Returning to campus for homecoming in 2023, Terry Alexander reflected on what the University of Arkansas at Monticello meant to him when the new athletic performance center was named after his college teammate, White Hall High School alumnus Kenneth Hunt.
“The university afforded us such a great opportunity,” Alexander said at the time. “When we came here, none of this was a vision or even a consideration in reality. But we dedicated ourselves, we committed ourselves while we were here and we made the best of it. If we made the best of it and went out into the world, remember the way back to UAM.”
Alexander, who broke racial barriers as UAM’s first Black forestry student — all while setting records as a 5-foot-8, 170-pound tailback during an All-America season in 1977, has died. He was 68, according to a Facebook account.
UAM Chancellor Peggy Doss announced Alexander’s death Tuesday. A cause of death was not revealed.
“Mr. Alexander’s legacy at our university is one of a true trailblazer,” Doss wrote in a statement. “He boldly and bravely helped shape the history of the University of Arkansas at Monticello and has our deepest gratitude for his love and dedication to his alma mater.”
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Alexander, who graduated from Camden Fairview High School, was the son of a logger, according to UAM Magazine. Two of Alexander’s teachers reportedly pulled him out of a business math class and enrolled him in chemistry, and also set up a meeting with then-UAM forestry dean Charles Lee.
Alexander became a starter on the Weevils football team as a true freshman while still navigating the forestry space as a Black student in the 1970s. He told UAM Magazine in 2021 how the only available seat on his first day of class was in the last row and by the middle of the first semester he moved to the middle of the class.
“I started to feel like I’m supposed to be here,” Alexander told the magazine.
Shortly after Alexander set a UAM single-game rushing record on Nov. 5, 1977, the opposing head coach from then-top ranked Henderson State University delivered a memorable one-liner about his performance: “Lightnin’ struck the outhouse, and we were in it.”
Ralph “Sporty” Carpenter was quoted as saying that after Alexander had rushed for 253 yards and three touchdowns in the Boll Weevils’ 23-10 home upset of the Reddies, who won the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference despite the lone loss in league play. Alexander, who played for the Weevils from 1975-78, went on to earn second-team National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics recognition that season.
Alexander finished his career with 3,137 rushing yards, a school record only surpassed by Corwin Elliott’s 3,820 from 1999-2002. He ran for 1,335 yards in 1977, which was another high-water mark at UAM until Elliott collected 1,616 yards in 2001.
Alexander averaged 4.6 yards per carry and rushed for 24 touchdowns throughout his career, and his 253-yard game against Henderson State has been eclipsed only by Jerry Bingham’s 261 yards against Southwestern at Memphis (present-day Rhodes College) in 1978 and John L. Williams’ 275 yards against the University of West Georgia in 2007.
Following graduation, Alexander went to work for International Paper’s forestry operations in Camden. He moved to Cordele, Ga., 10 years later to help launch IP’s operations there, was hired as a district forester for Weyerhaeuser in Washington state in 2001, and moved to Texarkana, Texas, in 2017 to help Weyerhaeuser secure environmental certifications for the Arkansas/Oklahoma region, according to UAM Magazine. He retired from Weyerhaeuser as a safety supervisor in 2019 and resided in Texarkana, Ark., at the time of his passing.
“He carried his leadership skills into his career as a forester with International Paper, where he advanced from associate forester to senior staff forester and eventually supervisor,” Doss wrote. “He played a pivotal role in developing and launching the company’s OMNI wood products operations.”
Alexander worked in operations management and regional environmental health and safety with Weyerhaeuser, which earlier this year broke ground on a new facility just west of Monticello, and at one time supported Weyerhaeuser’s operations in Canada, according to Doss’ statement. He was appointed to the Washington state Health and Safety Advisory Board, the state’s Implementation Committee and Arkansas Sustainable Implementation Committee, among other advisory boards.
He was inducted into UAM’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2001. He had served on the UAM Foundation’s board of directors since 2022, when he was also inducted into the school’s African American Alumni Elite.
Alexander and Hunt, along with Crossett native Randy Risher, played leading roles in the UAM Legacy Campaign, which raises funds for the remodeling of the campus’ athletic facilities. Alexander, Risher and Hunt were named Distinguished Alumni, the highest honor for a UAM graduate, in consecutive years (2021-23).
This past April, UAM athletic director and football Coach Hud Jackson announced Alexander’s No. 24 would be retired at a date to be announced this season. Only Kevin McCarn (5), David “Cedro” Anderson (11), Joe Don Samples (12), Sean Rochelle (14) and Billy McGowen (27) have been similarly honored within the program.
“We lost a tremendous man in Terry Alexander,” Jackson said. “A great representative of what it is to be a top-notch student-athlete at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Terry was a great human being, great husband, great father and great friend. Just a great person. He will be deeply mised by all that knew him, but he will be deeply missed by his family and friends more. He has done so much for me personally and helping us to move forward with (UAM) Athletics and I will never forget that. My heart is broken for his family, but his legacy will live forever.”
Alexander leaves behind his wife Marian, along with other family members and friends. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
The UAM football team will host an open scrimmage at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Willis “Convoy” Leslie Cotton Boll Stadium.
