Ouachita Baptist University

Ten to one: bet you never heard of it. It's the largest industry in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. That's a clue. Some of its more famous alumni are: Sharon Evans - Miss Arkansas 1967 Helen Rose Gennings - Miss Arkansas 1968 Donna Jo Connelly - Miss Arkansas 1970 Lisa Stevens - Miss Arkansas 1984 Beth Anne Rankin - Miss Arkansas 1994 Lauren Davidson - Miss Arkansas 2002 Lacy Flemming Miss Arkansas 2004. No doubt they were cheerleaders too: Go Ouachita!

Other alums include Eva Ware Barnett - composer of "Arkansas," Arkansas state anthem
Shelley Breen, Heather Payne, Denise Jones, and Terry Jones (singer) of Christian pop music group Point of Grace.


Still more: William Miller - professional football player in the Canadian Football League and the USFL. Nell I. Mondy - biochemist and international expert on the potato; Augustus Albright - noted outdoorsman and conservationist, former Arkansas Gazette columnist; Cotton Cordell - inventor of the world's best-selling fishing lures; Cliff Harris - former All-Pro Dallas Cowboys safety; Tommy Patterson - former NBA forward for the Baltimore Bullets; TJ Bingham - Former NFL player.

I bring this college to your attention because, if he is successful in his presidential aspirations, Ouachita Baptist University will become a household name across the land. Yes, by now you have guessed it: Mike Huckabee is a grad of this esteemed university, Bachelor of Religion. He did very well there, one of the top academic graduates, edging out Miss Arkansas for top honors.

In a comment yesterday, someone said that Huckabee is just a Jimmy Carter.

That hit me like a brick, so I researched Huckabee and found his educational history which also includes attending Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas where he dropped out after one year.

Jimmy Carter, on the other hand, attended Georgia Tech and Jackson State University but graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a Bachelors of Science in Physics, finishing 58th out of 820.

Not that attending a prestigious university necessarily turns out competent graduates. After all, George W. Bush is a Yale grad.