Marshall works the option with the ball going to Lindsey. The big wingback kicks up his heels on a 31-yard dash that finally stops at the Mustang 15.
Kellams: When you hear a voice like that, you think, oh, it's Monday. It's time to hear some archives from the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History. You're right. And to be our guide once again, Randy Dixon.
Dixon: Hello, Kyle.
Kellams: Hello, Randy.
Dixon: I'm good. Well, we lost a good, good one last week, this month. Jim Lindsey has passed away at the age of 81. If you're from Arkansas, you know his name either, as you know, a Razorback on the national championship team or as a running back for the Minnesota Vikings or as a candidate for governor or as a highly successful real estate developer.
We're going to pay tribute to Jim Lindsey this week on the Pryor Center profile. Now, we did one about four years ago. And so some of these interviews, these sound clips that we've pulled are, I guess you would say, dated. They speak of Jim Lindsey in the present tense, but I think this is a fitting tribute.
He was born in Wynne, you know, which is in Cross County, during World War II. He graduated from Forrest City High School and accepted a football scholarship here at the UofA. So let's start with his earlier life in athletics. The Pryor Center interviewed Lindsey in 2009 that we have up on our website. It's actually on our front page. Here's a clip about his passion for football and the championship game with Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl in '64.
Jim Lindsey: My intensity level to want to play was accentuated because of my lack of ability. I played harder and worked harder and tried harder. And I know they tell the story about a lot of times down at the Cotton Bowl, against Nebraska, that Freddie throws this ball, Marshall throws this ball, and I don't see it coming. And I look, I glance back right at the last minute. He got pressure, and I glanced back right at the last minute. And the ball was right. Like here, you know, I just threw my hands up and caught it. And then we made the first down and then we went on and scored.
And I've been asked. I was asked about that and I'd lay in bed at night. I'd throw the ball up, throw the ball up, and I'd let it hit. I wanted it to hit the ceiling. It's dark in there and barely could get a glimpse of the ball, just barely get a glimpse of it, and I'd see it ricochet off the ceiling a little bit and I'd catch it, or I'd catch it. Sometimes I'd drop it. Somebody asked me about that catch one time and I said, man, I'd caught 10,000 balls in the dark. I needed to see it to put my hands on it, but I didn't need to see it for a very long period of time.
Archival audio: Momentum's the thing now. Marshall shoots a pass to Lindsey and the exciting wingback races down the near sideline to the Nebraska 5.
Kellams: I don't remember that, I was just a year or so old.
Dixon: But I was five, so I don't remember it either.
Kellams: All right. I'm just bringing this up because, you know, he went on to be drafted in the NFL. So. And play for the Vikings. So he must have been a good college ball player.
Dixon: He was a great college ball player. And, well, you wouldn't know it from hearing him. He's so humble. But you know, everyone I talked to about him, there were common characteristics that they brought up. They mentioned his dedication, his leadership, his business smarts and his humanity. Here's Lindsey in that same Pryor Center interview. And here he's talking about the sports portion of his life.
Jim Lindsey: If I look back over my whole athletic career and start saying how much of it was success and how much of it was pain and difficulty, way more than 50% is pain and difficulty. But as you get past it and you look back, all the pain and difficulty goes out the window and you remember the wonderful moments and times you had with your teammates and success and friends.
Kellams: Now, you mentioned that we included a profile in this segment on Jim Lindsey about four years ago, and we're going to hear some of the interviews that you did then.
Dixon: Yes. In this first one is with Kevin Trainor. At the time, he was the chief public relations officer at the athletic department. He's in a different position. Here at UofA, but he had some great comments about Lindsey and his legacy as an athlete.
Trainor: I think when you talk about the legacy of Jim Lindsey, it's an athlete at the University of Arkansas. Certainly his athletic prowess was a big part of that. But his leadership and just he was the right guy at the right time to help bring all of that together for Coach Broyles at the University of Arkansas.
And then he went to the pros. You know, it is fascinating. We always think of Jim Lindsey as a great Razorback. And clearly he was and his time here back in Arkansas. But I think very much underrated as an NFL player and you know, to play for Frank Broyles and then go to play for a legend like Bud Grant at Minnesota. And what a professional career he had from 1966 to 1972, seven years with the Vikings, with a storied franchise and a storied coach.
And, you know, he was what every coach would want on the team, a guy that understood not just his assignment, but really what they were trying to do as a team. But he was very much a physically gifted player. And that played out. I mean, to last seven years in Minnesota and the highly professional and highly competitive sport like football in the National Football League said a lot about Jim's athletic ability, but even more so about the complete package, the mental game, the way that he led other people and responded. And I think you saw that and have seen that continue in his life after football.
