ANDY SHUPE Northwest Arkansas Times First-year Arkansas cross country and track and field coach Chris Bucknam speaks Friday in his new office at John McDonnell Field.

Seems newcomers taking command of the established approach their new program’s old traditions with varying degrees of disinterest, disdain and delight.

At least one of the Razorbacks’ raft of new commanders, men’s track coach / cross country coach Chris Bucknam, truly seems delighted with a capital D. He acts delighted what Arkansas has been and is and not just fancying what it could be with his imprint.

Of course what Arkansas has been in track and cross country is the best of college sport. The 42 national championships and 84 conference championships compiled by recently retired coach John McDonnell, with considerable assistance from longtime field events coach Dick Booth, are unsurpassed.

So Bucknam embraces the past. The legend. The staff. The athletes. The schedule. You name it, Chris Bucknam supports it whole Hog.

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Besides, the past literally built his future. John McDonnell Field, the outdoor track expanded and refurbished to host major meets including the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, now houses the offices of Bucknam and staff and UA women’s track coach Lance Harter and staff.

Bucknam said the new offices for the men’s and women’s staffs are “ a wow factor” in recruiting. However it’s having the locker rooms in the same building with the coaches’ offices that Bucknam said will most help current athletes.

“ That’s going to bring good interaction with the kids and the staff, ” Bucknam said. “ Some of your best coaching is done off the track. ”

Before the new offices, Bucknam’s first simultaneous acts as coach were embracing the John McDonnell legend and retaining Dick Booth as field events coach.

Act II was retaining Danny Green, McDonnell’s longtime administrative assistant and a former McDonnell-coached distance runner.

“ No-brainers, ” Bucknam said then and now of instantly making those staff moves.

“ With Danny and Dick here, ” Bucknam said last week, “ obviously they have great passion for the program and know what they are doing. It’s very helpful to speed up our transition. It couldn’t be a better scenario. ”

Some might say it could. Seems tough enough following the McDonnell legend with John ensconced in a Barnhill Arena office. But it could be really tough when you’re working with McDonnell’s right-hand man who had been a candidate to succeed his boss. See BUCKNAM, page A 10

However, Bucknam and Booth have years of mutual respect.

The University of Northern Iowa has accomplished plenty in Bucknam’s 25 years there. In fact nationally, Northern Iowa placed ahead of the Razorbacks’ SEC triple crown champions at the 2008 NCAA Outdoor meet.

“ I know people say ‘ Northern What ?’” Booth said last June when Bucknam was hired, “ but he’s had the best team in Iowa for 10 years, better than Iowa and Iowa State and deserved the chance to move up. If I am going to work with somebody, I don’t know if it would be with anybody else. ”

Bucknam last week called Booth “ the consummate professional. ”

From Northern Iowa, Bucknam brought sprints-pole vault coach Doug Case, new to the Razorbacks but not new to Arkansas as a wellrespected former assistant at Arkansas State.

“ He certainly has familiarity recruiting the state, ” Bucknam said.

Asked about coaching in McDonnell’s shadow, Bucknam smiled and pointed through his office window: “ You mean looking out at John McDonnell Field and writing on John McDonnell stationery at John McDonnell Way ?”

Bucknam so respects that McDonnell tradition he keeps his office walls bare of awards he could have brought with him from UNI.

It’s Arkansas’ office, he implied.

Obviously Bucknam believes the McDonnell presence is to be respected and utilized, not resented and ignored.

“ I know I’ll be bending his ear, ” Bucknam said of questions he’ll pose to the retired coach throughout the year. “ A resource like that, you’ve got to. ”

Other resources also will be cultivated.

Like the Penn Relays. Track’s greatest relay carnivals, the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, and Penn in Philadelphia, always fall are on the same April weekend.

At UNI, Bucknam of course always went to Drake. Not here. Bucknam has the Hogs etched in Penn, their eastern home away from home.

“ It’s not about me being comfortable, but about my athletes being comfortable, ” Bucknam said. “ What Arkansas has done at Penn is so much a part of the success here. I’m looking forward to it because it’s going to be my first one. ”

Nice to see somebody new looking forward with respect to the old.