Elder worked with two great UA voices

Jim Bailey

Posted on Tuesday, August 8, 2006

URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/adg/162909/

At some point last week, an impression formed that Arkansas has had two distinct television ages, each ended by tragic auto accidents.

There was the 20-year Bud Campbell era, 1954-1974, and the 28-year Paul Eells era, 1978-2006. These men were two consummate professionals fueled by an incredible work ethic

Campbell arrived virtually at the onset of Little Rock TV, and coincidentally at the time the “modern” Arkansas Razorbacks football program started to take shape. When he died during the 1974 football season, he had been a familiar and reassuring presence for 20 years, and the state mourned accordingly.

For 28 years, Eells’ amiability glowed on TV and radio, but still people were often astonished to find him no less amiable, patient and considerate in person — the unanimous theme of last week’s outpouring of grief and tributes. I wonder if a state flag ever flew at half-mast for any other sportscaster, anywhere.

Eells and Campbell never met, as far as I know, but they were linked through the late Jim Elder.

Campbell was hired as the Arkansas Travelers’ radio play-by-play announcer in 1960 (live broadcasts at home and “recreations” of road games ), in addition to his heavy schedule as sports director of KARK-TV, Channel 4.

Elder, a sporting goods salesman and former minor-league umpire, contacted Campbell and offered to serve as his statistician. (As you no doubt recall from his years as a beloved staple of drive-time sports, Jim Elder had a way with stats. ) Campbell quickly pushed him into an additional role as color commentator and full-time sidekick.

After a seven-season apprenticeship, Elder took over as the Travs’ full-time play-by-play man in 1967. By then, Campbell had moved to KATV, Channel 7, and would serve as “voice of the Razorbacks” in football and basketball from 1966 until his death.

When Eells left WSM in Nashville, Tenn., to join Channel 7 as sports director and newest voice of the Razorbacks, Elder joined his broadcast crew as a stat man.

“That’s basically how I got acquainted with Paul, through Jim,” said Stephens Media sports columnist Harry King. “Paul loved to play golf, and it evolved that Jim, Paul, Orville Henry and me would play most every Friday during the football seasons at North Hills. Paul and Jim vs. Orville and King: Throats vs. Scribes, we called it.

“ Jim was always at Paul’s elbow at the Razorbacks games, with a board that had slots for small cards. A play would be run, and Jim would hand Paul a card, like ‘ Rouse 12 to the 38”. He was a genius with math. He could instantly supply the distance of any punt, any punt return, whatever. ”

A few years before Elder’s death in 1998, he was asked to compare Campbell and Eells. The main difference, he said, was that “Bud was reserved to some extent. You had to get to know him. Some people thought he was aloof, but it was actually shyness. Nobody ever had trouble getting acquainted with Paul.”

Here’s an example I heard last week from Bobby “Cotton” Staten of Magnolia.

“Paul was in Magnolia a few years ago to speak to some group, and I went over to hear him,” Staten said. “I found him standing outside the building a few minutes before it started, so I went up and introduced myself. Gosh, you would have thought we’d been friends for 30 years.

“ When it was time to go in and start the meeting, he thanked me for welcoming him to Magnolia.”

Paul Eells surely wasn’t the only media personality unfailingly gracious in any setting, but he’s only one I can recall offhand.