D. Wayne Lukas

Oaklawn Park at Hot Springs has had an excellent record in recent years of being a training ground for Triple Crown winners. It happened again Saturday when Oxbow, who had raced at Oaklawn during the winter and early spring, won the Preakness Stakes at Baltimore. Oxbow’s trainer is D. Wayne Lukas, who now spends the winter and early spring in Arkansas. The jockey is Gary Stevens, who was aboard Oxbow in this year’s Arkansas Derby. Below is a look at the horse, its trainer, its jockey and the famous farm that owns it. Oaklawn and the sport of thoroughbred racing have produced Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame inductees such as John Ed Anthony, Calvin Borel, Charles Cella, Pat Day, Cal Partee, Larry Snyder and Terry Wallace. The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame salutes its friends at Oaklawn Park.

At 2 a.m. on a Saturday in late March, trainer D. Wayne Lukas pulled out of Hot Springs and began the long drive to New Orleans, where he saddled the thoroughbred Titletown Five for the 100th running of the Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds.

One of the owners of Titletown Five is Paul Hornung, the Pro Football Hall of Famer who grew up in Louisville, Ky. Hornung won the Heisman Trophy at Notre Dame and played on four of Vince Lombardi’s championship teams in Green Bay. Titletown Five made a bid for the lead at the half-mile pole before fading badly in the stretch.

After the race, the 77-year-old Lukas got back in his car and returned to Hot Springs so he could train his horses at Oaklawn Park early the next morning. The fact that one of the most famous trainers in history now makes Arkansas his winter and early spring base speaks volumes about the national prominence Oaklawn enjoys in this new golden era. While he no longer received the media attention he once did prior to Saturday’s running of the Preakness Stakes, few trainers work harder than the aging Lukas.

On March 16 – as a crowd of 33,963 looked on at Oaklawn with the sun shining down – Lukas stablemates Will Take Charge and Oxbow finished first and second respectively in the $600,000 Rebel Stakes, the key prep race for the Arkansas Derby.

“I was feeling pretty good 100 yards from the wire,” Lukas said after the race. “The competition was so tough. The hill gets a little steeper from this point.”

Will Take Charge had won the Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, but he fell to sixth in the Southwest Stakes on Presidents’ Day on a wet track. Lukas joked after the Rebel: “Will Take Charge is a fair-weather horse. He said he didn’t feel like running in the rain last time.”

Veteran Jon Court was aboard Will Take Charge in the Rebel.

Aboard Oxbow that day was another veteran jockey, Mike Smith.

Oxbow ran in the $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 13, finishing a disappointing fifth with 50-year-old Gary Stevens aboard. Oxbow ran three weeks later in the Kentucky Derby, finishing sixth.

Oxbow, owned by the legendary Calumet Farm of Kentucky, then shocked the racing world on Saturday in Baltimore with a wire-to-wire win in the Preakness. Kentucky Derby winner Orb had been the heavy favorite coming into the race.

Oxbow was a 15-1 longshot.

“I get paid to spoil dreams,” Lukas said. “Unfortunately, we go over here, and you can’t mail ‘em in. It’s a different surface and a different time. You gotta line ‘em up and win ‘em.”

Calumet, Lukas and Stevens represent racing royalty.

Consider Lukas’ resume:

• He has trained 24 Eclipse Award winners, including greats such as Althea, Azeri and Winning Colors.
• He has trained three Horse of the Year honorees – Lady’s Secret in 1986, Criminal Type in 1990 and Charismatic in 1999.
• He has won 14 Triple Crown races, surpassing “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons on the list of Triple Crown winning trainers with the Preakness win on Saturday. That record includes four Kentucky Derbys, six Preakness Stakes and four Belmont Stakes.
• He once won five consecutive Triple Crown races, beginning with the Preakness in 1994 and ending with the 1996 Kentucky Derby, when he sent out five horses and won it with Grindstone.
• He became the all-time money winner among thoroughbred trainers in 1988. He was the first trainer to top $100 million and $200 million in stakes earnings.
• He has saddled more than 40 Kentucky Derby starters.

Last year when Lukas got Optimizer into the Kentucky Derby at the last moment, longtime Newark Star-Ledger sports columnist Jerry Izenberg wrote: “The battle lines leap to mind in a rush of memory – Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird – linked together as closely as second skins in a pantheon of confrontations where each heartbeat combines a lot of Ahab and a lot of the White Whale. Here in ‘Weep No More’ city, year after year for a long time, it was always D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert.”

Izenberg went on to describe Lukas as “racing’s lion in winter” and said: “The white heat of his competitor’s heart burns so fiercely you could light downtown Louisville with it for a month.”

Stevens ended a seven-year retirement in January and won his third Preakness. He already had three Kentucky Derby and three Belmont Stakes victories.

“At 50 years old, after seven years of retirement, it doesn’t get any better than this,” Stevens said. “This is super, super sweet, and it happened for the right guy. All the stars were aligned. It’s even more special winning it for Wayne Lukas and his team.”

Stevens was riding for Lukas when he won his first Triple Crown race aboard filly Winning Colors in the 1988 Kentucky Derby. Stevens had last won a Triple Crown race aboard Point Given at Belmont in 2001.

“He supported me,” Stevens said of Lukas. “A lot of people were trying to get me off. He was the first guy to call me up. He said, ‘I’m going to have a colt for you. His name is Oxbow.’”

Lukas had not won a Triple Crown event since saddling Commendable in the 2000 Belmont.

Shug McGaughey, Orb’s trainer, said of Lukas: “When Wayne wasn’t going good, he was still the first guy out on his pony. The guy is a credit to racing. He’s always upbeat and optimistic.”

Lukas had three of the nine horses in the Preakness (Will Take Charge finished seventh and Titletown 5 finished ninth). He said of breaking the tie with Fitzsimmons for Triple Crown victories: “I shared that record with a very special name. If I never broke it, I was proud of that. But I’m also proud to have it.”

Calumet, meanwhile, has produced:

• Two Triple Crown winners, Whirlaway in 1941 and Citation in 1948.
• Eight Kentucky Derby winners. In addition to Whirlaway and Citation, there were Pensive in 1944, Ponder in 1949, Hill Gail in 1952, Iron Liege in 1957, Tim Tam in 1958 and Forward Pass in 1968..
• Eight Preakness winners.
• 11 horses in the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame – Alydar, Armed, Bewitch, Citation, Coaltown, Davona Dale, Real Delight, Twilight Tear, Two Lea, Tim Tam and Whirlaway.
• Two trainers in the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame – Ben A. Jones and H.A. “Jimmy” Jones.
• Five Horse of the Year titles – Whirlaway in 1941 and 1942, Twilight Tear in 1944 (the first filly ever to be voted Horse of the Year), Armed in 1947 and Citation in 1948.

The 762-acre breeding and training farm was established at Lexington in 1924 by William Monroe Wright, the owner of Calumet Baking Powder Co. The farm initially bred and raced standardbred horses. Wright’s son Warren took over in 1932 and changed the focus to thoroughbreds. The first stakes winner came in 1933 when Hadagal won the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park in New York.

Some of the finest thoroughbreds in history would go on to wear Calumet’s devil red and blue silks. Ben A. Jones came on board as trainer in 1939, and Whirlaway gave Calumet its first Kentucky Derby victory two years later, just months before the U.S. entry into World War II.

By 1947, the farm had become the first ever to exceed $1 million in purse earnings. After Citation won the Triple Crown in 1948, jockey Eddie Arcaro described him as the best horse he ever rode.

Ben Jones passed away in 1961, and his son Jimmy retired in 1964. Calumet had only 20 stakes winners from 1964-77. In 1976, John Veitch, whose father Sylvester had been a Hall of Fame trainer, was hired. Veitch was the trainer of Alydar in 1978 when the sport saw perhaps its greatest rivalry as Alydar finished just behind Affirmed in all three legs of the Triple Crown.

