Which Arkansas football players would you put on the program’s Mount Rushmore?
The way you value quarterbacks, running backs, linemen, linebackers or safeties might be the determining factor.
Maybe it’s all quarterbacks. Pick four from the group of Quinn Grovey, Lamar McHan, Matt Jones, Ryan Mallett, Billy Moore, Joe Ferguson, Bill Montgomery, Fred Marshall and Clint Stoerner.
Many consider Darren McFadden, Lance Alworth, Clyde Scott, Felix Jones and Barry Foster the best backs.
I’d argue that linemen like Dan Hampton, Loyd Phillips, Brandon Burlsworth and Shawn Andrews deserve a mountaintop ahead of any of the others, as does Jason Peters, who was an unbelievable blocker as a tight end.
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Still others might say that linebacker Wayne Harris would be the first pick if a team were going to be built from the all-time Arkansas roster.
Based on just pure talent, that’s at the least a good starting list.
I’ve got a new way to pick a Razorback Mount Rushmore: the most beloved.
After watching the opening episode of "Growing Up Grovey," I am sure what Razorback Nation would do with its collective No. 1 pick.
I know mine is now Quinn Grovey.
Quinn has handled every challenge in his life. The ability to make great decisions is the key to playing quarterback.
Arkansas fans now – and forever in the future after seeing "Growing Up Grovey" – will say Quinn is the man and all will smile.
It helps to be the only quarterback in Razorback history to take two teams to the Cotton Bowl. He did it when the Cotton Bowl was the only destination that counted during his five years on campus. A trip to Dallas is the reward for the Southwest Conference champion, as the Razorbacks were his sophomore and junior seasons in 1988 and 1989.
It also helps to be the man telling us on the radio what is truly taking place on the field. He was a sideline reporter for many years and is now Chuck Barrett’s analyst in the radio booth. They are both marvelous as a team, best friends and soulmates in what is a most heartbreaking assignment, taking care of a mother in the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease and/or dementia.
Barrett is the caregiver for his mother now, just as Grovey was for his mother’s final decade. Bobbye Grovey passed four years ago after moving from Duncan, Okla., to Fayetteville at Quinn’s insistence.
Quinn details everything important in his life for this documentary in what became his mission during the last days of his mother’s life. He knew he had to use his position as an all-time Razorback great to take Alzheimer’s/dementia into homes as only he could do.
Partnering with Tracy Anderson at Cox and under the umbrella of Quinn’s new production company QG4, a quiet project was born that not even the UA radio team understood.
“You know, we all see a little Diva in Quinn,” Barrett said. “We didn’t really know what he was doing, but he’d told us that he had formed this production company and then he says the debut project is all about him. Well, we all talked about it and thought one thing, but it was incredibly different.
“It’s an unbelievable work, amazing. I was at the premiere last month in Springdale and there was a standing ovation at the end. I’m told it was the same thing in Duncan.”
There are three episodes. The first was available last week and details in wonderful fashion his early years in Duncan. It provides great stories and insight into his fantastic family, including both parents and his three athletic brothers.
The feeling is of warmth, value to community and the foundation all of that gave to Quinn. His parents both had good jobs at Halliburton, the corporation that is central to Duncan’s great success in all ways.
The interviews with family, community, teammates and coaches are superb. The editing was magnificent. The interviews are never too long. As they say, they are short and sweet, always to the point.
The story of back-to-back state Class 4A titles is told in vivid detail with highlight tape of Quinn, including several looks at a stunning quarterback sneak for a long touchdown run that was the signature play in his sophomore year.
It’s complete with a Duncan coach describing the play with particular attention to the safety who blew out his knee when Quinn made his signature cut we’ve all seen in Razorback Stadium. It’s electric.
As my father aptly described to me years ago when he told of watching Quinn in his first spring practice at Arkansas, Quinn is juiced like he’s always plugged into an electric socket.
Episode 2 is about his Razorback career, with particular attention to the 1989 victory over Houston, a 45-39 duel with Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware in Little Rock.
Quinn is especially proud that Anderson took the coaches’ tape and paired it with Paul Eells’ radio play-by-play.
“Fans are going to love that,” Quinn said. “I think we’ve got enough of that to probably do a fourth episode and maybe do some interviews with Andre Ware.”
Those two are close friends now and come across each other in press boxes from time to time. Quinn jabs away and Ware will reference the Heisman, or maybe that part is just understood.
Of course, the final episode, to air next week is when Quinn gets to the crux of the matter, his 10 years as caregiver to his mother.
