A monument to Will Rogers located on the Arkansas Tech University campus in Russellville has been added to the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service.
The monument is located outside John E. Tucker Coliseum at 1604 Coliseum Drive on the ATU campus in Russellville. It consists of three plaques that were placed in memory of Rogers and to leave a record of his 1931 visit to Arkansas Tech.
Rogers was a humorist, movie star, newspaper columnist, radio commentator and humanitarian.
“I think it’s hard for us to imagine how popular (Rogers) was as a person,” said Tad Jones, executive director of the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore, Okla., during a 2016 appearance at Arkansas Tech. “He was literally the No. 1, most read newspaper columnist of his day. He was in more than 400 newspapers. He was the No. 1 movie star in the United States in 1933 and 1934. He was the most listened to radio commentator. As a matter of fact, churches on Sunday night had to move their services around so that the congregation could listen to him on the radio and then come to church.
“(Rogers) loved his country and his fellow man,” continued Jones. “When they dedicated the Will Rogers Memorial in 1938, one of the things Eddie Cantor said about him was that he didn’t care about your religion or your color…he appreciated you as a human being. That is definitely a message our country needs to hear today. One of our efforts is to share Will Rogers with as many people as we can as an example of how to be a good American and a good human being.”
The 1931 show at ATU’s National Guard armory was part of a tour of the southern United States that Rogers undertook in an effort to bring relief to regions struggling through the Great Depression.
According to information published in the Russellville Courier-Democrat newspaper in the days leading up to and following Rogers’ visit to Arkansas Tech, the admission price for the event was $5 for reserved seating on the stage, $2.50 for seats in the front section, $1 for general admission and 50 cents for Tech students and children. The newspaper reported that approximately 3,000 people attended the Rogers appearance.
“It was Russellville and this vicinity’s big morning, and the people turned out en masse to hear the cowboy humorist speak,” reads a portion of the article. “The house was with him from the start. He was their own Will, come to help them in an emergency. He could have said anything, and they would’ve liked it. He was theirs. That was enough.”
Rogers’ performance in Russellville raised more than $2,000, which was used to provide payment for laborers to construct a municipal airport. The airport was built on the same parcel of land where Tucker Coliseum now sits.
Arkansas Tech rededicated its Will Rogers monument in June 2016 after it was refurbished through a cooperative effort by the Arkansas Humanities Council and Arkansas Tech.