By the 1980s, Calumet was in serious decline. Alydar died in 1990, and the farm went into bankruptcy soon after that. In 1992, Calumet was put on the auction block. It seemed that an iconic name in racing history was about to die. Mismanagement and fraud had gone on for years. In 2000, former Calumet president J.T. Lundy and former chief financial officer Gary Matthews were convicted of fraud and bribery and sent to prison

Enter businessman Henryk de Kwiatkowski, a Polish-born Canadian citizen with a deep love of racing and its traditions.

When he heard of the auction, he quickly flew to Lexington, arriving less than an hour before the sale began. He became the Calumet owner following a $17 million bid. Within weeks, his employees were repairing the white fences and mowing the lush grass, returning Calumet to its former beauty. Following de Kwiatkowski’s death in 2003, the farm remained in a trust controlled by family members.

Last year, the Calumet Investment Group bought the farm from the trust for more than $36 million and leased it to Bowling Green, Ky., native Brad Kelley. He’s the fourth largest landowner in the country with more than 1.7 million acres of ranching land in Texas, New Mexico and Florida.

As for Lukas, his story is well-known to racing enthusiasts. He was born on Sept. 2, 1935, in Wisconsin. He taught high school and coached basketball for nine years after graduating from the University of Wisconsin. Lukas began training quarter horses in California in 1968. During the next decade, he trained 24 world championship quarter horses before switching to thoroughbreds.

Now, the “lion in winter” has returned Calumet and jockey Gary Stevens to the racing spotlight.

- Rex Nelson

Brooks Robinson, Class of 1978

Brooks Robinson is coming home. He also has a birthday coming up. He turns 76 on Saturday.

Robinson, the Little Rock native who was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1978 and the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983, will be at Lamar Porter Field on Saturday, June 15, to draw attention to the historic complex.

The field is owned by the Boys & Girls Club of Central Arkansas. Those associated with it want to make sure it doesn’t meet the same fate as nearby Ray Winder Field.

Do you get as sick as I do each time you travel down Interstate 630 and see the ghastly UAMS parking lot that occupies the site that was long the home of Ray Winder Field?

“The sadness of witnessing the demise of Ray Winder fills me with gratitude that Lamar Porter doesn’t suffer the same fate,” says Little Rock businessman Jay Rogers. “Lamar Porter is now the oldest usable field in the state of Arkansas.”

In late 2011, the Lamar Porter Complex Revitalization Committee was formed. In addition to renovating the baseball field, the committee hopes to fund improvements at the Billy Mitchell Boys and Girls Club, the Woodruff Gardens and adjoining recreational areas. Lamar Porter Field was built between 1934 and 1937 by the Works Progress Administration as part of the Roosevelt administration’s efforts to put people to work during the Great Depression. It was an impressive concrete-and-steel facility that could seat 1,500 people. It was also the only baseball field in the state with electric lights.

The 10-acre site that includes the baseball field was given to what was then known as the Little Rock Boys Club in honor of Lamar Porter. The Little Rock native was a junior at Washington and Lee University in Virginia when he was killed in an automobile accident on May 12, 1934. In addition to donating the land, the family contributed money for construction. The first anniversary of Porter’s death coincided with Mother’s Day. The donation was announced that day by his mother, Louise Skillern Porter. Lamar Porter’s nephew, who shares his name, is among the trustees for the revitalization committee.

“A memorial serves no purpose if it ceases to exist,” says the younger Porter. “This complex needs revitalization soon or it will meet the same fate as Ray Winder Field.”

The June 15 event will begin at 5:30 p.m. and is scheduled to end by 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 each and are available at The SportStop on Rodney Parham Road. The business is owned by Rogers. Each ticket will be good for admission to the event, a hot dog, a soft drink, popcorn and a chance to get Robinson’s autograph.

Robinson remains a legendary figure in Baltimore, where he spent his major league career. Following his retirement at the end of the 1977 season, Robinson began a 16-year career as a television announcer for the Orioles. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He’s one of only six former Orioles to have had a number retired by the team.

Was Brooks Robinson the best third baseman to ever play the game?

Many baseball historians think so. He began playing the sport almost as soon as he could walk. Robinson’s father, a fireman, had played semipro baseball and also was a member of the 1937 International Harvester softball team from Little Rock that played in the finals of the World Softball Championship in Chicago.

“Brooks Robinson began playing baseball at the grammar school level as a catcher for the Woodruff School,” Jeff Bailey wrote for the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. “He spent much of his time practicing at the facilities of the Arkansas School for the Deaf, which was across the street from his home. He also worked the scoreboard and sold cold drinks during games played at Lamar Porter Field. While a student at Pulaski Heights Junior High, Robinson played quarterback for the 1951 junior high state championship football team and was an honorable mention on the all-state team.”

Robinson played basketball and ran track at Little Rock High School. During the summer, he played American Legion baseball for the M.M. Eberts Post No. 1’s team, the Doughboys. The Doughboys won American Legion state championships in both 1952 and 1953.

As soon as Robinson graduated from high school in 1955, he signed a contract with the Orioles. Having just turned 18, he first played for the Orioles’ farm team in York, Pa., in the Piedmont League. Late in the season, Robinson earned a promotion to the big leagues. By the 1958 season, he was the Orioles’ regular third baseman.

Known as the Human Vacuum Cleaner, Robinson won an amazing 16 consecutive Gold Glove Awards (1960-75). His best season offensively came in 1964 when he batted .317 with 28 home runs and 118 RBI. He was the American League MVP that year, receiving 18 of the 20 first-place votes. Mickey Mantle was second in the voting.

In 1966, Robinson was the MVP at the All-Star Game. He finished second that year behind teammate Frank Robinson in the American League MVP balloting as the Orioles defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. The Orioles would win two World Series while Brooks Robinson was playing for them. The second came in 1970 when he was the World Series MVP against the Cincinnati Reds.

The Orioles had lost the World Series to the New York Mets the previous season. In 1970, however, it was almost as if Robinson willed them to a championship.

Robinson had a .583 batting average in the 1970 American League Championship Series against the Minnesota Twins. In the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, Robinson had a .429 batting average with two home runs and some incredible defensive plays.

“I’m beginning to see Brooks in my sleep,” Reds Manager Sparky Anderson said. “If I dropped this paper plate, he would pick it up on one hop and throw me out at first.”

As the World Series MVP, Robinson was awarded a new Toyota.

Reds catcher Johnny Bench said, “Gee, if we had known he wanted a new car that bad, we would have chipped in and bought him one.”

Robinson played in his last World Series in 1971 as the Orioles lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games. Baltimore would win division titles in 1973 and 1974 but lose in the American League Championship Series.

Robinson was selected for the American League All-Star team for 15 consecutive years from 1960-74. His career batting average was .267 with 2,848 hits, 268 home runs and 1,357 RBI. He led the American League in fielding percentage 11 times. He retired with a .971 fielding average, the highest ever for a third baseman.

At the time of his retirement, Robinson also had the records for a third baseman for games played at third (2,870), putouts (2,697), assists (6,205) and double plays (618). Only Carl Yastrzemski, Hank Aaron and Stan Musial played more games during their careers for one franchise.

Yet another Robinson record came from hitting into four triple plays during his career.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing someone erase my record of hitting into triple plays,” he later said.

How popular was Brooks Robinson in Baltimore, even after he retired?

In 1982, WMAR-TV’s on-air announcers had been on strike for two months leading into the baseball season. When Robinson refused to cross the picket line as opening day approached, station executives began new negotiations. The strike ended the next day, and Robinson was on the air for the season opener.

Robinson and Baltimore Colts’ quarterback Johnny Unitas had plaques in their honor in Baltimore’s venerable Memorial Stadium. The two men were saluted on the field when the Orioles played their last game there on Oct. 6, 1991.

