FAYETTEVILLE — Although social distancing will keep the parties from meeting in person, former Arkansas coach and new Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame honoree Eddie Sutton will get a virtual tribute Tuesday from former players and support staff.
Fayetteville High School basketball coach Brad Stamps, a Sutton family friend, has organized a Zoom video conference call that will allow Sutton, a four-time national coach of the year, to hear from many of his admirers.
Sutton, who was 260-75 (.776 winning percentage) at Arkansas from 1974-85, was 804-328 (.710) overall in his head coaching career, which also included stints at Creighton, Kentucky, Oklahoma State and San Francisco.
He is one of only five coaches with over 800 college wins.
“I wanted to honor Coach Sutton in a way that would be meaningful to him,” Stamps said. “Once I reached out to guys, without hesitation they wanted to be involved. I think for the longest time we all wondered, 'How is there a Hall of Fame and Coach Sutton is not in it with the 800 wins and the Final Four trips and so many players that had gone on and been successful in the NBA?'
“He was a hall of famer on and off the court and I think the validation when it came, and you’d have to ask the family, but I think it was one of the last things on his bucket list that he wanted to accomplish.”
The list of those expected to be involved will include former Arkansas players Sidney Moncrief, Ron Brewer, Marvin Delph, Jimmy Counce, Darrell Walker, Scott Hastings, Joe Kleine, Charles Balentine, Jimmy Dykes and Houston Nutt and former Oklahoma State star and current Razorbacks assistant Corey Williams.
Also expected to be on the call are former Arkansas assistants Pat Foster and Kenneth “Doc” Sadler as well as former Razorbacks managers Kenneth “Boo” Roth, David Horton and myself.
Stamps, who thought of the idea as one of personal and professional growth for his staff, said the group was happy to be involved.
“Reaching out and having phone conversations with guys that were our heroes growing up and to hear that personal touch was incredible,” Stamps said. “The conversations were not really about basketball, but were more about what he has done for them personally and the way they do things, whether it be in the professional world, as a father or a husband as Coach Sutton modeled for them, things that people don’t hear about from time to time.
“He is a hall of famer and has been for a long time in the way he has touched peoples' lives.”
Sutton, who took three teams to the Final Four, will be inducted on August 29 in Springfield, Mass., along with former NBA players Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, NBA player and coach Rudy Tomjanivich, Baylor women’s coach Kim Mulkey and former WNBA star Tamika Catchings, among others.
Stamps grew up following the Razorbacks’ famed Triplets - Sidney Moncrief, Ron Brewer and Marvin Delph - as they teamed up with Counce to lead Arkansas to a Final Four and a third-place finish with a win over Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament’s final consolation game.
“I feel blessed that growing up here, he was a rock star for me personally and I think for many others,” Stamps said. “When Coach Sutton walked into a place, everybody stopped. For him coming in at a time when there wasn’t much going on basketball-wise and to watch him grow it to a level that everybody was proud of and the community and whole state rallied around.
“The '77-78 days, that era when we had the Triplets and then the group that came right after them with Alvin Robinson and Darrell Walker, that level of play was just huge for our state.”
Sutton leaving Arkansas for Kentucky in 1985 stunned and hurt many Razorbacks fans, but he went on to have success at Oklahoma State.
“When he left here it hurt a lot of people personally and professionally as well, but he goes to Kentucky and, because you are still friends with the family, you are pulling for him,” Stamps said. “Then he goes to Oklahoma State and near the end of his career, what a run there. Had a chance to get back to a couple of Final Fours.
“I think all of us were secretly wanting him to win a national championship, not for validation because we all knew how good of a coach and how good teacher he was, we just wanted him to taste that as the culmination of his career, but it never happened.
“It was several years late, but we are all so happy he is in the Basketball Hall of Fame, an honor he truly deserved.”