Friendship Field finale set for Thursday

Blue Imps will face Junior Patriots in historic last game

WM School District William Ball says he was “born” on Friendship Field.

Metaphorically speaking, of course.

The former West Memphis Blue Devil football star and longtime former head football coach at Wonder Junior High poured out his feelings, sweat and blood on that field as a high schooler and now he’s sad to see Friendship’s finale.

The oldest football field/ stadium in West Memphis history will close the books on a storied legacy on Thursday night (Oct. 31) when the West Junior High Blue Imps take on Marion at 7 p.m.

The gridiron’s swan song will have quite a send-off, however.

At 6 p.m. there will be grilled hot dogs and gathering for former athletes who played on that field and at 6:15 p.m. there will be festivities on the field for the athletes, band members and coaches.

The land on that field will be the site of the new West Junior High, which will soon begin construction on. The new school is set to be completed in time for the fall of 2022.

“That field…it’s going to be hard to imagine not having that field in West Memphis,” said Ball, a Blue Devil from the early 1970s.

The list of greats is endless, but Blue Devils such as Terry McFarland, Jimmy Whisenhunt, Ike Harris, Greg and Steve Lackey, Chuck Skillman, just to name a few, carved out there legacy on Friendship Field.

Then there was the legendary Bill Kessinger, who coached one of the greatest Blue Devil teams of all time, the 1963 bunch that saw six players go on to play Division 1 ball.

Grafton Moore, widely recognized as Mr. Blue Devil or the Greatest Blue Devil, also played on that 1963 team and then coached West Memphis teams from 1978-2000, said he’s also saddened.

“I’m a little sad to see it go, but I’m also not one that worries about the past,” said Moore. “Things have improved so much facility-wise here that it’s something that we need for our school district.

“It’s going to look strange driving by there and not seeing the field that I played on .”

Friendship was a quaint venue for high school football in the 1950s and 1960s. It held a very small capacity.

It is planted by one of the most historical streets in West Memphis, Avalon.

Just across the street from the West end zone was Barfield’s Grocery, a very popular small business that also served as a parking lot for football games.

Friendship gave way to Hamilton-Shultz Field in the fall of 1976 and has since hosted junior high games every Thursday night.

Former Blue Devil Bill Tennison also has a heart for the cathedral that hosted so many historical sports moments.

“It’s a landmark in West Memphis. At the time, Friendship was the best, most elite football field in Northeast Arkansas,” said Tennison. “It was the epitome of greatness on Friday nights. It was THE place to be in West Memphis on those Friday nights. Most of our home fans who got to the games late had to go sit on the visitors side.

Of all the fields I played on back then, ours was the best-kept. Kessinger kept that field manicured. It tears my heart up to see it go.”

Moore’s coaching career was dotted by games played at Hamilton-Shultz, but on one particular night his Blue Devils had to play at Friendship Field at the last minute due to a power outage for the 1998 regular- season opener against state powerhouse Little Rock Central.

“The funny part about that night was at first the lights went out on the home side only and I told (Central head coach) Bernie Cox that either he can come back tomorrow and play or we can play on our junior high field,” Moore recalled.

“He said, ‘well, your lights are so good we can just play under one set of lights.’ Then the scoreboard blew out and I told Bernie we don’t have a choice but to play at Friendship. We ended up playing there and we beat them on the last play of the game. Two years later, Bernie and his bunch were scheduled to come back and play us here and I called Bernie and told him, kiddingly, we’d have to play at Friendship again. He shot back and said, ‘No, we’re not!”’ One of the great quirks about Friendship was that the fans were right on top of you, according to Moore. Unlike Hamilton- Shultz, there was no track surrounding the playing surface.

“It made for a very hostile environment for visiting teams,” Tennison said.

“It was a big home-field advantage for us.”

One of West Memphis’ best-known landmarks will have one last hurrah this Thursday and Ball, for one, will be in attendance.

“Last week, my niece’s son played a seventh-grade game there for Blytheville,” Ball said. “I went and sat on the visitors side, and I looked across toward the home side and the view from there looked so different. But it brought back real memories, precious memories. I feel like I was born on that field.”