FAYETTEVILLE -- As the Arkansan first recruiting Sidney Moncrief from Little Rock Hall to the University of Arkansas and former Arkansas Coach Eddie Sutton's Razorbacks, nobody knows more than Pat Foster what Sidney Moncrief means to Arkansas.
Yet Foster admits he just got an education on Super Sid.
Arkansas' always All-American was inducted Sunday night into the National Collegiate Basketball of Fame in Kansas City.
With Sutton too ill to attend, Foster, the Emerson native and basketball-baseball Razorbacks star during the 1960s become Sutton's righthand assistant in the 1970s igniting his own fine head coaching career, represented Moncrief's 1975-1979 Arkansas era. Foster accompanied Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson, Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek and Associate Athletic Director Kevin Trainor flying to Kansas City.
Certainly Foster knew Moncrief garnered considerable acclaim. Acclaim not just for springing Arkansas to an undefeated 1977 Southwest Conference season followed by the 1978 Final Four with Moncrief, Ron Brewer and Marvin Delph forever dubbed "The Triplets" and finally in '79 as the lone Triplet battling Larry Bird to the clock's last tick in an Elite Eight classic. But 11 years NBA acclaim as a 5-times all-star and 2 times Defensive Player of the Year .
All that's on the record. But the oral tradition, hearing others from elsewhere speak reverentially of Sidney like he's spoken of throughout Arkansas ...
"It was heartwarming," Foster said. "The former and present college coaches, all of those kinds of people there were so appreciative of the things that Sidney did."
Even his opponents appreciated Sidney.
"The quotes from the pros he played against like the one from Michael Jordan," Foster said. "He said, 'When you go against Sidney Moncrief, you know that he's going to come at you for the entire game and never let up.' And that's true."
Most everyone in Arkansas who followed Sidney, and that was most everyone in Arkansas throughout his career it seemed, knew of his legendary intensity gushing every ounce of talent in his wiry 6-3 frame.
But hearing the same details from non-Arkansans ...
"It was amazing what people knew about him and his character," Foster said. "And you could see he was appreciated by the pro coaches that he played for. He never changed, ever, from the same kind of player and person that he was here all the way through the pros. And everyone knows it. I talked to about 30 people there, and with each one he was just special in their minds like he certainly is in ours."
Special in so many ways, Foster said, including promoting racial harmony without discussing race. For many obviously grown up amid racism avidly wanted their sons to be like Sidney.
"Sidney never wavered from his attempt to make people feel good," Foster said.
As a head coach, Foster said he constantly preached respect to his teams whether respecting the game, their opponent, each other or themselves.
"Every time I wrote respect on a blackboard, I'd think about him," Foster said.
Apparently many, many others do, too.
Sports on 11/21/2018