Longtime Southside AD Rowland passes away

July 25, 2024 at 1:56 a.m.

by Leland Barclay

In this file photo Jim Rowland (second from right), longtime athletic director for Fort Smith Southside, is honored, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022, before the start of the second quarter of Bentonville’s 48-14 win over the Mavericks at Jim Rowland Stadium in Fort Smith. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)
In this file photo Jim Rowland (second from right), longtime athletic director for Fort Smith Southside, is honored, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022, before the start of the second quarter of Bentonville’s 48-14 win over the Mavericks at Jim Rowland Stadium in Fort Smith. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)

FORT SMITH -- Longtime coach and athletic director Jim Rowland passed away Wednesday night.

Jim Rowland succeeded Bill Stancil as athletic director for Fort Smith Public Schools in 1991 and retired in 2016, although he remained actively involved in athletic events through this spring. He was coach or athletic director for 53 years in Fort Smith.

He was the head coach at Southside from 1970 through the 1981 season. He guided Southside to the state championship game in 1973. Southside's stadium was named in his honor in 2009.

Rowland came to Fort Smith in 1963 as head football and track coach at Darby Junior High School. He moved to Northside under Stancil as an assistant football and track coach in 1966 and took over at Southside in 1970.

Rowland

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