After receiving a complaint, Arkansas State University has announced it is modifying its helmet decals. The decals were worn by the team to honor former player Markel Owens and former equipment manager Barry Weyer. The decals were in the shape of a cross, with Owens' initials on one side and Weyer's initials on the other side. The complaint alleged the cross was a violation of the separation of church and state. According to a report from the Associated Press, A-State's athletic director Terry Mohajir says the university's legal council advised against the use of the cross, and that the decal should be modified, or removed. The modified decal removes the vertical bar. Owens was shot to death earlier this year during a home invasion at his parent's home in Tennessee; Weyer died in June in an automobile accident near Paragould.
Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.