Benjamin Keller, Sr. does not miss a Southern University baseball home game. As a matter of fact, Keller does not work during times that the Jaguars’ games are scheduled.
Ever since he was nine years old, the 54-year-old foundation layman has attended almost every home game, though very few know him by his legal name.
“I love this field (Lee-Hines Field). There has never been a better stadium,” said Keller. “But I asked (Jags head baseball coach) Cador if I could do the dugouts, because they still needed work, and you know Po’ Ben ain’t lyin’!”
That’s right, Po’ Ben, is what the Jaguar Nation affectionately calls him and many “ain’t lyin’” when they say that he is arguably the baseball team’s biggest fan.
“He’s been here since I have been here at Lee-Hines and when we played at Pete Goldsby (baseball field),” said Cador. “You see, our fans are different. The players need them and they need Po’ Ben especially when things aren’t going well, and if Po’ Ben isn’t there we miss him.”
Keller, a Scotlandville native and Southernite by heart, said that he attended Southern for one year after high school, but had to leave after realizing that he was having “too much fun and too many kids, and I had to feed them.” So he went on to support his family, but has never left Southern as a fan.
It is April 13, a blistering and sunny Sunday at Lee-Hines Field. As the Jags prepared to play the Golden Lions of University of Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Keller shouted to the opposing team from under a giant umbrella.
“I think I need to go and get my broom,” yelled Keller. “Looks like the Jags are going for the sweep!”
After a few more jokes, Keller sat down to share his experience as a father and a Jaguar icon.
“I had seven kids,” said Keller. “One was killed in ’91 though. But the rest of them are all doing well”
As Keller counts and recites his children’s names (Ben, Jr., Bryant, Lakeo, Shashanneon, Chester and Leslie), he reflects on his slain son Kevin.
According to Keller, after a Southern-Texas Southern University football game, Kevin was among an amassed crowd outside Church’s Chicken on Scenic Highway when a young man shot into the crowd.
After the hysteria was brought to a calm, Keller’s son was found shot in the heart. Keller said that the alleged assailant was convicted and is currently doing life in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
After speaking about Kevin, he reflected on his other children, including his son Bryant. Keller said that he wanted his children to attend Southern, but at the time, the school was not recruiting heavily in the area. His kids went elsewhere, including Bryant, who played basketball at the University of Southern Mississippi.
As if on cue, Bryant walked up and sat beside him.
“He doesn’t miss a game,” said Keller’s son. “Not just at the park, he doesn’t miss a football game either. Rain, snow, sleet or hail, he is always there.
While Bryant paid tribute to his father, Keller entertained the fans by heckling the UAPB dugout.
“Hey, Golden Lions! I hear you’ve got a bluff in Arkansas,” yelled the acclaimed fan. “But that bluff is Pine Bluff and you ain’t never been on a bluff like this, have you?”
Keller is not only a fixture of Southern University baseball, but also one in the Scotlandville community. He used to coach little league baseball and still acts as a recruiter and scout for kids in the area.
“Jaguar baseball just wouldn’t be Jaguar baseball without Po’ Ben,” said Carlos Brown, broadcast analyst for The Jaguar Journal, a local radio show. “Po’ Ben epitomizes what a true Jaguar fan should be.”
The Jags went on to win against Pine Bluff and did indeed sweep UAPB in the three-game series. As the crowd applauded the Jaguars in their win, Po’ Ben received an ovation afterwards.
No need for all that,” said Keller. “That’s my job, and these people know that. That’s what I am here for…And you know I ain’t lyin’!”
