Ozark Documentary Project
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SMS in the 80s
By Abby Strasser
Wicker Works. Spoonball. Marshall Gordon. All familiar names to SMS graduates of the 1980s.
As SMS celebrated its 100th anniversary this March, hundreds of students gathered in support of their school along with many alumni remembering their days at SMS when Marshall Gordon was president and classroom buildings that we sit in everyday weren’t even built.
While alumni and students share support for their school, some recognize the differences between college life in the 1980s, and now - one significant difference being social life locations.
“We would never go downtown,” says Brent Dunn, class of ‘85. “There was nothing down there at all. In fact SMS was the start of the growth of downtown when it expanded there in 1988, buying the Alumni building.”
Dunn now works in that building as the Assistant Director of Athletics and the Director of Athletic Development for SMS.
It may be hard for students now to imagine SMS life without the excitement of downtown, but ‘80s graduates had their own bars and hangouts elsewhere.
“We would go to Wicker Works,” says Dunn, “where there would be all types of wicker chairs; it was a popular place.”
Dunn says he would go to Wicker Works with his friends. Wicker Works was located on South Glenstone Avenue where Classic Sports is now. He would also go to Beethoven’s, a bar in University Plaza that is no longer there.
Chuck Busby, class of 1987, was involved with the Christian Student Center, a campus ministry group. He hung out at Godfather’s Pizza a lot, a restaurant no longer in town, and says that the main sports on campus were pretty much the same as they are now, the most popular being basketball, football and baseball.
“The 80s was when Charlie Spoonhour put SMSU on the sports map with a win in the NIT over Auburn,” says Busby. “Basketball here at SMS was referred to as ‘Spoonball’ and Hammons was referred to as ‘Spoon's Temple of Doom.’”
The campus was also different than it is now, having grown since the ‘80s.
“There are many more buildings, our sports programs have grown in significance on the national scene, and our campus is recognized on a national level with the Public affairs mission,” says Busby. “We have grown from a local/regional campus to a state-wide focused campus.”
SMS life has changed since Dunn and Busby attended school; Marshall Gordon is no longer president, downtown is busy and lively, and a place called Wicker Works is completely unknown to students.
As SMS continues to grow, in a town that continues to grow, alumni and future alumni will watch together as the campus, downtown and SMS’s mission expands for the better.
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