Kellams: You also talked to Ken Hatfield.
Dixon: Yes. Of course, his old teammate. And they've remained friends throughout their lives. But he talks here about that '64 victory that they shared and their lifelong friendship.
Hatfield: Jim Lindsey is one of the finest individuals that ever lived. And he would do anything for a friend, anything for a great cause. He's always been a man of great faith and a man who also have been able to help so many, many other people. And he doesn't want any notoriety of it. He just does it because it's the right thing. There's so many people in their lives have been changed by having the opportunity to either work or associate with Jim Lindsey. And he's totally unselfish. He totally is caring. He gives himself to worthy causes. And I just couldn't be more honored to be a friend of Jim Lindsey.
Kellams: When people were talking about Jim Lindsey, you know, shortly after it was announced that he had died, some people said, oh, that's right, he ran for governor.
Dixon: Against David Pryor.
Kellams: In the primary because he was running, well, in the mid-'70s you would always, almost always run as a Democrat.
Dixon: Yes, there were Republicans are few and far between.
Kellams: So in the state, he sought the Democratic nomination.
Dixon: Yeah and his, I guess one of his platforms was that he questioned the 20% increase in violent crime in Arkansas from the previous year. So this is from the archives of a 1976 news conference that Lindsey's talking directly about David Pryor.
Jim Lindsey: Of office holders who will not state a position on tough issues. They are tired of government by special interest groups. It is beyond me why Mr. Pryor will not step out of the gray areas and give the type leadership on which our future depends. For example, crime will not decrease because of money spent. Sure, money helps, but it really boils down to a question of attitudes towards crime that can only come from bold leadership. I contend that I have already helped the crime problem in our state by the positions I have taken during this campaign.
Dixon: But when you talk about politics, one person that I always go to is either my boss, John Davis, or Skip Rutherford, the former dean of the Clinton School. And I talked to Skip about Lindsey's impact on politics in Arkansas.
Rutherford: He was ahead of his time in politics in the 1970s. When Jim ran, the Democratic Party in Arkansas was dominated by Bumpers, Pryor. Clinton succeeding McClellan in Fulbright, and Jim was ahead of his time. And while he wasn't elected in 1978, he played a key role because he endorsed David Pryor over then Congressman Jim Guy Tucker in the runoff for the United States Senate. I remember that well. It was involved with it. I was in Fayetteville at the time, working as director of public relations for what was then McIlroy Bank, but was volunteering on the Pryor for Senate campaign. And Jim was a very key endorsement.
So he played a big role in Arkansas politics. He didn't come back, and was named to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees, and served well. And I knew him there when I was dean of the Clinton School. He was a good and effective board member. And he was just ahead of his time in politics. If a Jim Lindsey today ran for office, he'd have a good shot at winning.
Kellams: And I had, you know, another line on Jim Lindsey's resume as he was with the Board of Trustees.
Dixon: That's right. One of his many, many accomplishments, Board of Trustees. And he was always a strong supporter of not only the athletic department, but UAMS. And this is also from the KATV archives from 2009 at the dedication of the new Med Center building.
Jim Lindsey: It is a magnificent school. It is a magnificent hospital. It takes us to a whole nother level in health care in Arkansas. And I've had a stint in Houston with a cancer that my wife had. And the hospital in Houston recognizes the very outstanding nature of this hospital. And what all these people do and what everybody does is how important it is.
Kellams: Okay. So we've talked about college and pro football. We've talked about a foray into politics. Being part of the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees.
Dixon: Yeah. And it's funny how this sports career kind of rolls into his business career, obviously always thinking ahead. You ain't going to play pro football forever.
Kellams: No.
Dixon: So at 21 he signs on with the Vikings and he gets a signing bonus as many of those guys did. And I believe it was $75,000.
Kellams: Oh, that's a lot of money. I mean, it's a lot of money now, but then.
Dixon: Yeah, that is not an insignificant amount of cash.
Kellams: No.
Dixon: But, you know, a lot of guys at 21 would take that money and boy, have a great time.
Kellams: Do you know the stereo system I would have had?
Dixon: Oh, man. Yeah. Dickson Street would not be the same, but. But anyway, he took that money. This is the difference.
Kellams: Yeah.
Dixon: He was a smart guy.
Kellams: Mhm.
Dixon: He took that money and bought a big plot of land right at the edge of town. This is north.
Kellams: This is a story. I don't know if it still is, but when I was in college and, you know, after college, this is a story embedded in Northwest Arkansas lore.
