Hog Calls

Lahay shows years later he gets it

Arkansas Razorback kicker Tony Dodson (left) and former kicker Bruce Lahay.
Arkansas Razorback kicker Tony Dodson (left) and former kicker Bruce Lahay.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Bruce Lahay never lost perspective on the effects that the Razorbacks cast on the State of Arkansas which he adopted in 1977.

But it took until April 14 of his 39th Arkansas year, Lahay says, to fully appreciate how everlastingly positive those effects can be, dwarfing regret of games lost and even dwarfing the joy of championships won and All-American honors achieved.

Signed from St. Louis in Lou Holtz's first Arkansas recruiting class, Lahay arrived with high school renown as a quarterback/punter/baseball player.

He graduated the UA as a 1981 All-American place-kicker.

Along the way Lahay learned he wasn't a Razorbacks quarterback or first baseman.

And after being the Razorbacks punter in 1978, Lahay learned for Arkansas' 1979 Southwest Conference co-champions he must fit a pooch-punting niche. Activated Tulsa transfer and eventual longtime NFL kicker Steve Cox boomed long punts, long field goal attempts and kicked off while another Razorbacks great, Ish Ordonez, kicked the medium to short field goals and PAT.

They were among college football's best kicking trios. Lahay's pooches persistently placed well inside the 20.

Lahay redshirted while Cox and Ordonez finished in 1980. In 1981, Lahay did it all as the All-American place-kicker, 19 of 24 field goals, and as the Arkansas punter.

A great experience but now second best.

As a clinic manager for Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas, Lahay says, "I work in a field that allows me to deal with special people on a daily basis."

One of those special people, a young girl wheelchair bound, is "one of the biggest Razorback fans ever," Lahay learned from the patient's mother.

Upon learning Lahay was arranging for her to meet Razorbacks Coach Bret Bielema, the patient "could not have said yes any faster," Lahay related in an e-mail.

"Not only did my young friend get to meet Coach B, Coach acted as if she was his own daughter," Lahay wrote.

"He gave his total attention to her. I wheeled my young friend around the facility and the players knelt down to her and signed her hat, shook hands with her mother and grandmother and made her feel part of the team."

If you can receive a teared-stained e-mail, this was it.

"Deatrich Wise, Rawleigh Williams, Coach Bret Bielema and his entire staff and players put a spark in that young lady that will never be forgotten as long as she lives," Lahay wrote. " She will treasure the memories created on Thursday, April 14 as will I. For an old Hog it just reinforces the belief in the program and why we play. We play for the State of Arkansas and the people that support us. We play for our families that care for us and we play for ourselves so we can represent the University and all it stands for."

It is far from a perfect world, big-time college athletics.

But there are occasions for all the right reasons it all comes together perfectly. Obviously this was one of them.

Sports on 05/02/2016

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