West Did It All For Rogers High

 STAFF PHOTO JASON IVESTER Dickie West, Rogers High School Hall of Fame inductee, was part of Rogers High teams his junior and senior seasons that didn’t lose a game.
STAFF PHOTO JASON IVESTER Dickie West, Rogers High School Hall of Fame inductee, was part of Rogers High teams his junior and senior seasons that didn’t lose a game.

ROGERS -- Over five decades later, Dickie West still ranks among the top rushers in Rogers High football history.

But West's high school athletic career almost never get off the ground.

Rogers High Mountaineer Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2014

Dickie West^Football, Track

Mindy Wishon Brown^Basketball, Volleyball, Track

Tom Olsen^Basketball

Gary Jackson^Distinguished Service

Tom Woodruff^Baseball Coach

Charlie Johnston^Football, Track

Alan Davidson^Football, Track

The induction ceremony will be held Saturday, September 27, at Rogers High School.

In the seventh grade, West was told he couldn't play football because of a heart murmur.

"It liked to kill me to not play, and I didn't play seventh or eighth grade," West said. "But I finally got cleared to play and I played in the ninth grade."

West then played in every quarter of every game his three seasons in a Rogers uniform and he was part of Rogers teams his junior and senior seasons that didn't lose a game, posting a 16-0-2 record. For his achievements, West will be inducted into the Rogers High Mountaineer Athletic Hall of Fame next month.

This year's inductees will be honored at halftime of the Mounties game versus Springdale Har-Ber Sept. 26 before being inducted the next night in a ceremony at the high school.

When West got to high school, expectations were high around town for a team that regularly posted winning records.

"It was a good, fun time," West said. "I enjoyed it and I enjoyed all my teammates. The coaches, I loved them to pieces. Rogers always had a pretty good team. We were supposed to be good in high school because we were good in junior high. We took it for granted that were were supposed to win."

Rogers ran the Dead-T back when West played and he said having Fred Summers at fullback and Gary Tucker at the other halfback made the offense balanced. West still ranks fifth in career rushing yards at the school.

"We were big back then, I was 192 pounds," West said. "We just had a lot of big players on both sides of the football."

With West playing halfback, defensive lineman and on special teams, the Class AA Mounties went 7-3 in 1958, 7-0-2 in 1959 and 9-0 in 1960 when he was a senior. Back when West played there was no playoff system for the smaller classifications and the Mounties were the only Class AA team to go undefeated in 1960.

West played in the 1961 Arkansas All-Star Game and he was named to the 1960 Wigwam Wiseman All-American Team, which was published in the Sporting News at the time. He earned a scholarship to play football at Arkansas but a knee injury ended his playing career his first year in Fayetteville. That Arkansas recruiting class went on to win the 1964 National Championship.

Sports on 08/28/2014

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