Perhaps University of Arkansas administrators can be forgiven if they never again want to hear the name Nolan Richardson used in conjunction with the word "court."
Richardson, born 20 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor that started World War II for the United States, is now in his mid-70s. It's been 16 years since he coached his final basketball game -- an away-game loss to Mississippi State -- as architect of the Hogs' "40 Minutes of Hell" scheme of play. Next year will mark a quarter century since Richardson led his team to the national championship, one of the state's proudest moments. And it's been 15 years since Richardson went to court -- the kind involving a gavel, not a basketball -- claiming the UA discriminated against him based on race and violated his right of free speech.
What’s the point?
The University of Arkansas should honor Nolan Richardson with a statue and a naming of the court at Bud Walton Arena.
More than three years later, an appeals court affirmed a lower court's finding that absolved the UA's leadership of Richardson's claims. That finished the litigation, but the cold spell in the once-glorious relationship between the school, fans and the coach remained. Anger and bitterness, the kind that can only be born out of what once was deep affection, ruled that relationship.
But the slow thaw was, perhaps, inevitable. A new chancellor. A new athletic director. And with the changes, a recognition that Arkansas could hardly let the greatest era of Hogs basketball in its history be marred by such angst. Richardson was invited back to the arena his success had built. Celebrating the 15th anniversary of Arkansas' greatest achievement in basketball back in 2009, the fans roared with adoration for their former coach.
Richardson has continued to make Fayetteville his home and these days can often be found sitting a few rows from the Arkansas bench from which he orchestrated so many great victories. When Bud Walton Arena's camera train on the former coach, the response from fans eager to pay their respects is always applause.
In 2015, a banner was hung from the rafters of the arena to honor Richardson and his achievements.
That desire continues, apparently, with today's student body. The Associated Student Government at the UA recently voted to recommend the administration name the basketball court at Bud Walton Arena after Richardson. There's no word yet on whether that will happen, but without question the student representatives are on the right track.
Indeed, Nolan Richardson's great career is worthy of much more. There should be a statue of the man in front of Bud Walton Arena.
The University of Arkansas is a place that celebrates the ideal of taking one's innate capabilities, sharpening them through knowledge and practice, pursuing them with strength and tenacity and putting them to work to achieve great things. Nolan Richardson did all that.
He was a man who broke down barriers, who broadened the world of college athletics to black coaches. He's the only coach in the nation to have won a junior college national championship, the NIT championship and the NCAA championship. In terms of his record, he is among the elite of college coaches.
Nolan Richardson is deserving of these honors now, not 10 or 20 years down the road. Let's celebrate his achievements and his contributions to the great state of Arkansas.
Commentary on 02/18/2018