Don’t miss yesterday’s fascinating look at Arkansas connections to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and its aftermath, which took place 50 years ago today. Here’s a small one, from this morning’s Politico Playbook.
“I was in the third grade and my parents let me skip school that day, the family was driving from our home in Shreveport, La. to Fayetteville Ark. to go to the University of Arkansas (my Father and both sisters alma mater) vs. Texas Tech football game. We had the car radio on and as we drove through Texarkana we heard the first bulletin that shots had been fired at the President’s motorcade and each of the subsequent ones (including one that reported that both the President and Vice President Johnson had been shot). At one point, my Dad stopped the car and went into a bar to see if television had any more information (it didn’t). We were unsure whether to keep going to Fayetteville (would the game even be played?) or turn around and go home. It was a major debate all over the country whether sporting events should be held or not. The general conclusion was that the President would have wanted games to go on so I think a few were cancelled.”
—Charlie Cook, Editor and Publisher of the Cook Political Report and a political analyst for National Journal magazine, where he writes a twice weekly column.
The game ended up being played, with Arkansas coming out on top 27-20. Here’s more on the game, the only Southwest Conference game scheduled on the weekend after the assassination.