FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas' love of Nolan Richardson coaching the 1994 Razorbacks to a national championship through the bitter parting of his 2002 firing that he countered to a lawsuit to an ongoing reconciliation reached full circle Tuesday night at Walton Arena.
Richardson received a standing ovation from an adoring audience. More than 16,000 attended Tuesday night's 81-75 Arkansas victory over Texas A&M enhanced by a halftime ceremony honoring Arkansas' winningest and only Naismith Hall of Fame and national championship and national runner-up basketball coach with a permanent banner bearing his name lowered from the Walton Arena rafters.
Richardson said the award meant more him to now than it could have during those 1994 and 1995 national-championship and national runner-up seasons.
"Any time you receive any kind of award, especially when you get a chance to stop and sit back and smell the roses, then you appreciate things much more during the time, let's say, I was coaching," Richardson said. "A banner being dropped no question is one of the highlights of my coaching career. I've been blessed by the fact that I've had an opportunity to be in 12 Halls of Fame, I believe. To be alive, and to receive this, to have my family, my friends and my coaches here to be a part of something that made me who I am, it's a night of beauty."
Richardson always stressed his rancor of 2002 was with the previous UA administration and Razorback administration and not with the fans.
"You're the greatest fans in America," Richardson told fans from center court at halftime to a reciprocal ovation. "And the thing I am enjoying most is you are watching Hawgball again."
"Hawgball" was Richardson's Arkansas term for his 40 Minutes of Hell defensive pressure that now fourth-year Razorback coach Mike Anderson played for Richardson at Tulsa and coached for Richardson's 17 Arkansas seasons and employed to 49-26 first-half perfection Tuesday against A&M.
Under Anderson, Arkansas, 23-5, 12-3 in the Southeastern Conference, is having its best season since Richardson coached the Hogs.
"I have such an admiration for Mike and how he's worked," Richardson said. "I am so proud of him because it didn't only happen here. I saw him do it at UAB, I saw him move from UAB to Missouri and I saw him come to Arkansas when I knew the program was in disarray. I'm so happy to see the game looks more like Hawgball again. I think the fans are enjoying themselves."
Sports on 02/26/2015