In 1999, The Sporting News placed the native Arkansan on its list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. He also was named to the All-Time Rawlings Gold Glove Team.

Veteran Associated Press sportswriter Gordon Beard was the emcee for the ceremony that marked Robinson’s last game at Memorial Stadium in 1977. Beard reminded the crowd of Reggie Jackson’s remark: “If I played in New York, they would name a candy bar after me.”

“Around here,” Beard said, “nobody has named a candy bar after Brooks Robinson. We name our children after him.”

Now, Robinson is coming back to Little Rock to lend a hand to those who are saving Lamar Porter Field.

Little Rock’s Catholic High School for Boys and Episcopal Collegiate High School use Lamar Porter Field for home games. The field and an adjoining space also are the Arkansas home of a national program known as Reviving Baseball in the Inner City, which is sponsored by Major League Baseball. Portions of the movie “A Soldier’s Story,” starring Denzel Washington, were filmed at the field in 1984. In December 1990, the facility was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

There are other positive things going on in the neighborhood. The Woodruff Community Garden allows novice and experienced gardeners to have plots in the city. The renovation project will add lights, security updates, a more secure gardening shed, a gate and fencing to the community garden. There also will be restoration work on historic stone walls and bridges. Other improvements will take place at the Billy Mitchell Boys & Girls Club, which is named after the man who became associated with the club in 1922 and began heading the organization in 1928. Mitchell, who had played basketball at Texas A&M, was connected with the club for more than 50 years. Construction on the current facility was completed in 1982.

In December 2011, the revitalization committee announced that an anonymous donor had given a significant gift to begin the process of planning the renovation effort. In January 2012, representatives of the Little Rock architectural firm Witsell Evans Rasco met with the committee. Last August, the firm’s initial renderings for renovating the complex were approved.

Robinson agreed in September to become the honorary chairman of the revitalization committee.

“Not only did I sharpen my baseball skills at Lamar Porter, I even once won a bubble-blowing contest there and proudly rode a new bicycle home,” he said. “The memories of playing there and the friendships that I made have lasted all my life.”

In October, the Boys & Girls Club of Central Arkansas and the Lamar Porter Complex Revitalization Committee announced a partnership with the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation of Baltimore. The foundation was founded in 2001 by Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and his brother, Bill Ripken, who also played professional baseball for the Orioles. Cal Ripken Sr., who died in 1999, had a 37-year career working for the Orioles. The Ripken Foundation seeks to serve underserved youth across the country, using baseball as the hook to reach boys and softball to reach girls.

The revitalization committee’s website contains the words “heading for home.” With a master plan now in place, it’s a fitting motto as the great Brooks Robinson heads home to Little Rock, determined that the city won’t see another historic treasure turned into a parking lot.

Bret Bielema (courtesy Univ. of Arkansas / Walt Beazley)

On the evening of Sunday, May 19, new University of Arkansas head football coach Bret Bielema will speak during the “Talking Football” dinner at Chenal Country Club’s St. Andrews Ballroom in Little Rock. The dinner will begin at 6 p.m.

On Monday, May 20, the 15th annual Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame Celebrity Golf Classic will be headlined by Bielema at Chenal Country Club.

Tables of 10 for the Hall of Fame’s “Talking Football” dinner are $2,000. Individual tickets are $200.

Those desiring to purchase dinner tickets should call the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame at (501) 663-4328.

On May 20, lunch for golfers will be served at 11:30 a.m. with a 1 p.m. tee time. Awards will be presented following the tournament.

The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame Celebrity Golf Classic and the Sunday night dinner long have been among the premier sports events in the state, featuring past inductees into the Hall of Fame and other sports celebrities. A number of past inductees already have committed to play in this year’s tournament and attend the Sunday night dinner. The proceeds from the events will benefit the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

The official hotel of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame is the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel in North Little Rock. Out-of-town guests needing room reservations should call (501) 371-9000.

Bielema was named as the head coach at Arkansas in early December. He has taken the state by storm since then with his outgoing personality and his sense of confidence. As head coach at the University of Wisconsin, Bielema had a 68-24 record and took the Badgers to three consecutive Rose Bowls.

Several members of Bielema’s coaching staff will join him for the Sunday night dinner and the Celebrity Golf Classic.

The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 1959. The Class of 2013 was inducted in March at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock with more than 1,000 people in attendance at the induction banquet.

Ray Tucker is the executive director of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sports editor Wally Hall is the organization’s president.

The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame Museum on the west side of Verizon Arena is open each Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. It includes an 88-seat theater with a video highlighting the careers of Arkansas sports greats along with a touch-screen kiosk with a database of all Hall of Fame inductees.

Dues-paying members of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame vote each year on inductees. Membership forms for the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame can be obtained here..

Pat Summerall (Class of 1971)

Summerall, a 1971 inductee, lent his name for 11 years to the Pat Summerall Celebrity Classic golf tournament, which raised money for the Hall of Fame.

The iconic broadcast voice of the NFL, the Masters and the U.S. Open in tennis died Tuesday in Dallas at age 82.

Summerall was a Florida native, but Arkansans long have considered him one of their own because he was a University of Arkansas Razorback football player in college.

He was born in May 1930 at Lake City, Fla., where he starred in basketball, football, baseball and tennis in high school. Summerall later would say that basketball was his favorite sport as a high school athlete (he was an all-state selection in both football and basketball), but he was recruited to play football at the University of Arkansas. Summerall was a defensive end, tight end and placekicker for the Razorbacks from 1949-51.

The Detroit Lions drafted Summerall in the fourth round of the 1952 NFL draft. Summerall started the first two games of the 1952 season at defensive end as a rookie. His arm was badly broken on the final play of the second game of the regular season while playing the Rams in Los Angeles. The break was so bad that Summerall had to stay in Los Angeles and have surgery. He missed the remainder of the season, and the scar from the surgery was still visible six decades later.

Summerall came back in 1953 and played as a defensive end for the Lions in preseason games. He also kicked off. He was traded to the Cardinals just before the regular season opened. The Lions went on to capture the NFL title the next two years while the Cardinals struggled. Summerall was with the Cardinals from 1953-57. He ended his career with the New York Giants from 1958-61. During the 1959 season, he was 30 for 30 on extra point attempts and 20 of 29 on field goal attempts.

Collectors of Sports Illustrated are familiar with the classic photo from December 1958 of a Summerall field goal kick sailing through the snow at Yankee Stadium for a 13-10 Giants victory over the Cleveland Browns on the final day of the regular season. The Giants had to win to force a tiebreaker playoff game. The Browns needed only a tie to clinch the Eastern championship. With the score tied 10-10 and time running out, Summerall was sent in to try a 49-yard field goal in the swirling wind. He had missed a 31-yard field goal attempt several minutes earlier. The 49-yard kick was good.

Summerall scored five points – a field goal and two extra points – in what’s sometimes called The Greatest Game Ever Played, the Giants’ 23-17 loss to the Baltimore Colts on Dec. 28, 1958, at Yankee Stadium for the NFL championship. It was the first NFL playoff game to go into sudden death overtime. The game marked the start of the NFL’s surge in popularity as a large audience watched Chris Schenkel and Chuck Thompson call the contest on NBC.

The final game of Summerall’s professional playing career was the 1961 NFL championship game as the Giants were defeated by the Green Bay Packers.

After his playing career ended, Summerall began work as a broadcaster. He would go on to become one of the signature voices of sports broadcasting in America.

Summerall spent 32 years working for CBS Sports, serving as the voice not only for the network’s NFL telecasts but also for its coverage of the U.S. Open in tennis and the Masters in golf. He even called the play by play for professional basketball games and five heavyweight championship fights.

Summerall was an iron man in the early days of his broadcasting career, serving as the sports director for WCBS-AM in New York from 1964-71 while hosting the station’s four-hour morning news program. At the same time, he worked for the CBS Radio Network.

