When Steve Shields learned his assistant coach, Charles Cunningham, was sick and needed to go to the Mayo Clinic for treatment, he volunteered to donate any vacation or sick days to Cunningham.
Assistants Joe Kleine and Teddy Crass followed suit.
Cunningham is still at the Mayo Clinic.
Shields is no longer the head coach of the UALR Trojans.
It would be hard to find anyone who has anything negative to say about Shields. He is an all-around good guy, the type who pulls over and helps strangers change flat tires.
Yet when it was announced that Shields would not be retained as UALR's coach, the only real surprise was that Athletic Director Chasse Conque, who had been on the job for less than two months, would make such a bold move at this time.
Conque, 30, who was handpicked by Chancellor Joel Anderson as Chris Peterson's successor as athletic director, has never been an athletic director.
There are some lingering hurt feelings in central Arkansas over Peterson's sudden departure last December, although Peterson is still moving forward and making progress toward bringing a bowl game to Little Rock.
There are new hurt feelings about Shields' dismissal.
UALR cannot afford to hurt feelings, especially since the athletic department has lost revenue of almost $400,000 the past four years.
So Conque may be facing a career-defining decision with his choice of a new head coach.
He might need to consider how many more supporters or potential boosters could be lost by his decision.
He doesn't want to wake up two years from now and find that the program hasn't made significant strides.
Conque hired Eddie Fogler as a consultant. Fogler is well-connected in the college basketball world. He played for Dean Smith at North Carolina, and was a head coach at Vanderbilt and South Carolina.
Apparently with Fogler's help, a nationwide search is in progress, and names like Steve Barnes, an assistant to Larry Eustachy at Colorado State, and Mark Downey, an assistant coach at Bowling Green, have been heard.
Of course, there is also the rumor that a very powerful and wealthy person wants Darrell Walker. Rob Kirby, an assistant at Memphis and formerly at UALR, is said to be interested.
Mike Newell's name has even been mentioned, and ironically Downey replaced him after he was fired at West Alabama in 2013. A year later, Downey, who used to coach at Arkansas Tech, went to Bowling Green as an assistant.
No doubt Newell laid the foundation for UALR basketball, making the NCAA Tournament three times and the NIT twice in his six years before making the move to Lamar 25 years ago. From there it was on to Arkansas-Monticello and then West Alabama.
The Trojans have made it to the NCAA Tournament once since. In 2011 a buzzer shot won the Sun Belt Tournament and sent UALR to Dayton, Ohio, for a play-in game where the team lost to North Carolina-Asheville.
There is no doubt that a number of assistant coaches around the country would be interested in the UALR job, thinking it could be a steppingstone. But going back to the Newell era, only two coaches left to take another job as a head coach (Newell and Porter Moser).
UALR has a fantastic arena and of course is in a great city. What it doesn't have is much money, so whoever the next head coach is needs to understand there is one academic person for all the sports, much of the travel includes long bus rides, and recruiting is a challenge because of housing and an overall lack of support.
Conque faces a huge challenge and a defining decision to find the right person for a special place.
Sports on 03/26/2015