For a period of time, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette will present a catalogue of weekly events that affected University of Arkansas athletics across all sports in years past.
July 20
2016
Greenwood two-sport standout Connor Noland became the first commitment of the Razorback football program’s 2018 class when he committed to the University of Arkansas over football offers from Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Missouri, UCLA, Penn State, North Carolina and others.
Noland also committed to play baseball for Coach Dave Van Horn, over offers from Tennessee, New Mexico and Northwestern.
Noland, 6-2, 185 pounds at the time, had completed 72 of 106 passes for 844 yards and 8 touchdowns as a sophomore while splitting time with junior Luke Hales.
“I think the coaching staff of both programs was the biggest thing for me overall,” said Noland, referencing Van Horn and then-UA football Coach Bret Bielema. “I feel very comfortable with both staffs.”
Noland signed with the Razorbacks and started a 20-0 victory over Tulsa as a true freshman in 2018. The following spring he was a starting pitcher for the baseball team, which played its way to the College World Series. He participated in a handful of spring practices in football before electing to go baseball exclusively.
2016
Matt Zimmerman, an assistant basketball coach the previous five seasons, was announced as the new men’s basketball color analyst for the Razorback Sports Network.
Zimmerman replaced Scotty Thurman, who joined Coach Mike Anderson’s full-time staff after serving as the UA director of student-athlete development. Thurman had been a radio analyst the previous two seasons.
2014
Detroit’s Drew Smyly, a former Little Rock Central and Arkansas standout, matched his big-league career high by pitching seven innings in the Tigers’ 5-1 victory over Cleveland at Comerica Park.
Smyly retired the first 14 batters before Yan Gomes broke up his no-hit bid with a two-out double in the fifth inning.
2014
Phil Steele ranked the Arkansas Razorbacks’ football schedule as the third toughest in the nation behind only Notre Dame and Tennessee.
But the Razorbacks’ schedule was the toughest by winning percentage of opponents from 2013. The Hogs’ foes compiled a 103-54 record for a 65.6% winning rate, the highest in the country, that year.
Arkansas was scheduled to play an FBS-high 10 games against teams that played in bowl games the previous year.
2011
Coach Bobby Petrino and Razorback veterans Knile Davis, Jarius Wright and Tenarius “Tank” Wright led off media days at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Hoover, Ala., as the first team to appear in the print media room after Commissioner Mike Slive’s annual State of the SEC address.
The Razorbacks, coming off a 9-3 season and their only appearance in the Bowl Championship Series at the Sugar Bowl, would go on to post an 11-2 record in 2011. The Razorbacks peaked at No. 3 in the BCS rankings that November, behind only No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama, the only teams that beat Arkansas that season.
Davis, who had rushed for 1,322 rushing yards the season before, would suffer a broken bone in his foot during training camp and miss all of 2011. Jarius Wright would go on to set Arkansas records for career receiving yardage (2,934), touchdown catches in a season (12 in 2011), and catches in a game (13, tied with James Shibest and Wear Schoonover).
July 21
2007
Arkansas guard Patrick Beverley scored 13 points to help the United States to a 78-75 victory over France in the semifinals Saturday of the FIBA Under-19 World Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia.
The U.S. overcame a five-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
“France came out with a lot more intensity than us,” Beverley said. “We came out kind of on our heels. We weren’t ready for what they had.
“I think, as a team, all the players put our egos aside. I really think we came together and played as a team and got the job done today.”
2004
Former All-American guard Darrell Walker, a former NBA head coach with Washington and Toronto, was hired as the top assistant for Coach Byron Scott with the New Orleans Hornets.
Walker is now the head coach for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
July 22
2010
Arkansas tight end D.J. Williams, who would go on to win the Mackey Award at season’s end, represented Arkansas for the second consecutive season at SEC media days as the growing event expanded. The SEC previously had invited every conference head coach and two players to media days, but the event included three players in 2010.
Williams, who had attended with defensive end Malcolm Shepard the previous year, was joined by defensive end Jake Bequette and quarterback Ryan Mallett, along with third-year Coach Bobby Petrino at the event in Hoover, Ala.
2003
Stacie Manuel was named SEC Freshman of the Year for indoor track. Manuel was the first SEC freshman to win the women’s pole vault with a career-best 13 feet, 8 1/4 inches as Arkansas won its third SEC Indoor team championship in four years.