The 1994 Masters was Summerall’s final television event for CBS before moving to Fox. John Madden, who had begun working NFL games with Summerall in 1981, moved to Fox with him. In 1999, Summerall was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame, joining broadcasters such as Mel Allen, Red Barber, Jack Brickhouse, Jack Buck, Harry Caray, Howard Cosell, Ernie Harwell and Chick Hearn.

During most of the 1970s, Summerall had teamed with Tom Brookshier on NFL broadcasts. They worked Super Bowls X, XII and XIV together. The pairing with Madden that began in 1981 would last 22 seasons. The pair worked eight Super Bowls. Summerall and Madden’s last game as a team was Super Bowl XXXVI. Following the game, Summerall announced his retirement, and ABC signed Madden to work with Al Michaels on Monday night games.

Fox, however, talked Summerall into working on regional telecasts in 2002 and 2006. The Dallas-area resident also broadcast the Cotton Bowl for Fox from 2007-10. His voice also was still heard on the opening of Masters’ coverage on CBS each spring.

In April 1992, it was announced that Summerall had taken a leave from CBS to seek treatment for alcoholism at the Betty Ford Center in California. Summerall, who has remained sober for many years, was outspoken about his battle and served as an inspiration for thousands of Americans in his final years of life.

Richard Sandomir wrote in a 1992 New York Times story: “In late 1990, Summerall was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer that was aggravated by a toxic combination of painkillers and alcohol. He vowed to give up the drinking that had become part of his life.

“’I had not had a drink for seven months after the hospital,’ he said. ‘Then I said I ‘m fine.’ He resumed drinking, but it was no longer fun. From his days as a football player to his career in sportscasting, he loved being the last guy at the bar, telling the best stories, having the grandest time. Now, at the age of 62, he had to hide the drinking and deny the problem.”

In 1994, Summerall was instrumental in convincing Mickey Mantle to enter the Betty Ford Center.

“I was the friend who intervened,” Summerall said at the time. “We’ve had a number of long, tearful talks. There were a lot of similarities between us. If I hadn’t been there and hadn’t told him how familiar I was with the center, he wouldn’t have gone.”

In 1997, Summerall visited professional golfer John Daly during Daly’s stay at the Betty Ford Center.

“Originally, their bond was having been Razorbacks at the University of Arkansas, even though they were some 30 years apart,” Dave Anderson wrote in The New York Times. “Now they have developed another bond from going to another institution, five years apart.”

“I just happened to be in Palm Springs for the Betty Ford golf tournament,” Summerall told the newspaper. “I got a call from the center that John was there and would I come over to talk to him. I spent an hour with John. I told him I was encouraged he had done it on his own time and he agreed with me; when he went to a Tucson center in 1993, the PGA Tour had ordered him to go.”

In 2002, Summerall received the NFL’s coveted George Halas Award for lifetime achievement. Summerall underwent a liver transplant in 2004. After recovering from that, he kept a busy speaking schedule and even released a book in 2006.

He told the Christian Broadcasting Network, “It’s entirely different waking up in the morning and praying. I read aloud six or seven different devotional books. … It’s a terrific difference, a tremendous difference.”

Pat Summerall will always be known as one of the great broadcasters in American history. In this state, he also will be known as a former Razorback and as one of the best friends the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame has ever had.

– Rex Nelson

Bret Bielema (courtesy University of Arkansas / Walt Beazley)

New University of Arkansas head football coach Bret Bielema will headline the 15th annual Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame Celebrity Golf Classic, which will be held Monday, May 20, at Chenal Country Club in Little Rock.

On the evening of Sunday, May 19, Bielema will speak during the “Talking Football” dinner in Chenal Country Club’s St. Andrews Ballroom. The dinner will begin at 6 p.m.

Tables of 10 for the “Talking Football” dinner are $2,000. For the Monday golf tournament, the cost is $2,000 for a four-member team. Each team will be paired with a celebrity. A combination dinner table and golf team is $3,500.

Those desiring to enter teams and purchase dinner tickets should call the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame at (501) 663-4328.

On May 20, lunch for golfers will be served at 11:30 a.m. with a 1 p.m. tee time. Awards will be presented following the tournament.

The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame Celebrity Golf Classic long has been one of the premier sports events in the state, featuring past inductees into the Hall of Fame and other sports celebrities. A number of past inductees already have committed to play in this year’s tournament. The proceeds from the May events will benefit the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

The official hotel of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame is the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel in North Little Rock. Out-of-town guests needing room reservations should call (501) 371-9000.

Bielema was named as the head coach at Arkansas in early December. He has taken the state by storm since then with his outgoing personality and his sense of confidence. As head coach at the University of Wisconsin, Bielema had a 68-24 record and took the Badgers to three consecutive Rose Bowls.

Several members of Bielema’s coaching staff will join him for the Celebrity Golf Classic.

The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame inducted its first claass in 1959. The Class of 2013 was inducted in March at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock with more than 1,000 people in attendance at the induction banquet.

Ray Tucker is the executive director of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sports editor Wally Hall is the organization’s president.

The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame Museum on the west side of Verizon Arena is open each Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. It includes an 88-seat theater with a video highlighting the careers of Arkansas sports greats along with a touch-screen kiosk with a database of all Hall of Fame inductees.

Dues-paying members of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame vote each year on inductees. Membership forms can be obtained here.

Little Rock insurance executive Andrew Meadors is the organization’s president, and Ray Tucker serves as the executive director. At Friday’s banquet, Wally Hall, the longtime sports editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, will take over as the Hall of Fame president.

The organization also operates the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame Museum on the west side of Verizon Arena. The museum is open each Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. It includes an 88-seat theater with a video highlighting the careers of Arkansas sports greats, along with a touch-screen kiosk with a database of all Hall of Fame inductees.

Members of the Hall of Fame vote each year on inductees. Membership dues are $50 annually. Membership forms can be obtained here.

The Class of 2013 consists of:

