Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in allHOGS on Sports Illustrated in July 2023. The site is owned by Andy Hodges, a UCA alum, member of the 1976 Bears and an owner of allBEARS+.

CONWAY, Ark. — Champions are remembered in the history books. The teams they stepped on to get there are usually the footnote or seldom mentioned at all.

That’s exactly what has happened with Central Arkansas’ football team that played for a national championship in 1976. They never got close against a Texas A&I team loaded with future NFL talent and former Southwest Conference players but it vaulted an entire program into success that continues.

In those days, the NAIA schools picked up a bunch of those. It wasn’t really close in a 26-0 loss for the Bears, but it was huge for football at the school located off Interstate 40 about 25-30 miles north of downtown Little Rock.

UCA defenders Leatrice Briscoe (81), Sam Coleman (11) and George Richardson (70)

“We started the winning tradition,” linebacker Mike Painter said recently. “It was the first AIC conference championship in 10 years.”

That would have been an outright title if Harding could have semi-handled the playing field for a game played on a freezing cold Saturday night in Searcy after a week filled with rain.

Allegations swirled about various things done to make it worse, but anybody could see it was simply like mud-wrestling with a football thrown in the mix and a little bit of ground that was firm.

“We were convinced they plowed the field,” tight end Bobby Rich said recently.

There aren’t a lot of photos left for people to dig up. They’ve been lost to the ravages of time. History has diminished what they did over time due to a lack of interest except from a group of the team that came together through the struggles of the 1975 team that injuries decimated, but some talent could be seen.

Coach Ken Stephens hadn’t won a lot of games and zero championships since getting the job in 1972. Stephens probably figured he better win after disappointing results and a 1975 year where injuries eliminated whatever expectations anybody had.

He had pretty much cleaned out the coaching staff and it ended up being a lot of graduate assistants running around like legendary high school coach John Outlaw, Barry Burch and some others to go along with David Easley on the defensive side of the ball.

The wins came in 1976, although probably not with the quarterback most folks assumed. It was a team where the defense was ready for prime time and covered up a lack of production on the other side of the ball.

“Jimmy Clark was the biggest thing that saved us,” Rich said of the 5-foot-6 inch quarterback. “We knew on offense if we scored two times we’d win the game. Most of their coaches were players for us the year before and grad assistants on that team. We owe (the defense) a tremendous amount of respect.”

Clark, originally from the Memphis area, considered playing baseball at Vanderbilt, but went to what was then Southwest Louisiana (now Louisiana-Lafayette). He liked Arkansas, but talked to Harding before deciding to go the Bears. Standing just shy of 5-foot-7, nobody was particularly awed by his size and he was going to be the back-up behind Sam Coleman from Pine Bluff.

To the surprise of a lot of people, Stephens moved Coleman to defense. What Clark did best was run the option, but there was a little problem with that. Stephens didn’t care one bit for the option. He knew the defense was sound, but he didn’t want to help the other team out with gifts.

After an opening 10-7 loss to Southeast Missouri prior to non-conference wins over Central Missouri (21-3) and Northeast Oklahoma (10-0), it was time for the AIC and figuring out a way around Henderson State, which was kinda running over everybody in those days. Stephens turned to the option and Clark.

“UAM was the first time Ken let me run the option,” Clark said. The Bears rolled to a 44-0 win and they were off and running at that point.

UCA defenders Leatrice Brisco and David Foyil combine for a stop.

After an opening 10-7 loss to Southeast Missouri prior to non-conference wins over Central Missouri (21-3) and Northeast Oklahoma (10-0), it was time for the AIC and figuring out a way around Henderson State, which was kinda running over everybody in those days. Stephens turned to the option and Clark.

The next week they beat Southern Arkansas 20-10 before shutting out Ouachita Baptist, 10-0. That set the table for a big 30-12 win over rival Arkansas Tech and a blowout win over Central Methodist, 79-3, setting up a showdown with Henderson in Conway.

UCA got a 10-3 win over a team that had Roy Green on the other side. Green went on to a 14-year professional career, mostly in St. Louis and Phoenix with the Cardinals when he made the first team All-Pro list in 1983-84 and led the NFL in receiving yards (1984) and touchdowns (1983).

He nearly made a play to tie the game when he broke free on an apparent touchdown, breaking into the clear at midfield and only air and green grass stood between him and the goal line.

And Sam Coleman. He made the one-on-one play in the open field that may have been one of the biggest plays of the season. It ended up being huge.

“Sam was the finest athlete I’ve ever seen,” Rich said.

“Sam should have been the quarterback,” his brother Monte Coleman said. “We would have had more offense.”

Sam passed away on Dec. 7, 2019. Monte went on to play 16 years for Washington, winning three Super Bowls along the way. All of this after not playing in high school due to injuries.

“We were a very good football team,” he said about that 1976 team. “It was fun playing with a lot of those guys.”

Sophomore running back Kenneth Gilkey from Danville scored what turned out to be the winning touchdown on a 62-yard run in the win over the Reddies.

One of the leaders on defense was David Foyil from Camden, who also played wide receiver in 1975, but found a permanent home on defense in 1976. He turned down offers from Henderson and some other teams before coming to Bears.

UCA coach Ken Stephens and defensive back David Foyil

The biggest credit he takes is working with Monte Coleman on being an NFL candidate. “I was the reason he played so long there,” Foyil said, laughing.

“If it hadn’t been for his coaching, I would have been a third-round draft choice instead of of the 11th round,” Coleman said, enjoying the long-running joke between the pair.

The main thing talking to several players on that team was the defense carried the load, but the offense and Clark made enough big plays to get them to the playoffs.

“It was the perfect situation of everything coming together at the exactly right time,” Foyil said. “On defense it was just a matter of everybody staying healthy enough and having the right players and those coaches we played with working with us helped a lot.”

“That was the feeling at the time,” former football assistant and later athletics director Vance Strange said. “Those guys were like coaches on the field. It was a very unique group of men.”

It also set the tone for a program the winningest football program in the state since 1976 after being mired for decades in football obscurity in Arkansas. They have won just over 70% of their games, three national championships and 33 playoff games along with 20 conference championships.

They made the move out of the NAIA in 1993 into NCAA Division II and in 2007, moving up again to Division I-AA. Former Arkansas assistant and foundation head Harold Horton won national championships at UCA after taking over when Stephens left for a job at Lamar in 1982.

The 1976 Bears established a winning culture that has permeated through the program for 47 years. They have modeled, and still do, an example of brotherhood and leadership for all Bear athletes and fans.

They have a reunion every year on Hall of Fame weekend and recently endowed a scholarship called the Bears Athletic Scholarship Fund to provide educational support for future Bear athletes.

UCA linebacker Larry Joe Smith

“They certainly were a successful team that’s had a lasting impact on UCA athletics, not just football,” athletics director Brad Teague said before heading to Arlington, Texas, for the Bears’ first Football Media Day joining the United Athletic Conference. “That team has stayed together. They’ve gone above and beyond in their continuing support. They come back every year and it’s a good number of them, not just a few guys.”

The scholarship they’ve endowed proves that. They aren’t content to just talk about what they did that year. They back it up.

“It’s a big factor in our scholarship efforts and it’s a significant part of it,” Teague said.

Central Arkansas does not recognize “teams” in their Hall of Fame, but the 1976 group makes a strong case for inclusion. The time passed awhile back for that rule to quietly go away.