Uh oh...
It appears that you're using a severely outdated version of Safari on Windows. Many features won't work correctly, and functionality can't be guaranteed. Please try viewing this website in Edge, Mozilla, Chrome, or another modern browser. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused!
Read More about this safari issue.
The 1960 National Baseball Congress Arkansas Semi-pro Championship was played in Nashville, Arkansas, not exactly a central location, but unquestionably a hotbed of semi-pro baseball. Before slow-pitch softball became the choice of “former” baseball guys, the “Town Team” was the weekend pastime in small towns all over Arkansas. Nashville was one of those towns. Their Nashville Cubs had won a state title in 1956, and the Howard County folks loved their town team.
Hosting the state tournament was a significant event in Nashville, Arkansas, and the 1960 Fort Smith Collegians were a major attraction. Not only was the Fort Smith team one of the tournament favorites on the field, but the Collegians also featured a locally famous lineup that included college football stars Lance Alworth and Danny Greenfield.
I was 11 years old and attended most of the Nashville Cubs’ home games in 1960. I was so excited when I heard that my favorite Razorback football player was coming to play at Wilson Park. My dad had the concession stand for the tournament, and my brother and I alternated working games during the state tournament. We sold 10-ounce Coca-Colas in bottles for 10 cents, candy bars for 5 cents, popcorn for 5 cents a bag, and sno-cones for 10 cents. I watched every game Lance Alworth played that week. The highlight of the tournament for me was getting to sell Lance Alworth a sno-cone after his team’s games.” —Randy White, Nashville, Arkansas
Although the Fort Smith team entered the tournament as one of the favorites with a 22-2 record and a team of athletic young men in their prime, winning the state title would not be simple. Just getting there would be the first obstacle.
The Collegians opened the tournament on Friday, July 22, and despite the importance of the opening game in the state championship, most of the pitching staff could not get off work in time for the three-hour trip down US 71. The Collegians would be forced to play the opening-round game with only two pitchers available.
When starter Tommy Jones left the game in the fourth inning with a sore shoulder, the remainder of the game was left to “young Jim Whipple” to finish without a reliever available. Whipple was up to the task. Alworth, back from a scary ankle injury, was the hitting star as the Collegians escaped the opening round with a 9-4 victory over Wake Village, Texas, the East Texas representative. Obviously, had Razorback football coach Frank Broyles known about Alworth’s baseball injury, he would have been “concerned!”
Jones, a former pitching standout for the Oklahoma Sooners, would recover to be the pitching star of the tournament. The durable lefty came back to toss a one-hit shutout against a tough team from Texarkana, which was playing less than an hour from their home.
The victory would send the Fort Smith team into a semi-final contest that proved to be a classic. It would take 12 innings and a grand slam home run by Razorback football star Darrell Williams to defeat Monette and send the Collegians to the state finals against Little Rock’s Spanns Esso.
After several close calls in earlier rounds, the Collegians breezed to a 15-6 rout in the championship game. Tommy Jones pitched another complete game, and Southern State College (Southern Arkansas University) Future Hall of Famer Danny Greenfield’s three-hit night led to four RBIs.
I was 14, and I remember the Razorback players. Darrell & Jarrell Williams and Lance Alworth. He (Alworth) was the fastest person I had ever seen. Ran like a deer – hence his nickname later in pro football – Bambi. The Collegians were more athletic than the other teams in the tournament. Semi-pro ball was really big then & especially in Nashville since the Cubs were state champs in 1956.” —Johnny Wilson, Nashville, Arkansas
On to Wichita
One of the most significant issues facing town teams in postseason play was keeping a roster intact. Ultimately, that problem contributed to the Fort Smith Collegians’ elimination in the NBC National Tournament in Wichita, Kansas.
The National NBC tournament began almost a month after the Collegians won the Arkansas title. By late August, the summer’s free time had been replaced by fall obligations. With several team members unavailable due to jobs and college, and Fort Smith’s durable catcher, Bill Higgins, out of action with a broken hand, the depleted Collegians won their first game in the tournament before losing two straight.
Fort Smith Collegians Leaving for National Tournament, Southwest American 8-20-1960
After 1960
After spending the summer in Fort Smith and contributing to a state semi-pro title, Lance Alworth returned to his fall duties as one of America’s outstanding college football players. One of the most honored players in Razorback and NFL history, the legendary receiver the press called “Bambi,” was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1978 and the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1979. In what turned out to be a wise decision, Alworth had declined a pro baseball offer from the New York Yankees before arriving in Fayetteville.
Lance Alworth, Arkansas Razorbacks, Danny Greenfield, Southern State College Muleriders, and Greenfield’s minor league teammate, Reggie Jackson
Danny Greenfield was a two-sport All-AIC selection in football and baseball at what was then Southern State College (Southern Arkansas University). He signed with the Kansas City A’s in 1963 and was part of the group of young prospects that owner Charlie Finley assembled in the 1960s. The young A’s of the late 1960s would go on to win three World Series titles in the early 1970s.
Greenfield’s best year in Kansas City’s minor league system was 1966, when he led the California League Champion, Modesto Reds, in batting average and on-base percentage. Three of his teammates on that Reds team are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. (Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, and Tony La Russa)
William “Billy” Higgins, the gritty catcher and team leader, played a few more years of semi-pro baseball and never lost his love of the game. An award-winning author and historian, Higgins wrote the well-received biography of his neighbor, Barling, Arkansas, major leaguer Hal Smith.
Honored as Professor Emeritus at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith, Higgins remains active in the Society for American Baseball Research and the Fort Smith Historical Society.
The Lost Story of the 1960 Arkansas State Semi-pro Champions
In March 1962, local papers announced that the Fort Smith Collegians would not field a team in the upcoming season. The expense associated with a semi-pro team and the increased use of local ballparks by American Legion teams made it impossible to organize and support an adult team. Manager Clyde “Sparky” Watts remained active in semi-pro baseball in the 1960s, and the name Fort Smith Collegians reappeared throughout the decade.
The Collegians’ 1960 pitching star, Tommy Jones, pitched his last season of minor league baseball in the Houston minor league system that summer and returned home to Oklahoma. His story and the historic run of the 1960 Fort Smith Collegians have faded into the shadows of Arkansas baseball history.
Special thanks to Randy White, Johnny Wilson, Dr. Bill Higgins, and Phil Watts, whose memories of the 1960 Fort Smith Collegians were essential in the recovery of this lost story.
Header Photo – Standing: Bill Higgins, Bobby Walkford, Larry Hoyt, Darrell Williams, Buddy Cia, and Manager Clyde Watts. Center: Bob Citek, Jim Whipple, Tommy Moore, Darrel Bushmeier, Danny Greenfield, and Jarrell Williams. Bottom: Bryan Riggs, Robert Browning, Tommy Jones, Robert Rankin, Gary Elkins, and Charles Young, mascot. Not shown: Lance Alworth and Don Peters
We do the work.
You check your email.
Sign up for our weekly e-news.
Get stories sent straight to your inbox!
Like this story? Read more from Jim Yeager
For the first 20 years of professional baseball in Little Rock, Arkansas,...
In 1942, the Americans Tom Brokaw would later celebrate as our...
In 1920, the winter days between Christmas and New Year’s Day promised...
Join the Conversation
Leave a Comment