1917 & 2017 UCA Football Teams

I had intended to write a short article about the differences between the 1917 and 2017 UCA football teams.  However, after comparing the two photographs, I think the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words” or in this case, ten thousand words, is appropriate.

As many of you know, UCA did not adopt the Bear as the mascot for sports until 1920.  During the 1917 football season, sports writers most often used the term “Pedagogues” when they wrote about the Arkansas State Normal School (now the University of Central Arkansas) football team.  The term Pedagogues comes from the fact that Arkansas State Normal School was dedicated to one thing, teaching its students how to become teachers.  At other times, sports writers also used the terms tutors, teachers, and Normalites.  But the two names that sports writers preferred were Pedagogues and Pea Pickers.  The moniker of Pea Pickers was due to the farm that UCA maintained for several decades. According to Ted Worley, who wrote “A History of Arkansas State Teachers College” the football players preferred Pea Pickers to Pedagogues.