By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
The Professor Pigskin Football Contest returns to the Times-Herald sports pages Tuesday, Sept. 3, with some minor changes.
Each week, readers will be given the chance to choose the winning football teams from a list of specially selected high school, college and NFL games.
At stake each week is a $50 cash prize, which goes to the person who has the most correct guesses.
In the event of a tie between two or more entrants, the specifically designated "tie-breaker" game will come into play to help determine a clear winner.
The "tie-breaker" game this year will alternate weekly between the Forrest City and Arkansas Razorback game. If the Forrest City game is used as the tie-breaker, the Razorback game will be one of the picks and if the Arkansas game is used as the tie-breaker, the Forrest City game will be used as a pick.
Readers will be asked to correctly guess the winner and the score of the tie-breaker game.
If the tie-breaker game fails to determine an outright winner, the prize money will be equally divided and the decision of the Professor Pigskin judges will be final.
Each week's list of games will appear in the Tuesday edition of the Times-Herald along with the entry form and the name of the previous week's winner.
All entries must be received and postmarked by noon on the Friday following that week's published list.
For example, all entries for the list appearing Sept. 3, will be due by noon on Friday, Sept. 6.
This year, readers are being encouraged to use only the official Pigskin entry form -- either the original or a photocopy -- and all entries should be printed or typed clearly.
Any "unreadable" entries will be discarded from that week's contest.
Entries may be dropped off at the Times-Herald main office, located at 222 North Izard, in the outside mailbox or in the "Professor Pigskin" box which will be located on the front desk in the Times-Herald lobby from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
The annual Times-Herald football preseason special section will be published on Wednesday, Sept. 4.
The special section will include preseason information about the Forrest City, Palestine-Wheatley and Hughes junior and senior high football teams as well as articles on the Arkansas Razorbacks and Arkansas State Indians.
The high school football season is scheduled to kick off on Friday, Sept. 6.
Forrest City opens at Wynne, Hughes travels to Barton and Palestine-Wheatley will host Des Arc.The junior high football season begins a day earlier, on Thursday, Sept. 5.
The Forrest City Blue and White Junior High Mustang football teams are into their second full week of summer football drills this week. The two teams are scheduled to open the 2002 season on Thursday, Sept. 5. The Blue Mustangs will host Marianna while the White Mustangs will travel to Brinkley. In a departure from the past two years, the two Forrest City teams will not face each other this season.
Several students from Astin's Tae Kwon Do Academy in Forrest City attended the 2002 National Martial Arts Camp held in Deer. Students took part in various seminars including self-defense, weapons, sparring, and repelling. Those students attending the camp were: Baker Blankenship, Weston Lewis, Tayler Blankenship, Taelor Ann Landrie, Angel Hood, Tabitha Eary and Ken Ing. Gina Astin is the chief instructor and Chase Breeding, assistant instructor.