By Robbie Neiswanger
Arkansas News Bureau • rneiswanger@arkansasnews.com
FAYETTEVILLE — Former Arkansas great Preston Carpenter, who caught a touchdown pass on one of the most famous plays in Razorbacks’ football history, died Thursday. He was 77.
Carpenter lettered at Arkansas from 1953-55 and is remembered for teaming with Buddy Bob Benson for a 66-yard touchdown on “The Powder River Play.” Carpenter’s catch and run was the only score in the 6-0 win against No. 5 Ole Miss in 1954, a season in which coach Bowden Wyatt’s “25 Little Pigs” won the Southwest Conference title.
Benson, who was a long-time coach at Ouachita Baptist University after his Arkansas career, died in April.
Carpenter was a team captain and first-team SWC performer at halfback as a senior in 1955 before going on to enjoy a 12-year professional football career.
He was selected by the Cleveland Browns with the 13th pick in the 1956 NFL Draft and played for the organization for four years. He also played for Pittsburgh, Washington and Minnesota before wrapping up his career with the Miami Dolphins in the AFL in 1967.
Carpenter was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UA Sports Hall of Honor in 1996. He also was selected to Arkansas’ All-Decade team (1950-59).
“He loved the University of Arkansas,” Harold Horton, executive director of the Razorback Foundation, said Thursday night. “He loved coming back to our reunions in the spring. He enjoyed being in the lettermen’s room prior to games. He was the life of the group. Wherever he was, he just added to where he was. People enjoyed being around him.”