She followed her conference championship performance with a 13-3 1/2 at the NCAA Championships in Fayetteville to tie for eighth and earn All-American honors.
July 23
2016
Former NCAA champion Sandi Morris cleared 16 feet, 2 inches in the pole vault at the American Track League meet in Houston to set an American record two months after she fractured a bone in her left wrist vaulting in the Czech Republic when her pole broke.
Morris’ winning height was set at 16-2.09, which broke the American record of 16-1.70 set by Jenn Suhr in 2008.
Morris cleared 16-2 on her first attempt, then missed three attempts at 16-7½.
1995
Former Razorback John Daly won his second major: The Open at the Old Course at St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland. Daly, of Dardanelle, took what is called the British Open in the United States in a four-hole playoff with Italy’s Constantino Rocca.
“What the hell do you want me to say?” Daly asked after receiving the Claret Jug after the 124th Open Championship. “This is unbelievable. I’m just lost for words. This goes to everybody. All my fans at home, but especially it goes to you people who rooted for me this week. God bless you. This is awesome.”
In the press tent later, Daly said, “It’s unbelievable, the names that are on here,” while holding the jug. “Just to be a part of it, I don’t really know what to say.”
Daly opened the final round in a four-way tie for fourth place with Ernie Els and two others, four strokes behind leader Michael Campbell of New Zealand and two strokes behind Rocca.
Daly cruised in the four-hole aggregate playoff by winning each of the first two holes by a stroke, then opening up a five-shot lead when Rocca had a triple-bogey 7 on the third playoff hole.
The drama occurred on the final two holes after Daly bogeyed No. 17. Rocca got up and down on 17 when he putted across a tarred road and over a rise, then sank an 8-foot putt.
Then he pulled off what some still hail as the most clutch shot in the history of the Open. After flubbing his chip on No. 18 into what is called “The Valley of Sin,” Rocca rolled in a 65-foot uphill putt with a sharp break to forge a tie after 72 holes. Daly, who had just given his then-wife Paulette a big hug, was standing with her and watching on a monitor when Rocca made his incredible putt.
Daly sank a long birdie putt on the second playoff hole to put the pressure on Rocca, who needed three shots to get out of a green-side bunker on the third playoff hole.
Daly shot a 6-under par 282, fueled by an opening-round 5-under 67. His winning card was 67-71-73-71—282.
July 24
2008
Houston Nutt appeared at SEC media days for the 11th consecutive year, but represented Ole Miss for the first time after serving as Arkansas’ head football coach for 10 years.
“After 10 years, we knew it was time to go,” said Nutt, who had a 75-48 record at Arkansas with eight bowl appearances, but ultimately too many off-the-field distractions. “What’s great is that I was fortunate enough to get to Ole Miss. You’re proud to stay in the SEC. I love the SEC.”
July 25
2012
Quarterback Tyler Wilson and running back Knile Davis dropped in on the ESPN studios in Bristol, Conn., as the University of Arkansas promoted its football team in the wake of Bobby Petrino’s firing in April.
Wilson and Davis were two key contributors on the 2011 team, which went 11-2 for the first 11-win season at Arkansas since 1977 and the third 11-win season in school history.
The 2012 team did not fare as well. Ranked No. 8 to open the season, the Razorbacks were upset in Week 2 by Louisiana-Monroe 34-31 in overtime after Wilson left late in the first half with a concussion.
July 26
2013
The University of Arkansas filed for a registered trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its “Woooo! Pig Sooie!” chant.
Otherwise known as calling the Hogs, a tradition that began in the 1920s, the UA’s filing included a video of former coach and athletic director Frank Broyles leading the crowd in the Hog call.
The application was approved as a “sensory” trademark in July 2014.
2007
Receiver Greg Childs became the fourth player from Warren High School to commit to Arkansas, joining Chris Gragg, Basmine Jones and Jarius Wright.
“We were talking like, ‘Man, all four of us play high school and dominate. Let’s go to college and do the same thing,’ ” Childs said. “It played a pretty big role.”
Childs, Gragg and Wright became dominant players on high-powered Arkansas offenses from 2009-11 under Bobby Petrino. Childs and Wright were both taken by the Minnesota Vikings in the fourth round of the 2012 NFL Draft. Gragg was drafted in the seventh round by the Buffalo Bills the next year.