Dr. Clarence E. McCarver of Ballinger played football and track and field for Howard Payne and is considered one of the best athletes in school history. He also served as an assistant coach and administrator at Howard Payne. Playing halfback and quarterback, McCarver was voted Texas Conference Most Valuable Player as a junior and senior. For three straight years, he was the high point scorer for the Texas Conference track meet, winning the 100- and 220-yard dashes and the 100- and 220-yard hurdles. He set conference records in all four events at the 1929 meet. At the AAU Junior Olympic Meet in New Orleans in 1930, he swept the same four events. After graduation in 1930, he went to George Washington University and played football  for a season and a half. He earned his master’s degree from the school and played on the Washington Senators professional baseball team. McCarver came back to Texas and earned the first doctorate in physical education awarded by the University of Texas. He worked at Texas colleges before serving in the Navy during World War II. After the war, he was athletic director at Howard College before joining Southern Mississippi University as head of the physical education department. McCarver came back to Howard Payne as vice president in 1963 after serving as registrar at Tarleton State, dean of students at Texas Western and professor of psychology at The Citadel. After two years at Howard Payne, he returned to Southern Mississippi until his retirement in 1975. He died in 1997.