Correction: Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame inductee Eldon Hawley is 76. This article misstated his age.
Eldon Hawley's forthcoming induction into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame on Friday has a lot to do with his ability to understand his role.
For more than 40 years, Hawley endured and thrived as an assistant coach and college sports administrator.
Eldon Hawley glance
BORN Dec. 27, 1938 in Camden
HOMETOWN Forrest City (now lives in Hot Springs)
NOTEWORTHY Spent more than 40 years as a college football assistant coach and administrator. … Worked 11 years at Arkansas State (1979-1989), helping the Indians win four Southland Conference championships and earn a trip to the 1986 NCAA Division I-AA (now FCS) championship game. … Two-year starter for Forrest City High School, where he graduated in 1956. … Earned football scholarship to Arkansas State Teachers College (now the University of Central Arkansas). Lettered four years in football at UCA and was named to the All-Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference team in 1959. … Won the AIC half-mile twice while at UCA.
The key to being an assistant coach, Hawley said, is having a small ego.
"An assistant coach's job is to wake up and say how can I please a head coach everyday?" Hawley, 79, said. "It's a team effort. Some coaches, they let the ego get in the way. They won't decide that this is my role.
"You have to be extremely loyal."
Hawley's accomplishments as a collegiate assistant and administator are notable, but his athletic achievements, including his four-sport days at Forrest City in the 1950s, can not be understated.
He played center, fullback and linebacker for the football team, forward for the basketball team, first base and outfield for the baseball team and competed in the 440 and 880 events as well as run in the relay events.
At UCA, Hawley played football and ran track. He was named to the All-Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference team during his senior season. In track, Hawley lettered three years and was the AIC half-mile champion two consecutive years.
Hawley's friend of more than 65 years, Cliff Garrison, calls him one of the toughest players he was ever around.
"He was a hard-nosed player," said Garrison, who coached men's basketball at Hendrix College in Conway and is a 2004 Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame inductee. "He was a very dedicated and disciplined athlete. He played hard. He overachieved to the maximum of his ability."
Garrison said that Hawley's educational background -- his parents Lewis and Margaret worked in the Forrest City School District -- helped shape his coaching career. Lewis was the principal at Forrest City High School for 33 years while Margaret was a kindergarten teacher in the district.
Hawley not only credits his parents but his former high school football coach, Jim DeVazier, for his career path after college.
"He was very much a disciplinarian," Hawley said of DeVazier. "He taught fundamentals very well."
Hawley joins fellow Forrest City natives Don Kessinger (baseball), Jim Lindsey (football) and Wayne Martin (football) in the Arkansas Hall. The St. Francis County city of 15,016 produced some of the best athletes in the state, Hawley said.
"It was a great era back in those days in east Arkansas," Hawley said. "They had a run of athletes after I left."
Garrison said Hawley's induction into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame is special.
"We're really excited about it," Garrison said. "We're looking forward to it. I don't think anybody ever did the job of an assistant any better."
Hawley said he couldn't believe it when he was told he was going to be inducted.
"I was pretty shocked because there are very few assistant coaches in the Hall," Hawley said. "That's all I ever done -- worked under somebody."
Sports on 02/23/2015