SEARCY – Maybe it is a Harding touchdown reception, a long kickoff return, or a sack of the opponent's quarterback — there are some plays that Bison fans at First Security Stadium would like to see again. Beginning Saturday, they will be able to do just that.

Thanks to several generous donations from members of the 1959 Harding football team and their families, First Security Stadium will be equipped with a new scoreboard and a 32-foot by 10-foot video board with replay capabilities. Rainey Electronics of Little Rock, Arkansas, will design and install the scoreboard and video board with the unveiling of the new addition scheduled for Saturday as the Bisons host Ouachita Baptist at 6 p.m. The dedication will take place at 5 p.m. in a ceremony behind the current scoreboard.

The new scoreboard will include a memorial on the back that honors Carl Allison, Harding's first head football coach in the modern era; former Harding president and current chancellor emeritus Clifton L. Ganus Jr.; and the 1959 football team, Harding's first after a 28-year hiatus.

"The guys who were on that team have always had a close bond," said Lathan Garnett, a running back on the 1959 team who, along with Harding's Alumni Director Liz Howell and teammates Dr. Jim Citty and Billy Joe Thrasher, spearheaded the donation effort. Citty and Thrasher were captains of the 1959 team.

"When the idea of honoring Coach Allison and Dr. Ganus came up, it was an easy sell to the members of that 1959 team because of the special bond that those two men and that team have with Harding University," Garnett said.

Howell also saw the bond between the players, their coach and Ganus.

"Each member of the team has a different story, but the feelings are the same about how much Carl Allison and Dr. Ganus influenced their lives," Howell said. "Fifty-five years later, they still speak of these Godly men with tears in their eyes."

Harding's first football team played in 1924, the first year of the college's existence. The Bisons played through the 1931 season when the football program was discontinued for economic reasons. With the encouragement of Ganus and under the tutelage of Allison, the program was reborn in 1959.

Allison was 26 years old when he became Harding's head coach and had been a four-year starter at the University of Oklahoma where he earned All-Big Seven and Scholastic All-America honors. Allison was the head football coach through the 1963 season. He also coached baseball and served as assistant athletics director and dean of men.

After leaving Harding, Allison entered the ministry and helped establish the Whites Ferry Road School of Preaching in West Monroe, Louisiana, serving as director for 22 years. He also was an elder at Whites Ferry Road Church of Christ for 37 years. Allison died in 2013.

"Carl Allison is one of the top five people who shaped my life," said Garnett. "We moved to West Monroe, Louisiana, and went to church with him at Whites Ferry Road for so many years. Many of the important things that happened in my life came from him. He was just that kind of person."

Ganus, 92, was Harding's vice president in 1959 and took a leadership role in returning intercollegiate athletics to the campus.

"That first year, Dr. Ganus was such an encouragement to us," Garnett said. "He would ride the bus with us and bring us boxed lunches. We were able to see him and the interest he had in us. His importance to Harding is hard to put into words."

The 1959 team will have its 55-year reunion on Oct. 18 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. in Cone Chapel. The team will then take a Harding History House tour at 3 p.m. The dedication of the scoreboard will start at 5 p.m. at First Security Stadium. At halftime of the Harding-Ouachita Baptist game, the team will be presented on the field. Following the game, there will be a reception at Dr. Jim and Maralyn Citty's house.