• Marcus Brown, a former basketball star at West Memphis High School who went on to become Murray State University’s third all-time leading scorer with 2,236 points and the leading scorer in Euroleague history with 2,715 points. Brown ended his 13-year professional career with five most valuable player awards. As a high school basketball player, he led West Memphis to the 1991 Class AAAA state championship and the overall championship. In his senior year at Murray State, Brown finished as the nation’s second-leading scorer behind California’s Shareef Abdur-Rahim. He was drafted in the second round of the 1996 NBA draft by Portland. After playing briefly at Portland, Vancouver and Detroit, he became the highest-paid American player ever in the Euroleague.
• Jeremy Jacobs, the owner of Southland Park at West Memphis, who is among the nation’s top business leaders. Jacobs owns the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League and frequently makes lists of the country’s most influential sports personalities. Southland Park has been a part of the Arkansas sports scene since 1956 when it became the state’s only greyhound track. The Jacobs family was the original concession operator when the track opened. The family’s Delaware North Corp. later bought the facility. Jacobs has been the chairman of the NHL’s board of governors since 2007. He led the effort to build a new arena in Boston and was a pioneer in the regional television sports industry, transforming NESN into a model for all regional sports networks. Jacobs became the chairman and CEO of Delaware North in 1968. The company operates more than 50 professional sports venues around the world.
• Former University of Arkansas golfer Stacy Lewis, who was named in December by the Golf Writers Association of America as the 2012 Player of the Year for the LPGA. Lewis won four times in 2012 to become the first American since Beth Daniel in 1994 to finish first on the Rolex Player of the Year points list. She also had three runner-up finishes, including a share of second at the LPGA Championship. Lewis finished third on the LPGA money list in 2012, earning $1.87 million. Lewis, who grew up in The Woodlands, Texas, had a steel rod and five screws placed in her back 10 years ago to correct scoliosis. She was the 2007 NCAA champion and won 13 tournaments at the collegiate level while putting the Arkansas women’s golf program on the map. Lewis earned All-American honors in each of her four years at Arkansas. She won Southeastern Conference championships in 2005 and 2008.
• Former University of Arkansas track and cross country great Frank O’Mara, who competed for the Irish national team in three Olympic Games – 1984 at Los Angeles, 1988 at Seoul and 1992 at Barcelona. O’Mara is now a Little Rock telecommunications executive, serving as the chief executive officer of Allied Wireless Communications. He is from Limerick, Ireland. He ran for legendary Coach John McDonnell at Arkansas. O’Mara was an All-American and Southwest Conference champion his sophomore and junior years and then became McDonnell’s first outdoor NCAA champion in 1983 when he won the 1,500-meter run at Houston. O’Mara was the world indoor champion twice in the 3,000-meter run. After graduation, he spent three years as a coach for the Razorbacks and was a member of the staff in 1985 when the school won its first NCAA Triple Crown. O’Mara was a professional runner for 15 years.
• Don Nixon, who had a stellar basketball coaching career at Pulaski Robinson High School, Mabelvale High School, Little Rock Central High School and the University of Central Arkansas. Nixon graduated from Arkansas State Teachers College, now UCA, in 1951 after serving in the U.S. Navy. He coached four basketball teams – junior boys, junior girls, senior boys and senior girls – at what’s now Pulaski Robinson from 1952-54 before moving to his high school alma mater at Mabelvale from 1954-59. After coaching at the junior high level from 1959-67, Nixon coached the boys’ team at Little Rock Central High School from 1968-72 and the men’s team at UCA from 1972-79. Nixon’s Central Tigers won the Class AAAA state championship in 1970 and 1972 along with winning the state’s first overall championship in 1972.
• Wyn Norwood, who was a two-time Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference golf champion while playing at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. Norwood went on to win two state amateur titles and participate in 14 national amateur championships. Norwood, a Russellville native, worked at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock from 1992 until his retirement at the end of the 2012 school year. UALR had dropped its men’s golf program in the 1980s and had never had a women’s program before the 1992-93 season. Norwood revived the men’s program and started the women’s program. He spent his first 13 years at UALR as the head coach of both programs. He was named the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year for both men’s and women’s golf in 1994. Those were the first of five such awards he would earn.
• The late John Outlaw, who died suddenly of a heart attack in December 2011 following a highly successful high school coaching career in Arkansas and Texas. Outlaw, an Ozark native and a UCA graduate, went 84-20-1 in nine seasons at Arkadelphia, winning state titles in 1979 and 1987. His undefeated 1987 team was the first Arkansas school ever to be ranked in the USA Today Super 25. After moving to Texas, Outlaw’s teams went 57-21-1 at Sherman and 162-46-1 at Lufkin, giving him a 303-87-3 record. He achieved his 300th victory on Oct. 6, 2011, against The Woodlands in a game telecast regionally by Fox Sports Southwest.
• Sonja Tate, one of the best basketball players to ever wear an Arkansas State University uniform. Tate, who played at ASU from 1989-93, remains the career scoring leader at ASU with 2,312 points. Tate returned to ASU prior to the current season to serve as an assistant coach on the women’s basketball staff. In addition to being the school’s career scoring leader, Tate holds the single-season scoring record with 820 points during the 1992-93 season. She has the top five single-game scoring performances at ASU. Tate remains the only ASU women’s player to have scored 40 or more points in a game, a feat she accomplished five times.

Raised in rural Crittenden County near the community of Edmondson, Sonja Tate learned to compete athletically at an early age.

Sonja Tate, 2013 Inductee

“I had eight brothers and two sisters,” she says. “Everyone was very active. I played outside a lot when I was young with my brothers and my cousins. I always wanted to be a part of their basketball games. They made it clear to me that they didn’t want a girl out there with them. I wouldn’t back down, though. I wanted to play with them, and I knew I had to get stronger and tougher in order to do that. I had to develop my skills.”

Tate developed her skills to the point that she became perhaps the best basketball player to ever wear an Arkansas State University uniform.

Tate, who played at ASU from 1989-93, remains the career scoring leader at the school with 2,312 points. She returned to Jonesboro prior to the current season to serve as an assistant coach on the ASU women’s basketball staff.

In addition to being the school’s career scoring leader, Tate holds the single-season scoring record with 820 points during the 1992-93 season. She has the top five single-game scoring performances at ASU. She also remains the only ASU women’s player to have scored 40 or more points in a game, a feat she accomplished five times.

On the evening of Friday, March 8, Tate will be inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame will hold its 55th annual induction banquet at 6 p.m. that day at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock. Tickets are $100 each and may be obtained by calling Catherine Johnson at (501) 821-1021.

Other members of the Hall of Fame Class of 2013 are:

• Former University of Arkansas golf star Stacy Lewis, who’s now recognized as the premier player on the LPGA Tour
• Former University of Arkansas track and cross country great Frank O’Mara, a three-time member of the Irish Olympic team
• Marcus Brown, a former basketball star at West Memphis High School who went on to become the Euroleague’s all-time leading scorer
• Wyn Norwood, the former University of Arkansas at Little Rock golf coach who won two state amateur titles and participated in 14 national amateur championships
• John Outlaw, who died in December 2011 following a high school coaching career that saw him go 303-87-3, including a record of 84-20-1 in nine seasons at Arkadelphia
• Don Nixon, who had a stellar basketball coaching career at Pulaski Robinson High School, Mabelvale High School, Little Rock Central High School and the University of Central Arkansas
• Jeremy Jacobs, the owner of Southland Park Gaming and Racing at West Memphis

Tate played junior high basketball at West Memphis and then really began to blossom once she reached high school.

“I wasn’t a starter at the first of my 10th grade year, but I was starting by later in the season,” she says. “I had a brother who broke a leg playing football and a sister who broke a leg in the long jump in track. I was determined to prove myself quickly since I had seen how other people had their playing careers shortened by injuries. There were great high school teams in the state at that time. We had our ups and downs, but I was able to play against some of the most talented players in Arkansas. That made me better.

“I’ll admit that I was not the best student coming out of high school. Basketball was my main subject back then. I was struggling to improve my ACT score. I talked to Coach Joe Foley about playing at Arkansas Tech and was also being recruited by the University of Missouri at Kansas City. I thought I was going to sign with Tech, but I ended up at ASU. I didn’t sign until the summer after I graduated.”

Basketball fans across northeast Arkansas were glad she made that decision. Tate earned a starting position during her freshman season. Following that season, she was named the Co-Newcomer of the Year in the American South Conference. She earned All-American South Conference honors as a sophomore and All-Sun Belt Conference honors as a junior and senior.

Prior to her senior season, Tate was named a preseason first-team All-American by Dick Vitale’s Basketball Magazine. Following her senior season, she was named to the Kodak All-America team and was honored as the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year.

In addition to being the leading scorer in Arkansas State history, Tate:

• Owns the top five single-game scoring performances, including a 50-point outing against Louisiana-Lafayette during the 1992-93 season
• Connected on 95 three-pointers during the 1992-93 season, an ASU record that still stands
• Holds the single-season rebounding record with 327
• Is third on the all-time rebounding list with 1,006
• Is the school’s career steals leader with 402
• Owns ASU’s top two single-season steal records with 125 during the 1992-93 season and 114 during the 1991-92 season
• Is the only player in ASU history to have a quadruple double after finishing with 29 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals in an 86-59 victory at Mississippi Valley State University on Jan. 27, 1993
• Won most valuable player honors in the 1993 Women’s National Invitation Tournament at Amarillo, Texas, after leading ASU to a 67-54 victory over SMU in the finals

Tate’s first contact with Arkansas State as a high school student had been with the track program rather than the basketball program. She says modestly, “I did pretty much everything in track.”

