Update 5-8-2025
History is made!!! We had a correct identification of the Mystery Photo on Day Two!
Several Backroads and Ballplayers Weekly subscribers are members of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. One of those Hall of Famers (2017) is my good friend Jim Rasco, an outstanding high school athlete (DeWitt) and a former AIC standout in track and basketball (Hendrix College Hall of Fame 2006). Jim sent this message about 18 hours after the post went live. Congratulations Jim!
Below is Jim Rasco’s comment on the photo:
Even without the hint, I recognize the mystery man as CLIFF SHAW. (He was inducted into the ASHOF in 1981) - I only met him one time, when Lee Rogers set up the visit to the home of Bill Dickey back in the early 1980s.
Jim Rasco
Visit the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame online.
Cliff Shaw’s Bio in the Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia (link at bottom of bio)
Clifford Houston Shaw, born July 21st, 1906, in Hamlet, Arkansas, was a professional baseball player from 1927-1934 and a minor league baseball executive in 1934. He was best known for his work as a football official.
Cliff was the tenth of eleven children born to William Sherman Shaw and Mary Jane Crosby. When Cliff Shaw was only four, his father died. His mother remarried, and the family moved to Little Rock, AR. He attended Little Rock Central High School, where he lettered in four sports and was captain of the football team.
In 1927, Shaw signed with the Little Rock Travelers. That fall, he entered the University of Arkansas. However, because he was a professional athlete, Shaw was ineligible to play athletics at the university. Instead, Shaw began officiating local football and basketball games on both the collegiate and high school levels. He became well-known in this role and was soon labeled Northwest Arkansas' premier official. He was also an assistant football coach from 1930-1931 (the university did not field a baseball team at the time).
Shaw continued playing baseball during the summer when not in school. He returned to the Little Rock Travelers in 1928 before spending three seasons in the Class D Cotton States League from 1929-1931. In 1932, Shaw played with the Mobile Red Warriors.
Shaw's baseball career was interrupted in early February 1933 when he was forced to undergo a major operation due to appendicitis. The operation kept him from playing baseball that summer.
Meanwhile, Shaw had been hired to coach at University High School in Fayetteville in late 1932. He continued in this position until he was hired to become the Director of Athletics at Harrison, AR High School in the spring of 1934.
That spring proved to be a busy one for Shaw. During this time, Shaw also helped organize the newly formed Arkansas State League and was subsequently named president of the Fayetteville entry into the league. Furthermore, Shaw assumed a rare player-president role in June when he began at third base for Fayetteville.
However, this all proved to be too much for Shaw, and as a result, he stepped down from his position as president in July. He also gave up his third base position when he realized the effects of his operation kept him from playing harder, ending his professional baseball career.
More details of Cliff Shaw’s remarkable career can be found in The Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia. Caleb Hardwick, Administrator
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In case you missed it, Arkansas is the new number one college baseball team in several polls. Also in Backroads and Ballplayers #104, First, Best, and Last: AIC alumni in the major leagues.
Backroads and Ballplayers #104
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