, financial aid for athletes in basketball and football, but restricted it to "only such financial aid as is expressly donated and in hand for the purpose." On April 17, 1962, Dr. George S. Benson, President of Harding, requested the faculty to remove the stipulated limitation since Dr. Ganus, who had largely raised the funds for athletic grants, needed to concentrate on much more extensive fund-raising activities for the development of the college. Faculty approval was given on May 19, 1962, with stipulation that a re-evaluation of the athletic program be made in the spring of 1964. When the report was made by Dr. Pryor on May 16, 1964, the faculty recommended that a more thorough study be made the following fall. The 1963-64 Student Council recommended that football be dropped from the program; however, the 1964-65 Student Council strongly recommended the retaining of football. Following the faculty study that involved two faculty meetings, the faculty voted on November 21, 1964, by a wide margin on a secret ballot, to retain football as part of the intercollegiate athletic program. Upon the recommendation of Berryhill, the Athletic Committee began giving in 1963 an award to the graduating senior whom the Committee felt best epitomized the qualities that an athlete at Harding should possess. The young man had to be an outstanding athlete who had earned at least two intercollegiate letters, who had consistently given superior efforts, who had demonstrated leadership ability on the team, who had made an acceptable academic record and who in life and conduct had been a positive influence for good and exemplified the ideals of Harding College. The first recipient of this award, called the M. E. Berryhill Award after the death of Coach Berryhill, was Steve Smith, now associate professor of mathematics, who had earned 12 intercollegiate
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