Indeed, she was a track All-American and remains in the top 10 in ASU history in six events. She set the school record in the heptathlon in 1994 with 5,247 points.

After finishing her college basketball career in the spring of 1993, Tate went to Europe to play basketball and didn’t like it. She returned to Jonesboro to finish her course work toward a bachelor’s degree while competing in track, in which she still had eligibility remaining.

In 1996, the NBA Board of Governors approved the creation of the WNBA. The new league was announced at a news conference on April 24, 1996. At about the same time, another women’s professional league known as the American Basketball League was formed. The surge in interest in women’s basketball had followed the gold medal performance of the U.S. women’s team at the 1996 Olympics. The ABL lasted just more than two seasons. On Dec. 22, 1998, the ABL declared bankruptcy and suspended its operations. At the start, however, the ABL had been considered a better league and generally paid better salaries than the WNBA.

“I went to try out for the ABL at Atlanta,” Tate says. “The tryouts were held on the Emory campus, and it was a huge event. I was broke at the time, and I had to collect donations to even afford the trip to Atlanta.”

The visit paid off. About a week later, Tate learned that she had been selected to play for the Columbus Quest in Columbus, Ohio.

“We only had six players at the start, so you got a great deal of playing time,” Tate says. “It was a good league for the players, and I was with it until it folded.”

The Quest won the ABL’s Eastern Conference during both the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons. Columbus went on to beat Richmond for the title the first year and defeated Long Beach for the title the second season. Columbus was leading the conference again with an 11-3 record in late 1998 when the league folded.

“After the ABL ended, there was a disbursement draft for the WNBA that followed a camp I attended in Chicago,” Tate says.

Tate was a three-year starter for the Minnesota Lynx. She led the team in minutes played, assists and steals. She also was among the top three rebounders on the team. After leaving the Lynx, Tate went to Europe and played professionally in France, Russia and Spain. She retired at the end of the 2004 season and returned to Jonesboro. She earned her master’s of education degree from ASU in 2005. Tate was inducted into the ASU Hall of Honor in 2004.

After obtaining her master’s degree, Tate decided she wanted to coach. A friend talked her into moving to North Carolina, where she coached on the high school level at two schools. Most recently, she was the girls’ coach at William A. Hough High School in Charlotte, leading the team to a two-year record of 37-19 and two trips to the state playoffs.

At the end of the 2012 season, Tate began applying for college jobs.

“I was on the NCAA website every day looking at the job listings,” she says. “One day, I hadn’t gone to the website yet. A friend walked into my classroom with a sticky note that said there was a job opening at Arkansas State. Everything circles back around. It was a blessing to play basketball and see the world, but it’s good to be back in Arkansas.”

ASU head coach Brian Boyer said at the time of Tate’s hiring: “One could argue that she has accomplished more here at Arkansas State than not only any other women’s basketball player but more than any athlete period. What she has accomplished as a player speaks for itself, but I’m now convinced that she’s ready to make a name for herself as a coach.

“Sonja was not successful as a player because she was just better than everyone. She was successful because she was driven to be better than everyone. This attitute will be great for both our current athletes and our future athletes to be around. … As a bonus, our program has sent a message loud and clear to all other programs within our athletic department that we are not to be taken lightly when it comes to noon pickup games. I’m convinced that the women’s basketball staff will now be conisdered the favorites.”

Tate lives back in Crittenden County with her aging parents and commutes to Jonesboro each day.

“It’s a blessing to be able to spend time with my parents and be back at ASU at the same time,” she says. “That’s priceless.”

– Rex Nelson

West Memphis has been a hotbed for basketball in Arkansas for many years. Consider that:

• The West Memphis High School boys’ basketball teams have won six state championships – 1980, 1981, 1991, 1997, 2004 and 2005
• The West Memphis High School girls’ basketball teams have won two state championships – 1992 and 2003
• The West Memphis boys also have appeared in the state championship game in two of the previous three years – 2011 and 2010
• The West Memphis girls also have appeared in the finals four other times in the previous decade – 2002, 2007, 2008 and 2009
• The West Memphis boys won overall championships in 1980, 1981 and 1991. The overall tournament was discontinued following the 1992 season

Marcus Brown, 2013 Inductee

Of all the great basketball players to have come out of West Memphis, Marcus Brown always will rank as one of the best.

And of all the Americans to have competed in the Euroleague, none have accomplished what Brown did. He retired in 2011 at age 37 as the Euroleague’s all-time leading scorer. During his 11 seasons, he rewrote the league’s record books. Brown left the league with 2,715 points, having averaged 15.3 points per game. That’s the second-best average among the top 15 all-time scorers.

At the time of his retirement, he also:

• Was the league’s career leader in free throws made with 688
• Ranked sixth in three-point shots made with 323
• Ranked ninth in assists with 457
• Ranked 10th in steals with 184

Brown reached the Euroleague Final Four on three occasions. He also had nine national championships in France, Turkey, Russia, Spain, Israel and Lithuania. On the evening of Friday, March 8, Brown will be inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame will hold its 55th annual induction banquet at 6 p.m. that day at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock. Tickets are $100 each and may be obtained by calling Catherine Johnson at (501) 821-1021.

Other members of the Hall of Fame Class of 2013 are:

• Former University of Arkansas golf star Stacy Lewis, who’s now recognized as the premier player on the LPGA Tour
• Former University of Arkansas track and cross country great Frank O’Mara, a three-time member of the Irish Olympic team
• Wyn Norwood, the former University of Arkansas at Little Rock golf coach who won two state amateur titles and participated in 14 national amateur championships
• John Outlaw, who died in December 2011 following a high school football coaching career that saw him go 303-87-3, including a record of 84-20-1 in nine seasons at Arkadelphia
• Sonja Tate, one of the best basketball players ever to wear an Arkansas State University uniform
• Don Nixon, who had a stellar basketball coaching career at Pulaski Robinson High School, Mabelvale High School, Little Rock Central High School and the University of Central Arkansas
• Jeremy Jacobs, the owner of Southland Park Gaming and Racing at West Memphis

“Brown enjoys rock star status in several European countries,” writes Billy Woods of the West Memphis School District. “But in West Memphis, the 6-foot-2 Brown can walk the streets in peace and only be recognized by a few for his accomplishments at the old Devil Dome, where he led West Memphis High School to a 1991 state and overall championship.”

As a high school player, Brown was overshadowed in the statewide media by the exploits of Corliss Williamson of Russellville. Brown wasn’t offered a scholarship by the University of Arkansas. He wanted to play at the University of Memphis. He had attended Tiger head coach Larry Finch’s summer camp on multiple occasions, but an offer was slow in coming from Memphis. Brown signed with Murray State University in Kentucky.

Scott Edgar had recruited Brown when Edgar was an assistant on Nolan Richardson’s staff at Arkansas. When Edgar took the head coaching job at Murray State, Brown followed.

Brown would later say of Edgar: “He didn’t talk about how good I was, nothing about NBA prospects. He told me he would help me continue to become a better man and give me a chance at a free education.”

Brown was named as an All-Ohio Valley Conference performer three times and was twice the OVC Player of the Year. He’s one of only nine former Murray State players to earn All-OVC honors three times. He holds multiple school records, including the most points scored in a game with 45 against Washington University of Missouri in 1995. Brown is third on the all-time points list at the school with 2,236 and holds the Murray State single-season scoring average record with 26.4 points per game during the 1995-96 season.

Brown ranks as the all-time steals leader at Murray State with 232, including a single-season record of 76 in 1994-95. He’s second in school history in single-season free throw percentage at .896 and third in all-time free throw percentage at .849. He’s also second in career made free throws with 585.

Brown often saved his best performances for games against major powers. He scored 33 points against Purdue, 32 points against Louisville and 26 points against North Carolina in the 1995 NCAA Tournament. In February 2010, his No. 5 was retired at halftime of a Murray State game. His number was the ninth retired at the school.

