FAYETTEVILLE -- Until the covid caused postponement of the 2020 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductions consummate as scheduled later this year, today's tribute to the late Eddie Sutton likely marks the last honoring the Arkansas Razorbacks 1974-85 coach.
It would have been fitting had the tribute come in Fayetteville.
More fitting, though, that it pregame occurs where it does. Arkansas and Oklahoma State play in today's ESPN2 televised SEC vs. Big 12 Challenge game at Oklahoma State's Gallagher-Iba Arena with Eddie Sutton Court emblazoned on the hardwood in Stillwater, Okla.
Scott Sutton, the youngest of Eddie's three sons, is an OSU assistant.
It all began for Eddie playing at OSU for Henry Iba, still referred to as Mr. Iba decades after his death. Other than netting six victories as interim coach at the University of San Francisco to surpass 800 career victories at 804, it ended for Eddie in his 1990-2006 tenure coaching Oklahoma State.
Along the way he compiled enough triumph and tragedies for a remarkable warts and all documentary called "Eddie" that has aired on ESPN and ESPN2.
After head coaching Tulsa Central High straight out of college, Sutton head coached Southern Idaho Junior College, Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky, (a dream job become such a nightmare that he said, "my biggest mistake was leaving Arkansas,") Oklahoma State and the University of San Francisco.
Despite alcoholism marring the end of his tenures at Arkansas and OSU and during his Kentucky tenure, Sutton achieved success everywhere he coached. Players admire him as a teacher and mentor as they still do a coach.
Both at Arkansas, building a power out of a basketball nonentity, and reviving Oklahoma State, he established first name reverence.
"Eddie" alone still suffices for Sutton recognition in Arkansas and Oklahoma like "Elvis" at Graceland.
It's more than a stretch to say that Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman, 56, and growing up on the West Coast, was influenced by Eddie Sutton.
The late Bill Musselman, Eric's college and NBA head coaching father, and Chuck Daly, whom Eric assisted in the NBA before becoming a NBA head coach, influenced him most.
But it speaks volumes how aware young Eric was in the 1970s in San Diego to the magic Eddie brewed in Fayetteville.
"When I got hired here I talked about the impact growing up in San Diego but still understanding and watching Arkansas play and the star power players that he had," Musselman said Thursday. "I think anybody in my age group that was coaching looked up to how hard his teams play and the defensive identity that they always had."
Arkansas' Eddie Sutton Practice Court reciprocates a Stillwater-Fayetteville honoring Eddie back and forth mutually appreciated today.
"It's two programs he had such impact on," Musselman said. "It's two good basketball teams playing each other and to have Coach Sutton's memory be a part of the game I think is really, really appropriate. I'm sure to the fan bases both Oklahoma State and Arkansas it will mean a lot."