LITTLE ROCK — At the University of Arkansas, the baseball and track and field teams shared the same quarters in the early 1970s.
Those teams were led by coaches, Norm DeBriyn and John McDonnell, who handed down the same edict when they took the helm of those rosters: race, color and creed didn’t matter. Production trumped all.
“It was just like any other athlete,” said McDonnell, who retired in 2008 after leading the Hogs to 42 NCAA indoor track, outdoor track and cross country titles over 31 seasons. “It didn’t matter if they were [black] or not. Our program went after the best athletes, and the rest is history.”
The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in Little Rock recognized Friday the integration efforts carried out by DeBriyn and McDonnell, along with the squads they guided during their tenures such as DeBriyn’s 1985 College World Series team - the first CWS squad to feature five starting black players.
“They strengthened the foundation,” said Muskie Harris, a former Arkansas football player who organized the event. “Somebody has to go through the door to build the foundation, andthe rest of the players go on to it. This next generation kind of takes it for granted that things have always been that way.”
DeBriyn, who amassed a 1,161-650 record and three College World Series trips in 33 seasons, was unable to attend after aggravating an injury suffered when he slipped on ice two weeks ago at his Northwest Arkansas home.
On the base paths, Arvis Harper Jr. came to Arkansas in 1975 to play in the outfield after only playing American Legion baseball in the summers through high school, joining Hank Thompson as the first black players on the roster.
“Coach DeBriyn picking us two, out of all the athletes in Arkansas, was a tremendous honor for us,” said Harper, who was drafted in the 14th round by the Houston Astros in the 1978 major league draft. “We didn’t think about being pioneers at that time. ... We knew there were a lot of eyes watching, not just our ability to play but also in our character.”
A decade later, Arkansas traveled to Omaha for its second College World Series in 1985 and finished third with a lineup featuring outfielders Mike Loggins, Norm Roberts, and Mark Jackson along with shortstop Derrick Richardson and second baseman Ellis Roby.
Loggins, a switch hitter, said he remembered DeBriyn trying to persuade him into not batting from both sides of the plate during his first season in 1983, a message driven home in a frigid early season game against Baylor when he was called on to pinch hit with the bases loaded.
After shedding three layers of clothes and stepping onto the field, he watched two pitches zoom by before hitting a weak grounder to second base for the final out. Called into DeBriyn’s office the next day, Loggins was scolded for not being ready to play in the dugout. But the dressing-down carried another message.
“It wasn’t about color, wasn’t about stature, wasn’t about size,” Loggins said. “If you can get it done on the field, you’re going to play.”
On the track and field team, the same philosophy existed under McDonnell, who recruited black athletes for field events in the 1980ssuch as future Olympic gold medalist Mike Conley, Erick Walder and Edrick Floreal.
“I can’t say enough for what he’s done for black track athletes,” Conley said. “There are so many more that came with no identities and left as great citizens and track athletes.”
In turn, it was Conley that McDonnell called a “catalyst” in drawing black athletes to the program when arriving from Chicago in 1981.
“That was a culture change for him,” McDonnell said. “On his recruiting trip, he said he’d never seen two cows before.To a country lad like me, that sounded unbelievable. ... He was like a glove. He just fit in with everybody.”
It was Conley, who competed at Arkansas in 1980-1984, that proved instrumental in recruiting Erick Walder - a three-time indoor and outdoor NCAA long jump champion - to the program in 1990.
Walder’s commitment in 1990 to the Hogs was sealed with a recruiting visit by Conley, Walder’s longtime hero. And it was McDonnell that served as a surrogate father while Walder was 13 hours from home.
“His door was always open,” Walder said. “A lot of his advice in Fayetteville molded me into the man I am. I only spent four years at Arkansas, but the lessons I took away impacted me the rest of my life.”
Sports, Pages 20 on 02/26/2011