Written by Ken Bissel

This week, The Bison welcomes alumnus and director of center for charitable estate planning Ken Bissell to reminisce on his time as a fan of the Harding Bisons.

Thanks to sports editor Nic Fraraccio for inviting me to write the last sports column of the year. It’s been a long minute, 41 years to be exact, since I last penned a column for this newspaper when I was The Bison’s sports editor in 1981-82 and 1982-83. My column, “Sports Spectrum”, regularly appeared for those two years.

As I scanned The Bison archives for those old columns, flashes of both nostalgia and sadness tugged at my heart. The nostalgia recalled memories of specific games and matches and the athletes of the day who were my friends and peers. Surprisingly, some of the details are still very clear in my mind.

I attended countless football, basketball and baseball games; tennis and golf matches; and track, cross-country and swimming meets. Women’s intercollegiate sports began in those years; I had the privilege of personally covering the inaugural Lady Bisons basketball and softball games and volleyball matches.

The tinge of sadness came as I read quotes from several head coaches who have passed on through the years. John Prock (football), Jess Bucy (men’s basketball), Dick Johnson (baseball), Jack Boustead (swimming and diving), Ted Altman (softball) and Cecil Beck (men’s intramurals) were men who dedicated their careers to leading student-athletes while teaching them about Jesus. They were my friends and mentors.

Having a four-decade history provides an interesting perspective on how the program has evolved over time. The challenges those teams and coaches faced are a sharp contrast to today’s success. Appreciating the accomplishments of the present program is difficult without knowing where we’ve been and on whose shoulders we stand.

Football coach Paul Simmons has alluded in press interviews to the poor facilities the old Bison coaches and athletes had to work with. Forty years ago, it was common for the First Security Stadium (known as Alumni Field back then) grass turf to be completely worn down to the soil between the 20-yard lines and hash marks by the end of the football season. The old football locker room/ weight room on the west end of the stadium frequently flooded after a hard rain.

Prock, whose college degree was in industrial arts, welded by hand many of the weight machines in the University’s metal shop in the mid-1960s. They were still used by the team in the early 2000s.

Prior to the construction of the Ganus Activities Complex, which was built in 1976 and served as homecourt for Harding basketball and volleyball teams until 1997, the Bisons played their games in the “old” Rhodes Field House, which didn’t resemble the beautiful gym that we enjoy today. It was a smelly, dark World War II airplane hangar that happened to have a basketball court and some bleachers on one side of the court.

The baseball team played many years at Berryhill Park, a dependable but poorly designed stadium where the city’s new pickleball courts are located across Race Avenue. The outfield of the first iteration of Jerry Moore Field, built in the early 1980s, often was a marshy, muddy quagmire after a storm.

Fast-forward to today. We are arguably witnessing the most successful run in the history of Harding sports, which resumed intercollegiate play in the late 1950s after a two-decade hiatus. Every team is highly competitive in the Great American Conference, including several league champions.

We’re competing at the national level in football (remember the natty in December?), women’s basketball, volleyball and softball; our men’s and women’s track and field teams are both ranked in the NCAA Division II top 10, and our golf and tennis teams are regionally ranked this spring. Baseball is battling for the conference lead going into the season’s homestretch.

Harding’s athletic facilities continue to improve; several are the envy of every Division II program around the country. Fan attendance is strong, and alumni interest in all sports is at an all-time high.

So what is my point? Let’s not take this moment in time for granted. Attend the games and matches, and support the teams with the fervor that they deserve. Take pride in wearing the Black and Gold. Encourage our athletes when you see them on campus. Promote the teams on social media. More than anything, have fun. There’s never been a better time to be a Bisons and Lady Bisons fan!