FAYETTEVILLE -- Perhaps Carl Lewis will be a better Hall of Fame barometer for Jarrion Lawson than Lewis has been for Erick Walder.
Anyhow that's a hope.
Though retired in 1997, even non-track fans have heard of long jumper/sprinter Carl Lewis like non-baseball fans know of Babe Ruth and non-basketball fans know of Michael Jordan.
Surpassing any Lewis track accomplishment is noteworthy. It's Hall of Fame noteworthy surpassing him and every collegiate long jumper like Walder did.
Competing with Arkansas in a 1994 outdoor meet in El Paso, Texas, Walder jumped 28-8 1/4.
No collegian, not Lewis at the University of Houston, nor Mike Powell at UCLA, jumped farther at a collegiate meet within legal wind conditions.
That collegiate record leap alone should have Walder considered for the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in Little Rock.
But there's more. A lot more. From 1992-94 when John McDonnell's Razorbacks always won SEC and NCAA Indoor and Outdoor championships, Walder broke Mike Conley's Razorbacks record of nine individual NCAA championships. Walder won 10 sweeping the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor long jump and NCAA Indoor triple jump and winning the 1994 SEC Outdoor triple jump on his last Arkansas jump.
After college, Walder twice medaled for the U.S. in the world championships and was the No. 1 U.S. long jumper from 1997-1999.
All those Hall of Fame caliber accomplishments and somehow Erick Walder still hasn't leaped into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.
Years hence when Lawson is on a Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame ballot, it is hoped enough remember what Lawson just accomplished to vote him.
At last week's NCAA Outdoor Championships for Chris Bucknam's nationally runner-up Razorbacks, Lawson, of Texarkana, Texas, did what Lewis never did at the NCAA Outdoor and only the legendary Jesse Owens has done.
Before winning four U.S. gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in in Adolph Hitler's Berlin, Owens, competing for Ohio State, won the long jump, 100- and 200-yard dashes and the 220-yard hurdles at both the 1935 and 1936 NCAA Outdoors.
Last week in Eugene, Ore., Lawson jumped 26-9 in the long jump and ran 10.22 and 20.19 in the 100 and 200 for 30 individual points (the 220-yard hurdles are no longer part of the competition). For good measure, Lawson ran on Arkansas' injury-depleted 400-meter relay.
The 31.5 team points Lawson scored in Eugene advanced him to second all-time behind Owens' 40 scored in both 1935 and 1936. Lawson passed previous all-time runner-up Conley's 28.75 points for the 1985 champion Razorbacks.
Nine-time NCAA champion and Olympic gold and silver medalist Conley deservedly was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.
Erick Walder deserves to have joined him by now.
And whatever his career, starting with July's U.S. Olympic Trials, Jarrion Lawson deserves to join them.
Sports on 06/18/2016