FAYETTEVILLE — To Harold Horton, the Razorbacks always are Arkansas’ bond.
They bond the state and the University of Arkansas and the people of Arkansas.
Behind only his wife Betty, son Tim, the Razorbacks’ running backs coach/recruiting coordinator since 2007, daughter Holly and five grandchildren, Arkansas is the love of Harold Horton’s life with longevity surpassing them all.
With every breath, Harold Horton breathes on behalf of something Arkansas.
He grew up “daydreaming on that tractor” while farming in De-Witt, lettered on Frank Broyles’ 1959-61 Southwest Conference championship football teams before graduating from the UA in 1962, coached high school football in Bald Knob and Forrest City, answered Broyles’ call to coach the Razorbacks’ linebackers from 1968-76 and coached the Razorbacks’ defensive line in 1977-1980 for Lou Holtz, worked in business in 1981, served as head football coach at the University of Central Arkansas in 1982-1989 and then returned to the UA in 1990 where he has served in multiple roles.
Now, after 11 years as president of the Razorback Foundation following a stint directing football operations, Horton will retire effective July 31.
“I just think it’s time,” Horton said. “I will be 73 in November, and that’s the reason I say it’s time.”
For Harold, it is the ideal time to enjoy family.
For Arkansas, his retirement’s timing never was going to be good, and now hardly could be worse.
That’s because in a UA athletic department where UA diplomas are becoming scarcer than ivory-billed woodpeckers, Harold Horton is one of Arkansas’ last links to Arkansas.
As did the late Wilson Matthews, the Arkansas-born Horton succeeded as linebackers coach and succeeded down the line heading fundraising, Harold understands that the Razorbacks’ success is grounded in Arkansas relationships.
While knowing the UA and the Razorbacks need to be broader than just Arkansas for growth, Horton knows they never should perceive themselves as being bigger than Arkansas.
He knows Arkansas’ success starts with Arkansas. At UCA, he went 74-12 and won two national championships with a nearly all-Arkansas cast.
Most of the greatest Razorbacks Horton coached, like UA Sports Hall of Honor honorees Cliff Powell, Dennis Winston, Dan Hampton and Jimmy Walker, hailed from Arkansas. He recruited countless greats from the Natural State.
Lou Holtz benefited greatly from Harold’s coaching and recruiting but didn’t appreciate it until it was too late. Holtz fired Horton as part of a 1980 staff purge.
Lou was man enough later to apologize and admit that he had erred.
“That used to bother me that I was fired, but that was one of the best things that happened in my career,” Horton said. “It got me out of a rut and gave me the opportunity to be a head coach.”
It also tested his love for the university that turned its back on him. Naturally, Harold forged to the front.
Tim Horton would have greatly enhanced Harold’s UCA teams, but Harold sent his All-SWC receiver son to the UA.
And when the UA called Harold home from Conway in 1990, he answered it like he did when Broyles called him in 1968 at Forrest City.
The Razorbacks likely won’t find a successor with Harold’s history and lifelong love for Arkansas, but it behooves them to come as close as they can.
Sports, Pages 18 on 06/23/2012