LITTLE ROCK — Last Friday night was a sea of activity in Arkansas.

The high school basketball state championships were being played at Barton Coliseum in Little Rock, and in front of a record crowd, and in Hot Springs, the Sun Belt Conference basketball tournaments were in full swing.

At Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, about 1,000 gathered to honor the latest class being inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. It was a great class, and every one of the inductees seemed truly honored to be on the stage.

Stacy Lewis is the No. 3 ranked female golfer in the world, and the former Arkansas Razorback made only one small request during a very busy time for her. She wanted a room with two beds so herdad could stay with her.

The Hall of Fame got them their own rooms.

Jeremy Jacobs is known locally for owning Southland Greyhound Park, but nationally, and even internationally, he’s known as the owner of the NHL’s Boston Bruins and is considered one of the leaders in that industry. He and his wife couldn’t have been more gracious.

Everyone was great, and the videos supported their induction into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, especially Frank O’Mara and his great world championships in track and field. What a gutsy performer he was, and still is today.

Others honored were Sonya Tate, Don Nixon, Wyn Norwood and Marcus Brown. All are great additions to the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

In other business that day, Richard Johnson, president of investments at Simmons Bank, was unanimously selected by the ASHOF board as the second vice president and will succeed first vice president Keith Ingram in four years as the president. Yours truly became president for the next two years.

Blake Eddins, former Razorbacks basketball player and local businessman, accepted a position on the executive committee.

The banquet started at 6 p.m. with a buffet dinner, and while everyone was eating, a wonderful video of past inductees was shown with Pat Summerall narrating.

Jim Rasco introduced all the past inductees who were at the banquet, and there were many.

Arkansas State quarterback Ryan Alpin also was honored.

It was a great night for a great organization.

March Madness is truly upon us as the SEC Tournament starts tonight with two play-in games at Nashville, Tenn.

The Razorbacks, the No.7 seed, will play Vanderbilt, the No. 10 seed, on Thursday night. While that may not be a home-court advantage for the Commodores, it is definitely a hometown advantage, although it remains to be seen how many Vandy fans will be on hand.

For sure, the Razorbacks won’t have as many as they did when they joined the SEC.

Their first SEC Tournament was in Birmingham, Ala., and notice was paid early to Kentucky’s Big Blue Nation. In several sports cafes, Arkansas fans had brought crime tape to reserve the best seats for their lunches, dinners and entertainment.

Then on the opening day, with an almost full arena, the Razorbacks team appeared during a game and a resounding Hog call reverberated through the gym so mightily that it almost scared the Wildcats fans.

Where they had their pick of tickets from scalpers in the past, they soon discovered the price had gone up and the game was changed.

Of course, the Hogs slipped a little at first and then became an afterthought, but after going 17-1 at home in his second season and winning 10 SEC games, Mike Anderson is being noticed by his opposing coaches who know what he did at Alabama-Birmingham and then at Missouri.

Sports, Pages 23 on 03/13/2013