In a story last year for Memphis magazine, Ed Arnold wrote about what happened following Brown’s senior season at Murray State: “The 1996 college basketball draft class was shaping up to be one of the most promising in NBA history. The names called out in Madison Square Garden on that night included more than a few future Hall of Famers. Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen and Derek Fisher all crossed the podium, put on caps and shook hands with the commissioner that night.

“So too did a prospect named Marcus Brown from Murray State University in Kentucky. Chosen in the second round by the Portland Trail Blazers, the 6-2 guard was coming off a stunning senior season in which he averaged 26 points a game, when he had been named the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year for a second straight time. When his name was called from the podium, former Grizzlies coach Hubie Brown, then an on-air draft host for ESPN, opined that ‘shooting makes up for a multitude of sins, and this guy can score.’”

Brown headed to Portland’s training camp in the summer of 1996. Arnold wrote: “There were no assurances for a 6-2 shooting guard in the NBA. Because of his size, scouts worried that he wasn’t big enough to play his traditional shooting guard position and that he was too inexperienced handling the ball to play point guard. … Brown played in only 21 games during his rookie season with Portland. He shot a consistent 40 percent from the three-point line and averaged four points in about eight minutes a game, but it wasn’t enough. He was released and signed as a free agent a few months later with the then Vancouver Grizzlies.”

Brown would later say: “I just don’t think they knew what to do with me. I think they really didn’t know how to use me.”

At the start of his second NBA season, Brown said he was “called into the office and told point blank that I wouldn’t play a single game. To this day, I just want to know why. At the preseason combine in Phoenix, everybody plays three games. I was the only guy there who didn’t play three games. I was the only guy in the league getting paid during the lockout of 1999. They cut me before the lockout, and they still owed me money.”

Having been waived during the 1998 season, Brown signed a contract with the French club Pau-Orthez and averaged 20 points per game his first season. He was named the most valuable player in the French League. He tore his ACL during the final game of the French playoffs in 1998. Brown had knee surgery in the United States and then took the 1998-99 season off.

Brown signed with the Detroit Pistons for the 1999-2000 season. He had a good preseason, but the Pistons cut him after six games. Arnold wrote: “It was a discouraging time. At 26, Brown had been cut by three NBA teams and had undergone major knee surgery, but his family in West Memphis and the desire to make them proud continued to motivate him.”

Brown told Memphis magazine: “I got strength from my grandfather’s honesty. He took me aside and said, ‘Never bring shame on the family.’ All I wanted to do was make my grandparents proud of me, and my mom and dad proud of me. Whatever I did, I was going to put forth my best effort and go from there.”

Brown’s mother was a fixture at basketball games in West Memphis for years. Brown’s own love for the city was evident when he chose to return there following his retirement as a player and help with the high school basketball program.

In Europe, Brown eventually would play in nine countries. Asked by Arnold to pick a favorite country, he said: “I say all of them because I was able to see people smile, people have joy, people fulfilled with some kind of gratification at our victories. My experience was great. Over there you have fans who are so genuine and so true. Their excitement is so pure.”

In a 2011 story for ESPN.com, Evin Demirel wrote: “No matter the European nation in which the next American NBA player plans to make a splash, chances are Marcus Brown has already been there, done that. Success eluded the former Murray State Racer during brief stints with the Portland Trail Blazers and Detroit Pistons. He’s more than made up for it overseas.

“Consider before Allen Iverson and Deron Williams signed contracts with an Istanbul club, Brown played in that city and won two league MVPs and Turkish national titles. NBA journeyman Hilton Armstrong signed with a team in France, where Brown, a shooting guard, had also won two league MVPs and domestic league championships. Later, Brown played for CSKA Moscow and again won two league MVPs and national titles in his two seasons.”

Brown told ESPN: “Coming from West Memphis, I would have never imagined I would go to the Holy Land. I would never imagine I’d be up close to the Eiffel Tower or visit the Colosseum in Rome or the Acropolis of Greece. My time in Europe, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else in the world. My experiences helped make me a better man.”

He said he likes “the normal life and being simple. I just go about my business.”

He might like a simple life, but Marcus Brown is among the most extraordinary basketball players to come from Arkansas. Now, he’s giving back.

West Memphis High School principal John Collins told Memphis magazine: “You walk into his interaction with any of the kids he’s dealing with, and it’s instant respect. He’s got their attention, he’s keeping them captive, he’s teaching them the proper skills they need to play the game and doing it the right way. With the rapport he builds and communication skills that he has, I’m certain Marcus will make a great coach.”

– Rex Nelson

The Star of Tomorrow Award will be presented during the Hall of Fame’s induction banquet on the evening of Friday, March 8, at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock. The award will be given for accomplishments during the 2012 calendar year.

“We want this to be one of the most significant awards in Arkansas sports,” says Ray Tucker, the Hall of Fame’s executive director.

Larry Crain Sr. of the Crain Automotive Team says his goal is for the award to be viewed as the “Heisman Trophy of Arkansas sports, something that’s very prestigious.”

Athletes from all intercollegiate sports – male and female – are eligible for the award.

“We will be identifying many of the future inductees into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame,” says Crain, a longtime supporter of the Hall of Fame and a member of the Hall of Fame Foundation Board.

A panel of media representatives determines the 10 finalists each year. The selection of each nominee is weighted as follows: 60 percent based on athletic performance, 20 percent based on academic performance and 20 percent based on community involvement.

Once the 10 finalists are selected each year, the winner is determined using the following formula: 25 percent based on a public vote and 75 percent based on a vote by dues-paying members of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

The winner of the first Star of Tomorrow Award was Joe Adams, a football player from the University of Arkansas.

The 10 finalists for the award to be presented March 8 are:

• Megan Herbert, a basketball player from the University of Central Arkansas
• Ryan Aplin, a football player from Arkansas State University
• Ashley Ray, a softball player from Henderson State University
• Connor Silvestri, a soccer player from Hendrix College
• Tyler Wilson, a football player from the University of Arkansas
• Mickey Hammer, a cross country runner from Southern Arkansas University
• Melissa Clement, a volleyball player from Hendrix College
• Kevin Rodgers, a football player from Henderson State University
• Seth Allison, a football player from the University of Central Arkansas
• Jaime Pisani, a gymnast from the University of Arkansas

More information on the finalists can be found by going to www.arstaroftomorrow.com. The public can also vote at that website.

Members of the Hall of Fame get to vote each year on inductees. Membership dues are $50 annually. Membership forms may be obtained here.

The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 1959. Andrew Meadors, a Little Rock insurance executive, is the organization’s president.

Tickets for the March 8 induction banquet at Verizon Arena are $100 each and may be obtained by calling Catherine Johnson at (501) 821-1021.

This will be the organization’s 55th annual induction banquet. Members of the Class of 2013 are:

• Former University of Arkansas track and cross country great Frank O’Mara, a three-time member of the Irish Olympic team
• Former University of Arkansas golf star Stacy Lewis, who is now recognized as the premier player on the LPGA Tour
• Wyn Norwood, the former University of Arkansas at Little Rock golf coach who won two state amateur titles and participated in 14 national amateur championships
• John Outlaw, who died in December 2011 following a high school coaching career that saw him go 303-87-3, including a record of 84-20-1 in nine seasons at Arkadelphia
• Sonja Tate, one of the best basketball players to ever wear an Arkansas State University uniform
• Don Nixon, who had a stellar basketball coaching career at Pulaski Robinson High School, Mabelvale High School, Little Rock Central High School and the University of Central Arkansas
• Marcus Brown, a former basketball star at West Memphis High School who went on to become Murray State Univesity’s third all-time leading scorer
• Jeremy Jacobs, the owner of Southland Park Gaming and Racing at West Memphis

The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame Museum on the west side of Verizon Arena is open each Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. It includes an 88-seat theater with a video highlighting the careers of Arkansas sports greats along with a touch-screen kiosk with a database of all Hall of Fame inductees.

