Like It Is

Texas Bowl nails it with UA-Texas matchup

This Saturday there are five bowl games, beginning at 10 a.m., and by the time the College Fo0tball Championship is played Jan. 12 there will have been a total of 39 bowl games.

One of the most fortunate, or perhaps clever, is the Advocare Texas Bowl. It managed to get a matchup between Arkansas and Texas, a longtime rivalry, at least for the Razorbacks Nation.

Texas has a 56-21 record against Arkansas and always hated Oklahoma and Texas A&M more than any other opponent.

Plus there is a local tie with the Longhorns. Texas Coach Charlie Strong is a native of Batesville and played his college football at the University of Central Arkansas.

The early injury report is that Texas defensive end Caleb Bluiett, offensive lineman Darius James and cornerback Antwuan Davis will miss the bowl game.

The Hogs will report the day after Christmas.

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While on the subject of Texas, Mike Beard was inducted into the Texas Men's Hall of Honor this past fall.

Beard, who graduated from Little Rock Central where he started for the football and basketball teams, was a pitcher for the Longhorns before being drafted by the Atlanta Braves.

He was part of a three-man rotation that included Burt Hooton and James Street, the quarterback who engineered the 15-14 victory over Arkansas in 1969. That nationally televised showdown of undefeated football teams became known as the Game of the Century.

Beard played for the Braves from 1974-77. Now he's retired and living in Little Rock.

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When the brain trust at Alabama-Birmingham decided to drop football, it did a total injustice to Coach Bill Clark, who had led the team to a 6-6 record that made the Blazers bowl eligible.

It makes you appreciate what the folks at Nicholls State are willing to sacrifice to keep their program.

The Colonels, who lost to the Razorbacks 73-7, went 0-12 and were outscored by a combined 602-163, or an average of 50-13.

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Every January the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce hosts its annual Oaklawn Kickoff Banquet at the Wyndham Hotel.

This year's event will be Wednesday, Jan. 7, and the speaker will be Hall of Famer jockey Chris McCarron, the all-time leader in winnings with $264 million.

McCarron won nine Breeder's Cup races, including six Classics.

He won two Kentucky Derbies, two Preaknesses and two Belmont Stakes. His second Preakness victory was aboard Pine Bluff, owned by John Ed Anthony.

Terry Hartwick, president of the NLR Chamber of Commerce, also has scheduled Mike Anderson to speak Friday at the first Downtown Tip-Off Club luncheon of the year.

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James Dickey has returned to Oklahoma State as an assistant basketball coach after four years as head coach of the Houston Cougars.

The Cougars hired Kelvin Sampson, who got Oklahoma and then Indiana on three years of NCAA probation as the head coach. The NCAA also imposed a show-cause order against Sampson for five years in 2008.

One of the first people Dickey hired was Alvin Brooks, who had been the head coach of the Cougars (1993-1998). Brooks was retained by Sampson.

Dickey's head coaching career record is 228-186, which includes his time at Texas Tech, where he led the Red Raiders to the NCAA Sweet 16.

What brought Dickey, who played basketball at UCA, to mind this week was that he is from Valley Springs, the hometown of Jim Bryan, the second all-time leading scorer in Arkansas high school basketball history.

Dickey and Bryan are great Americans.

Jim is recovering from a pulmonary embolism he suffered Monday morning. He is in stable condition at a hospital in Sarasota, Fla.

Sports on 12/18/2014