FAYETTEVILLE -- Davor Rimac wins the prize for traveling the farthest among members of the University of Arkansas basketball team's 1994 national championship to attend a 25-year anniversary celebration.
Rimac, a junior guard for the 1994 Razorbacks, traveled more than 6,000 miles from his home in Istanbul back to Fayetteville this weekend.
"It was 20 hours to get here on three different planes, but I wasn't going to miss this," said Rimac, who is a computer technology consultant. "If it took 40 hours to get here, I would have come."
Rimac, a native of Croatia who was an exchange student at Fayetteville High School before signing with Arkansas, was among the group of players, coaches and support staff for the 1994 Razorbacks honored at halftime of Saturday's Arkansas-Ole Miss game in Walton Arena.
"We have a special bond," said Clint McDaniel, a junior guard in 1994. "It doesn't matter if we talk every day or if we don't talk for the next five years. That bond is always there.
"That's something we had on the floor, off the floor. That was the biggest thing about our team -- the chemistry that we had."
Team members and their families had a get-together Friday night with UA officials.
"It was absolutely wonderful," said Nolan Richardson, who coached the Razorbacks for 17 seasons from 1986-2002. "It's so nice to see the young men that you brought onto the campus at 17 or 18, and now some of them are grandfathers. That tells you how old I've gotten to be.
"And every time we connect, it's like we've never been apart. It only takes about five seconds to put your eye on one [of the 1994 players] and you know his whole life story. That's the incredible part of athletics and being a coach."
Ken Biley, a Pine Bluff native who was a senior on the 1994 team and now lives in Houston, said whenever the Razorbacks get together, it feels like being home.
"These guys are my family, and we'll always cherish each other for the rest of our lives," Biley said. "I will tell you anytime I can come home, this is what home is all about. It's a family reunion."
This weekend marked the second celebration the UA has held for the 1994 team. The team also was honored in 2009 on the 15th anniversary of the national championship.
"We're truly appreciative of the university hosting us," said Lee Wilson, a freshman center on the 1994 team. "But as close as we are, we should get together more often, because no one is promised tomorrow."
Rimac said that even in Istanbul there are college basketball fans who know about the 1994 Razorbacks, Richardson and Corliss Williamson, the team's All-American forward from Russellville.
"It comes up, and I have some stories to tell," Rimac said. "At the time, you don't realize what you accomplished. Now when you look at it, it's amazing."
Sports on 03/03/2019