Mix enough brawn with brains and you get a 6’1”, 210-pound Phi Beta Kappa Lynx linebacker named John Churchill.
John starred for the Lynx at linebacker from 1967-70, racking up honors as All College Athletic Conference linebacker and Honorable Mention All-American. He was also a standout in track as a discus and shot thrower and was named All College Athletic Conference in the discus in both his junior and senior years.
John Churchill ranks as one of Rhodes all-time greats as student leader, scholar and athlete. He was named to Who’s Who Among American Students, Omicron Delta Kappa and Rhode’s Student Hall of Fame.
In 1970 the Lynx football team posted a 7-1 record and won the College Athletic Conference Championship. Later, John’s head football coach Don Lear was to say: “John Churchill was the smartest football player I ever coached. He would know the scouting report inside out. He was like having a coach on the field.”
In the spring of his senior year, the quiet-spoken philosophy major from Little Rock scored mightily indeed when he was named a Rhodes Scholar, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a degree candidate of an undergraduate institute.
Today John serves as Provost of Hendrix College, sister institution to his alma mater, bringing honor to both.
In recognition of an athlete who was a winner on and off the field, we are honored to induct JOHN CHURCHILL into the Rhodes Athletic Hall of Fame this 29th day of October, 1999.
