14Introduction early social clubs on campus. These included the women’s social clubs Ju Go Ju, The Woodson Harding Comrades and Twin Q; also men’s social clubs that included the H Club and the Harding Gas House Gang. The following year, in 1927, two additional clubs were added. Harding College advocated for the education of preachers and teachers. Men who wanted to become preachers were given free tuition, and each was required to sign a “preacher’s note” which stipulated that if they left school and preached for five years postgraduation, the note would automatically cancel; if not, it would remain payable to the school. This remained so until 1932, when they were required to pay half the tuition and fees. Preachers may have been allowed to enroll at Harding tuitionfree. However, Armstrong also made an effort to provide financial assistance and recognize the value of work for non-preaching students who could not afford the cost of tuition. “The school did all it could in this way to assist poor students to receive an education. No one who really desired to attend would be turned away. This policy, however, made the financial load of the school heavier, for many were helped through that were not able to pay any expenses, and the tendency was to have a surplus of workers.” The Move In 1934, 10 years after consolidation, Harding College moved from its campus in Morrilton to Searcy, Arkansas. The college started to outgrow the campus in Morrilton as all of the dorms were filled, and almost the same number were housed in private houses around town. Even the classrooms were becoming to tight for the number of enrolled students, leading to a lack of space to hold the growing student body. Galloway College, an all-female college in Searcy, Arkansas, closed due to the consolidation of Methodist colleges in Arkansas due to the pressures of the drought and lingering depression. This left the campus, almost three times the size of the campus in Morrilton, open and for sale. The powers that be at Galloway offered the sale to Harding College for $75,000 when the value of the campus at the time was estimated to be over $500,000. $75,000 then would be around $1.7 million today, and $500,000 would be around $8.7 million. By the time Harding College moved from Morrilton to Searcy, the campus had been empty for two years. Many improvements needed to be made, and students and faculty alike were eager to help. They moved equipment and books 70 miles to Searcy, improved the existing buildings, and began the process of what continues to be a beautiful campus. The root of financial troubles at Harding College began there. The College was paying generous scholarships and reducing tuition while the money flowing in through tuition and financial gifts was not enough to pay the bills. Upon the move to Searcy, Jennie Hill Hall — was finished. Men lived in “private homes or wherever they could find a place” — some slept on the floor of the unfinished administration buildings. The girls did not move into their dormitory until January 15, 1925, and the first chapel service in the new auditorium was not conducted until March 18. The campus in Morrilton was near Petit Jean mountain — the namesake of Harding’s yearbook and named in the original rendition of the Alma Mater. Despite all this, the student’s campus life was thriving. Football first appeared in 1924 with a team entirely composed of freshmen. Their first season was cut short to only four games. They won two of the four before the season abruptly ended when their coach was killed and two members of the team injured in a car accident. “Intercollegiate basketball and baseball were also begun in the school year 1924-25, but faculty believed that students as a rule entered school for mental discipline rather than to become athletes, and in harmony with this athletics was looked upon as a value mainly in breaking up nervous tension prevalent among hard-working students.” Those students, during the first year of Harding College, lived amid construction—a very visual and tangible representation of what was going on behind the scenes. “Seldom has a greater devotion or a deeper sacrifice been shown for an ideal than has been demonstrated by the teachers who struggled to maintain Harding College in its formative years.” (Mattox, 1) On June 4, 1926, Harding College finally received the endorsement of the state board of education and received the rating of a senior college. At the time, there were 10 departments on campus and students could earn a Bachelor of Arts degree upon graduation. The 1926 school year saw the formation of some of the “These two schools now stand as monuments to the memory of the two great friends who gave the most to such work and to whom the church of the last fifty years owes the largest debt”. 1934-35 Catalog The Administration building in Morrilton. Football team play a game in Morrilton. George and Sally Benson
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