LITTLE ROCK — As the clock at the newly renamed Quigley-Cox Stadium ticks down to triple zeros and the fourth quarter of Little Rock Central High School's home field opener comes to a close, the scoreboard reads 28-24 for the visitors, the Van Buren Pointers.

It's not quite the desired storybook ending for what would otherwise be called by anyone in the black and gold of the Tigers a very special night. It was the first game played on the brand new, synthetic surface Verizon Wireless Field.

There had been a tailgate before the game, where families and friends and alumni dined on burgers and dogs and were entertained by the drum corps of the "greatest band in the land" and the Tiger cheerleaders. There were ceremonies at halftime honoring both the people who made the field possible and the students who will use it. But afterward, after the obligatory exchange of "good game" between the teams, there was one Tiger player who remained alone on the field - on his knees, head bowed down to the surface, visibly disappointed.

It was a school record fourteenth consecutive loss.

Tiger Pride

Keep in mind, folks, this is Central. Maybe it doesn't command quite the respect it once did on the football landscape, but it's still a program that for almost a third of the last 100 years has been able to call itself the state champion, including twice this decade. It's all-time record 32 titles are half again as many as the next most-storied program in the state, Pine Bluff.

Yes, this is Central, and we all know what happened there in 1957. The attention of the entire nation was fixed on the fortunes of the school's first black students, who became known as the Little Rock Nine. In that year the football team didn't lose a single game - part of a 35-game undefeated streak that spanned four years - and won the last of a record six straight titles under legendary coach Wilson Matthews. All that despite beginning the year with federal troops landing helicopters and setting up tents on their practice field and latching antennae onto the goal posts inside the stadium. Months later, none other than Martin Luther King Jr., himself, sat in the same stadium to attend the graduation of one of the Nine, Ernest Green.

Yes, this is Central, a yellow stone monolith built in 1927 and hailed by the American Institute of Architects as the "most beautiful high school in America." It was once the site of West End Park, and where the stadium now stands a baseball team called the Little Rock Travelers once played on Kavanaugh Field. Then in 1931 they moved to Travelers Field, later renamed Ray Winder Field, and were themselves later renamed the Arkansas Travelers. Meanwhile on campus, the Works Progress Administration raised massive stone walls around the new stadium instead of a chain link fence. It helped keep people employed amidst the Great Depression, but it also meant you had to buy a ticket to see the games. Those games might include the Arkansas Razorbacks, who played there before War Memorial was built in 1948, or the Tigers, who often drew the bigger crowds in those days.

Yes, this is Central. And, as they might say on TV, history lives here.

Dreams of a field

But despite all that tradition, Central has its problems. The school is in a neighborhood that ranks among the city's highest for violent crime rates, and the varsity football team didn't record a single victory last year. Couple that with the economic downturn, and the idea of soliciting an investment sounds : challenging, to say the least.

But it was needed, says Johnny Johnson, athletic director of the Little Rock School District, who said the last major improvements to the field were about four years ago, when new sprinklers were installed in all of the district's high school fields.

"This is my ninth year here, and I've been approached by a number of people" about renovating Central's field, said Johnson. "But as soon as they saw the cost, it would set them back."

Not so for Drake Hawkins, a Little Rock dentist whose son is a junior at Central. A "very hands on person," according to Johnson, Hawkins was not daunted by the estimate to replace the field, some $550,000, but took the lead on seeing it done. Bringing in Memphis-based Athletics SurfacesPlus, who helped not only with field design but with creating a fundraising campaign through the newly established nonprofit Q-Project, the effort got underway around April. Though a home opener at War Memorial bought them a few extra weeks, the Van Buren game set a hard deadline then only five months away: Sept. 25.

What's in a name

The first call proved among the most crucial.

