OPINION Like It Is

OPINION | WALLY HALL: Henry Moore was a real Arkansas treasure

Sunday morning after church a few men, including F.H. Lyons and Tom Fowler, were talking football and Henry Moore's name came up.

To a different generation, Henry and his brother Billy were sports icons.

The term "tough as nails" was probably created for the way they played football. Henry was a two-time All Southwest Conference player for the Arkansas Razorbacks, lettering from 1953-55, and Billy was an All-American quarterback, lettering from 1960-62.

Growing up, they attended Baptist Tabernacle and played at what is now known as Little Rock Central High.

After growing up, they occasionally visited with their parents, and it always caused a ripple of excitement to worship with Razorbacks.

Their sister Judy was in my class and got pestered with questions about her brothers by this sports-crazed kid.

One of Henry's son-in-laws, Dr. Doug Stokes, is part of my Wednesday men's group.

Henry was a part of the "25 Little Pigs," and along with Preston Carpenter, was a team captain his senior season.

He was a part of a NFL championship team with the New York Giants and scored a touchdown when he recovered a blocked punt in the end zone.

He may be the only player who played for three coaching legends: Wilson Mathews, Frank Broyles and Vince Lombardi. He was the leading rusher for the Razorbacks in the 1950s and set school rushing records twice.

In those days, playing football was a part-time job at best. Henry learned in the offseason that he was good at selling, and after two years in the NFL he came home and started selling. He was successful whether it was stocks, building supplies or real estate.

Henry never met a stranger, and he could entertain his multitude of friends for hours with his storytelling.

In recent days, Henry had not been well and last Sunday he got his wings. No doubt God was needing a hard-nosed football player who was always a great American.

Visitation is this Friday, 5 p.m.-7 p.m., at the Roller-Chenal Funeral Home chapel on Chenal Parkway in Little Rock.

. . .

The Big 12 has released its football schedule for this fall, and it includes the four new teams, along with Oklahoma and Texas, but a source says everyone has been told to hold off scheduling for next year.

Oklahoma and Texas are officially supposed to join the SEC in 2025, but all indications are ESPN wants the move made a year earlier.

The SEC, its coaches and athletic directors have not decided if they will play in divisions or pods when it becomes a 16-team league.

If they go with four pods, the guess is they would be: (A) Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri; (B) LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Texas A&M (C) Florida, South Carolina, Auburn and Georgia; (D) Alabama, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

Or that might be too logical.

Look for Auburn and Alabama to be split up whichever way they go.

. . .

A lot of eyes are on Deion Sanders, the Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back who coached Jackson State to a 27-6 record in three seasons and what he has already done at Colorado.

He has signed the No. 29-ranked freshman recruiting class and the No. 4 transfer class.

Colorado hasn't had a top-30 recruiting class since 2008 and has been bowl eligible only twice in that time.

In addition to getting better players, Sanders has hired several top-shelf assistants.

He's done all of that in less than two months on the job, so there is little doubt he is going to change the landscape of the Pac-12 and maybe all of college football.

Name, Image and Likeness and the transfer portal are two things that he has totally embraced.


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