Wyn Norwood, 2013 Inductee

It wasn’t Wyn Norwood’s goal to be a great golfer. He just couldn’t say “no” to his friends at Russellville High School.

“I had first played golf with an uncle in Marianna who tried to teach me the game,” Norwood says. “But I didn’t play much, and I wasn’t very good. There were three guys in high school who wanted to play in the district tournament, but you had to field four players in order to enter. They talked me into playing with them. Luckily, they only took the top three scores from each team back in those days. The district tournament was at the Conway Country Club, and I shot about 120. We made the state tournament at the War Memorial golf course in Little Rock, and I had to play again. I think I shot about 120 again, but they suckered me into playing the next year.”

From that humble beginning, Norwood would go on to become a legend in the world of Arkansas amateur golf.

Norwood was a two-time Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference golf champion while playing at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. He went on to win two state amateur titles and participate in 14 national amateur championships.

Norwood worked at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock from 1992 until his retirement at the end of the 2012 school year. UALR had dropped its men’s golf program in the 1980s and had never had a women’s program prior to the 1992-93 season. Norwood revived the men’s program and started the women’s program. He spent his first 13 years at UALR as the head coach of both teams. He was named the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year for both men’s and women’s golf in 1994. Those were the first of five such awards he would earn.

On the evening of Friday, March 8, Norwood will be inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame will hold its 55th annual induction banquet at 6 p.m. that day at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock. Tickets are $100 each and may be obtained by calling Catherine Johnson at (501) 821-1021.

Other members of the Hall of Fame Class of 2013 are:

• Former University of Arkansas track and cross country great Frank O’Mara, a three-time member of the Irish Olympic team
• Former University of Arkansas golf star Stacy Lewis, who is now recognized as the premier player on the LPGA Tour
• John Outlaw, who died in December 2011 following a high school football coaching career that saw him go 303-87-3, including a record of 84-20-1 in nine seasons at Arkadelphia
• Sonja Tate, one of the best basketball players ever to wear an Arkansas State University uniform
• Don Nixon, who had a stellar basketball coaching career at Pulaski Robinson High School, Mabelvale High School, Little Rock Central High School and the University of Central Arkansas
• Marcus Brown, a former basketball star at West Memphis High School who went on to become Murray State University’s third all-time leading scorer
• Jeremy Jacobs, the owner of Southland Park Gaming and Racing at West Memphis

Norwood was a star athlete while growing up in Russellville, competing in multiple sports.

“Whatever sport was in season, that’s what I played,” he says.

He graduated from high school in 1963 and stayed in Russellville to attend Arkansas Tech University on a football scholarship. He was a wide receiver and defensive back. Norwood was an outstanding football player, though he’s known for his self-deprecating style. Norwood says: “Coach Don Dempsey used to say, ‘Norwood is the most deceptive athlete I’ve ever seen. He’s much slower than he looks.’’’

Norwood had a revelation following his freshman football season at Tech.

“We were lifting weights, wrestling and boxing as part of the football offseason program,” he says. “I looked around, and it was just a bunch of linemen and me. I asked where all the other receivers, defensive backs and running backs were. I was told that they were playing baseball or on the track team in order to get out of football offseason.”

Norwood decided to join the Wonder Boy golf team during the spring of his sophomore year.

The golf coach at Tech was none other than the legendary John Tucker, the original Wonder Boy who was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1962. Tucker was born in Russellville in 1901 and played all sports at Tech. He later played football at the University of Alabama. As the head football coach at Arkansas Tech, Tucker compiled an amazing record of 74-17-11 from 1933-47.

“My main sport was football, but I was determined to get better at golf,” Norwood says. “When I first started, I was back practicing when everybody else was playing. That’s because I was so far behind.”

It didn’t take the gifted athlete long to catch up. In fact, he was the AIC golf champion as both a sophomore and a junior. For Norwood, Tucker was more than just a coach.

“He was an uncle by marriage,” Norwood says of Tucker, who died in 1983 at age 81. “His first wife, who died young, was my dad’s sister. Coach Tucker had no children, so he had always kept an eye on me when I was growing up in Russellville.”

Norwood’s father had died when Norwood was just 7, and his mother had multiple sclerosis.

“There were a lot of people in that town who took care of me,” Norwood says.

Norwood didn’t play golf his senior year. Instead, he joined the Navy once football season ended.

“I had a roommate who was obsessed with being a Navy pilot, and he talked me into going to see a recruiter with him,” Norwood says. “I basically went to keep him company. I was accepted into flight school, though, and decided it was a pretty good deal. I spent the summers after my sophomore and junior years at an officers’ school in Pensacola, so I went into the Navy as an officer.”

Norwood was a pilot for A-4 fighter aircraft and spent more than five years in the Navy. He was stationed in a succession of warm-weather locations – Pensacola; Meridian, Miss.; Kingsville, Texas; Jacksonville, Fla.; and San Diego – and found himself playing a great deal of golf on his days off. He honed his game and was named to the All-Navy and All-Service golf teams.

After leaving the Navy, Norwood was hired by Raymond Bright (a 2012 inductee into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame) as an assistant football coach at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. Before the next football season could start, Bright resigned. His replacement as head football coach was Ken Stephens, who decided to leave Norwood on the staff. Norwood coached for three football seasons at UCA – 1972-74. During his first spring at the school, Cliff Horton (a 2011 inductee into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame) was the golf coach. Norwood served as the UCA golf coach the next two years.

Norwood left UCA to go into the insurance business, a profession he stayed in until being hired at UALR. His career as an amateur golfer took off during those years. He won the state amateur championship twice and was the Arkansas captain for 13 Mid-South Cup matches.

Norwood has been president of the Arkansas State Golf Association, the Mid-South Golf Association and the Southern Golf Association. He was the captain of the 1995 U.S. team in the Simon Bolivar Cup in South America and was the coach of the U.S. men’s golf team at the 2011 World University Games in China.

At UALR, Norwood coached 19 men and 23 women who earned All-Sun Belt Conference honors, including Sun Belt individual champions Daniel Fox in 1999, Maria Jose Hurtado in 2000 and Patrick Sullivan in 2005. He guided UALR teams to four conference championships. Norwood was inducted into the Arkansas Golf Hall of Fame in 2001.

Kim Backus, the Arkansas representative for Nike Golf, first met Norwood at a golf tournament in 1975.

“Wyn and I met through golf, but his love of all sports has kept our friendship strong,” Backus says. “We’ve attended everything from grade school to middle school to high school games together. He’s a guy who appreciates and supports all of the sports teams in this state.”

Jay Fox, the executive director of the Arkansas State Golf Association, says he can think of few people in the country who have made as big a contribution to amateur golf as Norwood.

“He has been involved with the board at ASGA since 1975,” Fox says. “He has been involved with the Southern Golf Association board since 1980. He has traveled all over the world on behalf of amateur golf. As a golfer, he was without a doubt the best chipper I ever saw back when he was in his prime. You could put him in the bottom of a trash can, and he would find a way to get up and down. The Arkansas golfers who were my idols growing up were Stan Lee and Wyn Norwood.

“Just think of the thousands of people he has influenced through the years. Heck, I would not have been in this job for the past 22 years if it weren’t for Wyn Norwood. I was working in his insurance agency. He encouraged me to be active in the ASGA, and he later encouraged me when I applied for this job. All of us involved in golf in this state are better because of the things Wyn has done.”

For his part, Norwood says: “Winning tournaments when I was a golfer was fun, but the real joy was seeing the young men and women I coached grow up and succeed in life. I have friends all over this country because of sports. I’m blessed.”

– Rex Nelson