Former Football Dawg John Rogers

Collecting Pieces Of The Past

By Deborah Horn
The Maumelle Monitor

NORTH LITTLE ROCK — The large color photograph that greets visitors at John Rogers’ front door captures the final moments of a president’s life — the young, intense face of John F. Kennedy, softened by the beauty of first lady Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy — as he and his wife exited Air Force One the morning of Nov. 22, 1963.
In her arms, Jacqueline Kennedy carried the red roses that she had been presented minutes earlier.
Shortly after noon, the 46-year-old president traveled by motorcade through Dallas’ Dealey Plaza, where James Oswald waited.
Following the president’s car, LIFE magazine photographer Arthur Rickerby was busy snapping, even as Oswald's first bullet hit the president.
“What excites me is finding these in the Rickerby collection,” said Rogers, owner of the massive Rickerby collection of about 200,000 negatives, photos and other memorabilia.
The photo of the Kennedy assassination is among others lining the hall of the foyer in Rogers’ home. Opposite the Kennedy photograph, in preparation for a party celebrating the recent release of the book “Arthur Rickerby's New York City,” is a table piled high with copies.
Nowadays, Rogers collects rare and vintage photographs and other memorabilia as The Rogers Archive, but he started out collecting baseball cards as a kid.
While that’s not that unusual, most 10-year-olds don’t set up booths to make money from their hobbies.
He thought he would give up hawking cards to pursue an education, but after going to Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La., on a football scholarship, Rogers realized he didn't have money for extras. Under the terms of the scholarship, he wasn't allowed to get a part-time job.
So he returned to selling sports collectibles.
After graduating in 1996, instead of donning a business suit and finding a safe job in the corporate world, Rogers turned his hobby into his livelihood.
“Most people get the real job first, then follow their dream later,” he said.
His wife, Angelica Rogers, said she didn’t mind his obsession or his attempt to start his own business. Besides, she said, his business ventures were “carefully calculated risks.”
John Rogers began buying collectibles in bulk and holding his own auctions in his shop. Later, he started specializing in “one-of-a-kind” memorabilia. He said a friend told him early in his career that he could be either a dealer or a collector, “but you can’t do both” because collectors and customers find the same things valuable.
“A collector doesn’t make money,” John Rogers said. “Everything is for sale.”
Instead of limiting himself to sports collectibles that could be displayed on a shelf, he realized that there was money in old photos.
This realization prompted him to buy the Rickerby collection of negatives, photographs and other items from the photographer’s widow, Wanda Rickerby.
Computers and the Internet have made the job of sending photographs easier, John Rogers said.
“If someone famous dies, they’re suddenly hot,” he said, adding that movies like “Bobby,” which is about Robert Kennedy, can have the same effect.
In anticipation of the movie opening, he said, he pulled out as many of Rickerby’s negatives and photos of Robert Kennedy as he could find.
Rickerby’s career started in the mid-1940s and included documentation of some of the nation’s most significant historical events, as well as celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and the New York Yankees’ Don Larsen pitching the only perfect game in World Series history.
Harder moments are also included. Some of Rickerby’s best-known photographs were taken in the Asian Pacific while assigned to the U.S. Navy’s photographic unit. He recorded the invasion of Iwo Jima, won a Naval Citation for his depiction of the plight of civilians on Okinawa, produced a major documentary on prisoners of war in a Guam internment camp and photographed the signing of the surrender aboard the USS Missouri.
He was hired by LIFE magazine in 1960.
His last assignment for LIFE magazine was the color coverage of Willie Mays after his switch from the San Francisco Giants to the New York Mets in May 1972, the same year the publication closed its doors as a weekly.
Rickerby died at 51 in 1972.
“He was at the top of his game,” John Rogers said, pointing to a photograph of the car after John F. Kennedy was shot.
Rickerby changed from color to black-and-white film before shooting a picture of the bouquet of roses held earlier by Jackie Kennedy. The roses were scattered across the back seat, John Rogers said as he held up the photo.

Keep expecting to see a reply with some information about Rogers.

Aub, what do you want to know? I played with Rogers at Tech. He was a year behind me. He's a great guy. His football career was cut short by an injury at practice before the'94 season began. He had surgery and rehab but was never the same. He was neck deep in the sports memorabillia before, during and after the Tech years. He seems to have turned networking and hustlin' into a pretty good business. We still keep in touch. Last time I saw him was a couple of years ago at Jerry Byrd's wedding in Shreveport. John, Jerry, myself, Spencer Heard, Jason Martin, all got together up there.

Thanks, bullman63, I just like hearing about Tech grads and where they are now.

There may be something newer but this is the thread that pulled up when I searched for John Rogers.

Hate to bring something like this up, but thought somebody might want to know about it if they were asked and didn't already know.

https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/art...-hit-1-billion

Wow, that's terrible. Sounds like he's kind of proud of himself now that he has been caught.

Per the poster of this article, is aubunique still with us? I haven't seen him post forever plus a week of Sunday's.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TYLERTECHSAS

Per the poster of this article, is aubunique still with us? I haven't seen him post forever plus a week of Sunday's.

---

Last post was 2014. I feel like I remember someone say why he wasn't on the board anymore but a quick search didn't turn up anything.

DonW kept up with him I think.

DonW kept up with him I think.

He is alive on Facebook

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dwayne From Minden

He is alive on Facebook

---

Is being on intolerant Facebook really alive? :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TYLERTECHSAS

Is being on intolerant Facebook really alive? :D

---

It's all about prairie grass and storm run-off and wild flowers with Aub…

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dwayne From Minden

It's all about prairie grass and storm run-off and wild flowers with Aub…

---

Yeppers. Granola, grape juice and mother earth dude.