“We dig deep into Mom’s battle,” Quinn said. “It gets heavy.”
Barrett said it’s more than heavy.
“There wasn’t a dry eye at the premiere,” Barrett said. “When you watch that, you will know why Quinn is my inspiration. I’m going through this.
“All of us on the radio team are so glad that everyone is going to see the Quinn we all know and love. We’ve watched him go through this when his mom got sick.
“The phone would go off in the booth and we all knew what it was. Now, when my phone goes off, I know what it’s about.
“Telling this story was so important to him. The thing I know is that a lot of times when someone close to you passes, there is a feeling that it’s an important story, but it fades after a few months. It didn’t fade with Quinn. He went to work and this was his baby.”
Quinn admits as much. He said he sat with Anderson as every interview was edited and suggested what was important to paint the picture. To say it’s well done does not do it justice.
“It was on my heart for about four or five years,” Quinn said. “The big thing I wanted to explain is the incredible stress that Alzheimer’s/dementia puts on a family.
“I didn’t know anything about the disease when my mom got sick. As we got into it, I knew I had to tell my story.
“Of course, football is the hook, but the point of the story is to focus on caregivers. It’s an almost impossible and tough job, and none of us go in knowing what to do.”
Eventually, Quinn figured it out, just like he did on the field. His ability to make quick and correct decisions is why Duncan coach Charles Lynch put him at quarterback as a ninth grader, against Quinn’s loud protests.
“I thought I was a running back,” he said. “But I didn’t see the big picture. I thought he was taking my shot at college away from me, but he gave it to me. I was wrong.”
Quinn is rarely wrong. He was right in taking on the documentary project. He sold advertising, delicately and tastefully inserted. He enlisted all of the right people to help tell the story, including Nashville radio star Bobby Bones to narrate and golf legend John Daly to do the introduction.
“They were great, two Arkansas icons,” Quinn said. “They both agreed immediately to help. I sent the script to Bobby and he knocked it out about as soon as it arrived. It excited Bobby and I could tell it right away. For Bobby and John to spend so much time to this project means so much to me.”
The interviews with his coaches are wonderful. There are several Duncan coaches with important interviews. Ken Hatfield, his coach at Arkansas, details the importance of recruiting Grovey in a battle with Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
“My mother and father did not want to decide, but I knew Arkansas was the place she wanted for me,” Quinn said. “She knew that Coach Hatfield was a man we could trust and that Fayetteville was a family place, just like Duncan.
“She didn’t say go to Arkansas, but I knew this is what she wanted for me. She was right. What she said, ‘If you go to a place where you can do well, it will take care of you for the rest of your life.’”
I think that is so true. It flipped all the way around that it’s also a place that would take care of mom forever. It happened, too.
Now for the most important message of the project, how to handle that ultimate job as your mother’s caregiver.
“Yes, this is what I wanted to tell people, how I did it,” Quinn said. “When my mom’s diagnosis first came, I was so mad. I couldn’t believe the card we were dealt and I didn’t know what to do.
“I finally figured it out, though. It’s so tough to accept, but I did. What you have to do is handle it one minute at a time. You can’t do any more than that.
“Minute by minute, I found a way to make my mom smile. It was a long 10 years, but that’s what I did. They forget what you have just told them, but just tell it to them again. Make them smile again and again.
“It’s the only way you can do it and that was the message I wanted to put into this documentary.”
Wow. It’s as good as it can get. That’s "Growing Up Grovey" to the core.
And, it’s why Quinn Grovey will always be my most beloved Razorback.
How can he not be? He’s put a smile on our face minute by minute since he arrived from Duncan. The good news is that there are many more years with Quinn doing just that.
I can’t stress how important it is to find "Growing Up Grovey." It’s free and easy. If you are a Cox subscriber, it’s at Cox Sports Television.
If not, it’s available on their free streaming channel: watch.yurview.com.
“We brought it out just ahead of football because we know it’s a slow time,” Quinn said. “But if you can’t find time now, it will be perfect to binge all three episodes at a later time.”
And, be ready for a delightful three hours any way you decide to consume "Growing Up Grovey."
“The premiere was a condensed version, about two hours,” Barrett said. “That may sound long, but it wasn’t. It went so fast because it’s that good. Everyone is going to love all three episodes.”
Love is a strong word, not used nearly enough.
Barrett is fond of saying to those he works with on air, “Paint the picture.” Then, he gets out of the way to let them.
Oh, boy did Quinn paint the picture. And, it’s with pure unreserved love.
Give love a chance. You won’t turn it off.