That’s Our Coach

It’s almost time for college football to kick off once again. With temperatures in the mid-90’s that’s hard to imagine, but all over the country teams started practicing last week to get ready for the season.

Under second-year head coach Bobby Petrino, Razorback fans are hoping for a return to the glory years. In anticipation of the upcoming season, I have re-wallpapered my computer desktop.

And since it’s the day for Sunday Favorites over at Happy to Design, I’d like to re-post something from last football season. This post first appeared on November 8, 2008. Be sure to visit Chari to see what others have dug up from the past.

A Sunday Favorite

On this football Saturday, I am reminded of another football weekend 15 years ago. In 1993 Danny Ford came to Alabama for the first time as head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Ford had played at Alabama under legendary Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, and the local news media focused on that angle as well as the Razorbacks' first trip to Tuscaloosa as a member of the Southeastern Conference. During Friday night's sports segment, one Birmingham television station interviewed a number of Arkansas fans who had already arrived in Tuscaloosa.

While watching the broadcast, my friend Peggy turned to her husband Phil and said, "I don't know why they always pick the hickiest Arkansas fans to interview."

To which Phil replied, "That's not a fan; that's our coach."

Update: Danny Ford is no longer coaching the Arkansas Razorbacks. As my friend Marty commented when this post first ran, “That coach was no scientific rocket.”

Razorback fans will get that reference. For the rest of you, Ford himself once remarked that he was “no scientific rocket.” Of course he is also no longer the coach of the Razorbacks. Ford was replaced by Houston Nutt in 1998, who was replaced by Petrino last year.

So happy football season, everyone. Hope you win all of your games—unless, of course, you’re playing the Razorbacks. Woooooooo Pig Sooie!