Hog Calls

Hogs miss out on Drake, Penn Relays

Former Arkansas coach John McDonnell (left) and current coach Chris Bucknam speak Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017, during the Tyson Invitational in the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville.
Former Arkansas coach John McDonnell (left) and current coach Chris Bucknam speak Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017, during the Tyson Invitational in the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Today, Coach Chris Bucknam's track and field Razorbacks men and Coach Lance Harter's Razorbacks track and field Razorbacks women traditionally would conclude a great three days at one of America's two great relay carnivals.

They won't. No Drake Relays in Des Moines. No Penn Relays in Philadelphia.

Instead, they are mandated to compete at the SEC Relays in Baton Rouge, a mere two weeks before the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Columbia, S.C.

Detracting from the SEC outdoor championships two weeks hence with a SEC imitation Penn and Drake format seems a double defeat for athletes deserving better. Especially University of Arkansas, Fayetteville athletes.

Drake, and especially Penn, provide much to the 40 national championships/84 conference championships foundation that retired men's Coach John McDonnell bequeathed for Bucknam to enhance since 2008 and was Harter's model upon him first coaching Arkansas' women in 1990.

Decades pre McDonnell, the UA's Arkansas Traveler published an April Fool's parody that the Razorbacks dominated a Penn Relays that didn't invite them.

Now it seems a real-life parody casting aside traditions that once were parodied as Arkansas unattainable.

What gives?

Many college coaches say that Penn and Drake aren't for collegians anymore. They say Penn and Drake sold out to the pros, relegating some premier collegiate competition to early morning.

But that's not the main culprit.

Ever since the smaller schools united their larger NCAA voting blocs to install NCAA outdoor preliminary meets as mandatory qualifiers for the NCAA outdoor championships, colleges started backing off Penn and Drake lest they wear down post conference at the prelim.

This weekend's compact meet in Baton Rouge whisks athletes home quicker than three long days in Philly or Des Moines.

"There's a lot of layers to why we are doing what we're doing," Bucknam said. "It's a blessing and a curse."

Having watched Razorbacks men and women thrilled to compete in Penn and Drake football stadiums packed with fans and tradition, it's also a loss -- a loss for the athletes, the ones that the NCAA allege matter most.

READY FOR WEAR

The memory of Wear Schoonover, a Razorbacks icon during his 1910-1982 lifetime, will be honored at 1 p.m. Friday by his hometown of Pocahontas with a historical marker placed at the site of his home that's now the Pocahontas City Hall.

Schoonover became the first Razorbacks athlete to letter in four sports, football, basketball, baseball and track. He excelled to be the UA's first All-American football player, an end catching 13 passes for 152 yards in one game against Baylor, and an All-American in basketball while starring for three Southwest Conference championship teams.

Schoonover was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, the Razorbacks Hall of Honor and named to the UA's 1900s All-Century team. He was among five charter member inductees to the first Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame class in 1959.

Razorback Foundation President Scott Varady and Terri Conder-Johnson, executive director of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, are among Friday's speakers.

Sports on 04/29/2017

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