The Central folks knew they needed a big start and figured the newest corporate citizen in town, Verizon Wireless, would want to introduce itself kindly (and in doing so it might help mollify any lingering resentment from buying out the homegrown local darling of the telcom industry, Alltel). Of course it didn't hurt that many employees there were Little Rock people, holdovers from Alltel, which as Johnson and company knew well had a strong history concerning community investment - and naming rights in particular. But they had no idea what they would get.

"They came on board right away for $250,000," said a smiling Johnson, adding that the donation may well be the single biggest in the country from a corporation to a high school.

But while that accounted for almost half what was needed - and paid for naming rights, moving the name of longtime coach Bernie Cox from the field to the outside of the building - it by no means assured success. Even at the July news conference to announce the whole thing, they were still well short of the goal, Johnson said.

"We still needed $150,000, and not only needed it, but needed to have it collected by the end of September," he said, explaining that probably the most ambitious and remarkable aspect of the whole project is that it was to be completely privately paid for up front - no financing and no money from the district.

"There was a sense of urgency, and many a night I went to bed wondering what I'd do if I didn't get that money raised."

Tiger ties

But, being a former college basketball coach, Johnson had a couple things going for him: he doesn't mind being told "no" and telling him he won't be successful makes him work that much harder to see it done.

And so the support came. A presentation to Arkansas Baptist College, whose football team shares the field, won them over. Professional ties to former Razorback Head Coach Houston Nutt and his family (Central alumni, by the way) got their support. Another Central graduate, Joe Johnson of the Atlanta Hawks, pledged a donation to honor his mom. So too did Foxwood Sports, the company that does all the athletic department's calendars, and the family of Ray Peters, longtime athletic director for the district who coached at both Central and Hall High. Combined with the support of the Central Band Boosters and Flagline and individual donations totaling some $40,000, it was almost enough.

"Lastly we went to the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau," Johnson said. "That's what put us over the hump, though I hate to say it that way since all of them were so instrumental."

A fine field

Where before a natural grass surface was underfoot, now there is what the industry calls Enviromax, a trademarked name of manufacturers Environmental Turf Solutions Inc. of Madison, Miss.

"Composed of a combination of XP-Pro and XP-Extreme fibers. Envenomed [is] a 46-ounce product with the same triple-ply backing used throughout the ENVIROTURF line," says the company Web site.

Or, to put it in layman's terms, "this is as fine a field as there is anywhere in the country : at any level. It's better than a lot of professional fields," said project manager Tim Cowan of Athletics SurfacesPlus, whose company has worked on 26 such projects throughout the region. "We've literally brought the facility into the 21st century."

That's not an extravagant boast of excess, as it might seem to those on the outside looking in. Behind the curtain of athletics administration, it means rain won't stop games unless there's lightning. Junior varsity games (for Central and the city's other high schools) won't be canceled in fear they'll tear up the field. Soccer teams, boys and girls, get full use. Band, ROTC, drill team and cheerleading can all practice on it without wearing it down. Even the baseball, softball and basketball teams will get some use. It's a surface that is a lot easier on the knees during drills than a hardwood gym floor, Johnson noted. And outside of the school district, soccer leagues and recreational football organizations are already making inquiries into reservations.

Oh, and since it only needs an hour and half "brushing" four to six times a year - no mowing, fertilizing, planting, watering or repainting - it's expected to save upwards of $40,000 a year in maintenance. By the end of its 10 to 12 year expected life, those savings should be enough to pay for resurfacing, which will be cheaper than the initial price tag since the foundation is already there.

The next episode

But by then Verizon Wireless Field may not be the only thing new at Quigley-Cox. As a National Historic Site, the school and field are getting a thorough inspection from the National Parks Service. A report due out early next year might lend itself to grants or funding from Washington, Johnson said.

In the meantime, the Q-Project Web site (www.qproject.net) remains up, and fundraising work continues on whatever the next step for the stadium will be. The field, explained Johnson, is only the beginning. And while it won't turn the football program around overnight, the wins will come eventually.

After all, this is Central.