Dixon: Oh, I'm sure it is. Well, he bought this land up on a hill that sort of looks down on Fayetteville from the north. He ended up selling that land for four times what he paid for it. And you know what's there now?
Kellams: Yeah. Yeah. It's the Northwest Arkansas Mall.
Dixon: That's right. Now that's how he started Lindsey & Associates in '73, 1973.
Kellams: I mentioned this as embedded in Northwest Arkansas lore when we were. When this story would be told in the '80s or '90s especially, you know, especially when the Northwest Arkansas Mall was the Northwest Arkansas Mall.
Dixon: Yeah.
Kellams: Well, we would always hear as part of this story, and it may be apocryphal, it may be legend, but we'd always hear is that people when he bought this land would say, why are you buying that land? Nothing's ever going to be there. I think that could be, you know, partly folklore.
Dixon: Well who knows? It was taking a chance. Yeah. You never know what's going to wind up, you know, or where the city's going to move.
Kellams: Right.
Dixon: But it really paid off. And he started his business career before he even left.
Kellams: Yeah.
Dixon: The Vikings. So let's hear a little more from the Pryor Center interview with him. And he talks about his philosophy of business.
Jim Lindsey: The one thing that I've always recognized is that if you think that you've got a foolproof plan, there are no foolproof plans. If you think you've got the one that nobody else can even get close to having, watch out. You're fixing to get tripped. And so I try to stay as humble as you can stay. And recognizing that there's an economy out here that can take me down or take anybody down. I don't look at it as if that I'm foolproof or I've got some angle on the rest of the world. I don't look at it that way.
I look at it real simple. That. Thank you, Lord, for what you've given us. Thank you for our plan. Show us how to make sure we're fair to everybody we're dealing with. And show us where we're wrong, where we can improve. Somebody help me. Show me. And then get good people. That's doing the same thing for you. That's the God of the universe first, and then some friends and then some consultants, and then your own judgment. Somewhere in there. You ought to be okay.
Dixon: You know, I also talked to his son, John David, who's the principal broker at the firm, and I talked to him at that time. This was four years ago, but about his father's business insight and what he's learned from him.
John David Lindsey: He had a knack for just successful things. I mean, his work ethic was second to none. And, you know, my brother and I have talked about this. I think he probably worked three lifetimes in one lifetime. You know, he worked a tremendous amount of hours. And but he loved what he was doing. He was a man of faith, and he was fair and he was good to his employees, and he rewarded his employees for a job well done. And all of those things added up into a real successful business model that he oversaw that he started, he started it and built it with the sweat of his brow.
Kellams: Last week on the first show we had after the announcement of Jim Lindsey's death, I pulled a cut from something that we're about to hear from, and that was the interview that was created for his induction into the Walton College Business Hall of Fame.
Dixon: Yes. Let's check in on that.
Archival audio: Our next inductee into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame, James E. "Jim" Lindsey, used the skills learned on the football field and built Lindsey & Associates and Lindsey Management into a real estate and an apartment empire reaching across six states.
Kellams: We've spent this week talking about Jim Lindsey, who died at age 81 earlier this month.
Dixon: Yes.
Kellams: You like to close with music, but I don't think that's going to work this time.
Dixon: No. But this is a great way to close. One of his many accomplishments was winning the national championship here at the University of Arkansas. So let's play the end of that. Well, you know, they used to have highlight reels and it was usually sponsored by Humble Oil.
Kellams: Yes.
Dixon: And so they would do a wrap up. So this is how they closed out, how the season ended, the '64 season for the Hogs.
Kellams: Before we hear that. Now last week we talked about you were going to launch a series about Arkansas governors.
Dixon: Yes.
Kellams: So but this took precedence. So next week we'll hear about I guess we'll start with James Miller, the first governor of the Arkansas territory.
Dixon: We're a little short on video on him.
Kellams: Okay.
Dixon: Or anything in the archives. Why don't we start with. We'll start with the '40s. Oh, how about all the modern governors after electronic news started, so that would have been in the late '40s.
Kellams: So you heard it here first.
Dixon: McMath.
Kellams: Yes. If you were born in the late '40s, you're part of the modern era. I appreciate that. Let's okay, let's end with this from Humble Oil. Thank you, Randy Dixon. I'll see you next week.
Archival audio: Cotton Bowl victors for the first time, the Razorbacks have finished the year undefeated in 11 games. A Texas victory over Alabama in the Orange Bowl that evening leaves the Razorbacks alone at the top of the college football world. And within a week, this great Arkansas team was officially named National Collegiate Football Champions. That was 1964, a year to remember.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
