Heading into the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference's 1960 championship meet, Ouachita's track team had a Goliath-like challenge in front of it. After winning five AIC titles between 1930 and 1936, the program found itself amid a 24-year championship drought. The university had not seen a conference crown in any sport since 1941.
Lamar Watkins, the Tigers' head track coach, had assembled a 1960 squad that, according to the Ouachitonian yearbook, "appeared to be one of the strongest ever" in school history. As was the case in 1 Samuel, however, conquering a giant would require a young leader to step forward. For King Saul, the young leader was David. For Watkins, it was freshman David Booth (pictured second from right).
Booth turned 19 years old on February 12, 1960. He'd been a standout on his high school's football and track teams in Hazen, Arkansas, with The Grand Prairie Herald newspaper noting that some locals called him "the Hazen Flash." In his first year at Ouachita, Booth had already established himself as the anchor of the 440-yard relay team and an individual sprinter competing in every dash event offered by the conference. Like his ancient counterpart, he wasn't going to allow a lack of experience to overshadow his preparedness for the big moment.
On Saturday, May 7, that moment of truth arrived. A cold spring night didn't stop what the Ouachitonian reported was a crowd of roughly 1,000 fans from gathering at Hendrix College's track facility in Conway. It was time for battle.
The conference meet opened with the 440-yard relay. Booth, serving as the Tigers' last leg in the race, crossed the finish line at 43.4 seconds. That time gave Ouachita the event win and put Booth's unit, which also featured Gary Malesky, Aubrey Emerson and Calvin Stackhouse, within half a second of the AIC record set by Arkansas Tech in 1940.
From there, Booth swept the dashes, finishing first in the 100-yard (10.3 seconds), 440-yard (50.4 seconds) and 220-yard (22.5 seconds) events. In the former two races, the second-place finishers were Ouachita's Stackhouse and Thurston Fox, respectively. At the end of the meet, Emerson, Booth, Fox and Stackhouse teamed up to win the mile relay with a time of 3:29.6.
David slung the stone. Goliath fell. Ouachita won the conference title with 58 ¾ team points – more than double the total of runner-up Arkansas State Teachers College (Central Arkansas), which had claimed a share of nine of the last 10 AIC titles. In addition to the team championship, Booth took home a trophy of his own as the meet's top individual scorer (17 ½ points).
Though Booth later reclaimed the conference's individual titles for the 100-yard and 220-yard dash events, leading the Tigers to their first team AIC crown since World War II remained the highlight of his collegiate career. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Education in 1963, he taught and coached in the Pulaski County Special School District, helping students and athletes face their own giants for over 25 years.
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