FAYETTEVILLE -- Razorback football helped bring Chris Mortensen to Northwest Arkansas, but Razorback baseball helped keep him here.
The baseball team lost one of its most ardent supporters when Mortensen, the veteran reporter best known for his coverage of the NFL on ESPN, died Sunday. He was 72.
Mortensen attended every home baseball game he could but was unable to attend this year due to his health, said Damon McDonald, a friend of Mortensen's who sat with him at games.
Mortensen's was not just a passing interest in the team. He once shared that he listened to the pregame and postgame radio shows and read up on whatever was written about the team.
"He'd have something in his ear and he was listening to Phil [Elson's call of the game]. He'd read your reports. He wanted to know stuff about that," McDonald said. "He was very interested and very knowledgeable, even more so in the past few years."
Mortensen and his wife, Micki, moved to Northwest Arkansas from the Atlanta area when their son Alex signed to play quarterback for Houston Nutt's Arkansas football team in 2004. They did not leave after Alex concluded his playing career in 2007.
Mortensen loved baseball and first made a name for himself as a baseball reporter in California, breaking stories on the Los Angeles Dodgers. He moved to Atlanta to cover the Braves for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He transitioned to a role covering the Atlanta Falcons and the NFL at the newspaper after he started a family.
"He grew up with all brothers, and they grew up loving to play [baseball]," McDonald said. "His first [major] job was the beat on baseball, and so he just really developed a passion for it and then a knowledge of the game."
Mortensen once shared in an email about his love for the team.
"Absent a major league team in the area, I started attending Arkansas Razorbacks baseball games. How lucky was I?" Mortensen wrote. "In fact, I've had friends ask why my wife and I remained in NW Arkansas. There are a few reasons but they think I'm joking when I tell them, '...and Arkansas Razorbacks baseball.' I am not joking."
McDonald said Mortensen would sometimes take calls from his ESPN colleagues during games.
"You'd hear him respond, 'Yep, I'm here. We're here, and we play such-and-such today,' " McDonald said. "They were asking him if he was at the baseball game. So even his friends knew."
When Mortensen could not attend an Arkansas game, he watched on TV or online.
The morning after the 2022 NFL Draft in Las Vegas concluded, Mortensen was at the ballpark in Fayetteville and asked if he had seen the game the night before, when Kendall Diggs hit a three-run home run in the ninth inning to beat Ole Miss 6-3.
He said he landed at Northwest Arkansas National Airport in time to watch the final few pitches of the game on his phone.
"We had a text chain ... and we'd text year-round about baseball," McDonald said. "He wanted to know the latest news and recruiting.
"It was just enjoyable. We've all texted on that chain that we're going to miss his comments."
A moment of silence was held for Mortensen at Monday's monthly meeting of the Swatter's Club in Fayetteville. There will also be a moment of silence prior to Tuesday's game against Central Arkansas.
Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn shared his memories of Mortensen on Monday.
"He would tell me all the time that he loved Arkansas baseball," Van Horn said. "When I saw the news yesterday I was pretty upset.
"We had some good conversations. I don't know why, but he just took a liking to our baseball program. He liked the way we did things."
McDonald described the Razorbacks as one of Mortensen's two favorite college teams, along with the team his son was coaching. Alex Mortensen is the offensive coordinator at Alabama-Birmingham after serving many years on Nick Saban's staff at Alabama.
"He loved Razorback baseball and Alabama football," McDonald said.