By Joe Fred Young's standards, induction into the UCA Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday was a special event.
A really special event.
"You can tell it's a big event for me because it's only the second time all summer I've had on socks," he deadpanned by a packed house at UCA's Student Center Ballroom as eight new members were formally inducted into the eight-year old hall.
One of the most striking statements Saturday was all the former inductees were invited back and almost all of them who are living came back.
And many of the names who had entered the hall in past years were mentioned Saturday for the influence they had on the current members.
"I worked as an assistant coach for two people, Dennis Fulmer (Hall of Famer) and Frank Broyles," said Young, who grew up on Ash Street in Conway and coached at Conway High, Little Rock Central and Fort Smith Northside after serving an apprenticeship at Conway and under Broyles at Arkansas.
"I learned more about coaching, dealing with athletes and dealing with people from Dennis Fulmer than I did from Frank Broyles and that's in no way a negative statement about Frank Broyles," Young said.
Jay Fox, the executive director of the Arkansas State Golf Association and the first golf inductee into the hall, remembers when he first started playing golf for the Bears in the NAIA days under Cliff Horton, a fellow Hall of Famer.
"The golf budget was $1,000," he said. "We rode in a van to Elon College in North Carolina for one of our big trips and stayed in the dorm at Elon. We were issued a bag, a purple shirt, a white shirt and one sleeve of balls. We ate at McDonald's along the way and if we won, we ate at Bonanza (steak house).
"When coach Ken Stephens (Hall of Famer) took over as golf coach, we ate steak whether we won or lost and we stayed in hotels. And coach Stephens taught me more about life than golf and I'm eternally grateful for that."
"Bill Kessinger (also in the 2008 class) gave me my first coaching job," said Eldon Hawley, whose 40-year coaching career has taken him to 15 schools in six states. "Ken Stephens hired me three times, two times when I was out of work. I learned that you haven't been in coaching very long if you haven't been fired at least once."
Jamie Holt, a former Conway High and UCA track start, saluted another Hall of Famer, Richard Martin, his college coach.
"I remember in one of my first races at UCA, I kept looking back to see where the other runners were," Holt said. "Coach Martin came up the me later and said, 'Son, if they're behind you, it doesn't matter where they're at.'"
Kessinger, a brother of baseball and basketball star Donnie Kessinger (now an executive at Ole Miss), remembered running track with Hall of Famer Bill Stephens.
"One of the biggest problems we had was finding a place to hide so coach couldn't find us for the mile relay," Kessinger quipped.
Kessinger lettered in four sports at UCA.
"What that really says is you're not very good at anything," he said. "I think they were trying to get someone 50 or 60 years ago and I qualify."
Jennifer McClendon, who was a two-sport star in tennis and volleyball in the mid-90s, noted that all three of her college coaches were present at the ceremony. Sallie Dalton, the former UCA volleyball coach, flew in from Colorado especially for the event. Darryl Walsh, associate athletic director, coached her in volleyball and Ron Marvel (another Hall of Famer) coached her in tennis.
"I remember coach Marvel walking in the old gym and introducing himself while I was nursing a knee injury" McClendon said. "He told me he'd heard I'd played a little tennis. I told him I really would like to play basketball. I'm 5-2 and he gave me one of those strange looks and said, 'I'll see you on the tennis court when your knee gets better.'"
Don McConnaghey, who played football in the 1950s and later served as an administrator for 21 years in the Pacific Northwest, remembers one of his first practice sessions when he was going to give Ken Stephens a lick.
"I got a lick all right," he said. "His knee caught me on the side of the help and knocked me out. He did help me up, though, after I came to."
Bobby Richardson, one of the most successful track coaches in Arkansas high school history with 22 state titles at Crossett, saluted fellow Hall of Famers Gerald Cound and Wilbur Owen for setting the standard of excellence for him in his era.
Then, he added a special word for the late Raymond Bright, another Hall of Famer, who died earlier in the year.
"Anything I accomplished as an athlete or coach was because of the direct influence of coach Bright," Richardson said. "People, that's what it's about about, having a positive influence on young people."
"I thought Halls of Fame were for great athletes, not average athletes with pretty good heart," Hawley said.
Holt related that another of his heroes, his dad, would work eight to 10 hours a day when he was growing up.
"Me and my brother would give him 15 minutes to change clothes and eat, then we would wait for him in the front yard or back yard with a ball and bat," he said. "That's hall of fame."
