Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Last Saturday's Arkansas football scrimmage in Fayetteville drew an estimated 15,000 fans, and I have no doubt that tonight, if there is a chance to see Knile Davis actually be tackled plus another chance to get autographs fas at last week's Fan Day, the turnout would maybe double last week's.

Some sections of the Bud Walton Arena corridor during last Saturday's midday autograph session were reminiscent of when the 1994 basketball Hogs were about to take the floor. If there were 15,000 at the scrimmage, five hours after the conclusion of the autograph time, there were easily that many trying to score a Tyler Wilson or Knile Davis autograph. And had we bothered to survey the crowd about their expectations for the season, 90 percent or more would have gone with "14-0 and national champs."

After contributing to our 20-year look back at Arkansas' time in the Southeastern Conference, I also have no doubt that if fans in 1997 could see where the program and the fan base sit today, they would be blown away. The mood has taken a 180-degree turn from those dark days. Expectations then would have been for maybe a winning season, at least until Houston Nutt changed the culture.

And, while he no longer leads the program, Bobby Petrino took it a step or three further to where we arrived on a regular August preseason Saturday to see thousands of fans in red and white patiently waiting to meet their heroes.

Five years ago, with "Fan Day" held inside the Walker Pavilion, the average fan had no problem getting a football signed by nearly every Hog player with the exception of Darren McFadden. For D-Mac, it took an early arrival and standing in line for almost the entire two-hour event to get a signature.

In the Bud Walton Arena corridor, where lines were cordoned off and everything mapped out as to which players were where, the waits last Saturday ranged from an hour for all the receivers to 75 minutes for the running backs to more than 90 minutes for Tyler Wilson and all the quarterbacks.

The defensive units at tables on the Bud Walton Arena floor didn't command quite the same attention — "the fans don't really know who the defensive players are," my 10-year-old surmised — but there were waits nevertheless.

After buying the requisite $35 football designed for autographs we had a short wait for Coach John L. Smith on the floor level, then finally settled on the shorter of the offensive players' autograph lines upstairs: the receivers. An hour later, we'd reached our destination, greeted first by newcomers Keon Hatcher and D'Arthur Cowan, who were still happily obliging.

Some fans had smartly arrived by at least 10 a.m. for the noon start to the two-hour session. A few who were determined to get all the main offensive stars showed up at 8 a.m. We weren't that determined.

The wait for the receivers left us with just 25 minutes to get some defensive players, the secondary (chosen because my 10-year-old perceives himself as a future college secondary player, if not receiver, I don't dare tell him his dream is unlikely to be realized). We were about five people shy of reaching the players when 2 p.m. arrived and a graduate assistant immediately started shuffling the players out. Tevin Mitchell and Kelvin Fisher Jr. kindly stuck around a moment more and signed our football.

Two hours is plenty to ask of these players to sign thousands of items of memorabilia, but two hours no longer gets most fans to much of the team. That's just another sign, along with the record crowd that turned out last Friday for the preseason luncheon at the Northwest Arkansas Convention Center, of how far everything's come with Hog Nation, and how much these fans think of these current Hogs.

FIRST TEE'S BIG SHOW

The First Tee of Central Arkansas has already made its new Champion Bermuda greens available to play the past couple of weeks, but Saturday will mark the official grand reopening of the course on South University Avenue.

Bright and early at 8:30 a.m., top area golfers and "celebrities," including local media personalities, will compete in a team competition designed like Golf Channel's Big Break. Later, several golfers will begin a four-hour challenge for charity to play as many holes as possible in that time. Other activities will be held all day day for children and adults as the First Tee shows off the new greens on its 9-hole, regulation Chairman's Course and 9-hole, par-3 Honors Course.

On Sunday, all guest greens fees will be $1, making it a ridiculously inexpensive opportunity to find out what the First Tee offers to all ages. A senior membership (I bought one recently) costs $375 and includes all greens fees and range balls. Family and adult memberships are available, while the $175 child's membership entitles boys and girls to free range balls and greens fees and the weekly classes that are part of the First Tee learning experience.