I know the 1994 University of Arkansas men’s basketball team touched you. You had season tickets and took your young sons to Charlotte for the Final Four.
You and your UA buddies piled in a car and road tripped to Charlotte coasting in on fumes. You watched the national championship game with others on the big screen at Bud Walton Arena. You were in grade school watching on a small television in your living room with a large group of family. You partied on Dickson Street after.
Arkansas fans will never forget the 1994 team that won the school’s first national championship.
But that team and coach Nolan Richardson was more far-reaching than just the state borders. I was a college freshman at Northwest Missouri State University and a basketball junkie. If I wasn’t in class or at the student newspaper I was playing pickup basketball or watching it on TV (My college dorm room had cable which my family never had – bonus!).
I became familiar with Richardson and the Hogs when the 1989-90 team made a national splash with a Final Four appearance. I was intrigued by the back court of Todd Day and Lee Mayberry and the colorful trailblazing Richardson being one of the few African-American coaches across the college basketball landscape.
I really began paying attention to the 1993-94 team when they hosted the University of Missouri Dec. 2, 1993 on ESPN. All of my buddies were Mizzou fans, and I hated the Tigers being raised a die-hard Iowa State fan less than an hour from Ames.
So, I took delight in the Hogs’ 120-68 dismantling of the Tigers at Bud Walton Arena. I paid close attention to them after and read as many articles as I could. Of course, I was a fan of star Corliss Williamson and was sure he was going to be the next NBA star. But, I also loved the roll players on the team.
Corey Beck’s willingness to play tenacious defense, Al Dillard’s pig-snout range, exchange student Davor Rimac, and Dwight Stewart, with the stature of an offensive lineman, being able to step out and drill 3-pointers. There was a cast of talented, colorful characters and their games were must-see TV.
When it came time to pick the NCAA Tournament pool, I was all-in on the Hogs. I had them beating Duke in the National Championship game.
“There is no way, Arkansas is going to beat Duke,” one of my journalism compadres said one day before class. “I said, “How many games have you seen them play? Just watch.”
And on that night in April, I sat perched on my bed watching every second of that game with Duke. It was one of the more thrilling title games, and Scotty Thurman’s rainbow three-pointer to seal the win elicited a scream from me that brought my dorm RA scrambling and was etched in NCAA Tournament history forever.
I won $150 in the bracket pool and made sure to rub it in that dude’s face.
Four years later, I stood face-to-face with Richardson at The Bud. I was a cub reporter covering the old Holiday Hoops Tournament at the Bud. I was the only one in the media room when Richardson sauntered in. I told him about how I enjoyed watching his teams. He smiled and chuckled and welcomed me to Arkansas. I was in awe.
I got to cover the Hogs that year and enjoyed the little bit of magic that still remained in his era. Since them I have gotten to know Thurman and had dinner with Dillard and Reggie Merritt, a walk-on on that team. It was cool to hear in their words how much Richardson and that season meant to them, now far removed from 1994.
The team, especially now, realizes the social significance of a black coach with a team majority black team beating blue-blood program that featured some white players and a legendary white coach in Mike Kryzewski.
The 1994 Hogs will be honored at a ceremony tomorrow when Arkansas takes on Ole Miss at noon Bud Walton Arena. It may be the only game this season that will come close to a sellout, but this celebration should attract fans who haven’t felt like watching the current up-and-down Hogs play this season.
Twenty-five years later, the 1994 Hogs are still memorable, especially those who grew up here but even to those who didn’t.
