— (written in 2012)
My sons and I have been huge Razorback fans for many years, and we have tried to go to the Annual Saline County Razorback Club Fish Fry every year since 1992 to hear the Razorback head coaches speak. Many times we have had the opportunity to visit with the coaches personally and on three occasions we have had our pictures taken with them.On Thursday June 25, 2009 John Pelphrey had his picture taken with my son Wilson at the Saline County Razorback Club Fish Fry. Ever since Wilson had this picture up as his profile picture on face book. I know that this occurred over two and a half years ago, but I have wondered if Pelphrey’s association with the Hatcher boys is another episode in what I call “The Razorback Hatcher Curse.”
After meeting Pelphrey in June of 2009, things started to look up for Razorback basketball. Pelphrey got commitments from some of the finest high school players. In fact, many of them signed early in November of 2010 and Arkansas earned a #3 ranked recruiting class. However, Pelphrey will never get a chance to coach those players after being fired a few days ago.
Likewise, when my son Wilson got his picture taken with Houston Nutt, Mitch Mustain had committed to play for the Razorbacks in football. Later the Razorbacks actually got 4 of the highly recruited Springdale 5. Everyone thought that would turn out to be a good thing, but instead it sewed the seeds of Nutt’s destruction at Arkansas. Only Ben Cleveland would stay and play all four years for the Razorbacks.
What got me started thinking about all this bad luck with our association with the Razorbacks? It all started in July 1992 when my sons went with me to the Saline County Razorback Club Fish Fry and got their picture taken with then Razorback Head Coach Jack Crowe. This was the first time my sons had the great opportunity to have their pictures taken with a Razorback head coach. A few weeks later Jack Crowe was fired after the first game when Arkansas lost to the lower division Citadel.
I am just having fun with this topic, and I really don’t think there is a “Razorback Hatcher Curse.” We love the Razorbacks and would do nothing to hurt their program. Furthermore, we had the opportunity on January 2, 2010 while in Memphis when the Liberty Bowl events were being held to see the Razorback Mascot “Tusk II.” Wilson took a picture of Tusk II who had served the Razorbacks for 5 years as our faithful mascot. Two days later Tusk II was no longer the top hog, and Tusk III started his new duties as the new Razorback mascot.
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My son Hunter got to go to the Texas football game at Fayetteville on September 11, 2004. He and his friend Blake Hand got to the stadium early that day, and Hunter got to give starting quarterback Matt Jones a high five when he got off the team bus.Matt Jones had a good game in front of the record crowd of 75,671, and it looked like victory over the #7 ranked Longhorns was possible even though Arkansas trailed in the fourth quarter 22 to 20.
The Razorbacks got the ball on their own 48 with 6:11 left and converted on third-and-1 before Jones hit Cedric Washington for a 27-yard gain to the Texas 15. (At this point I told my son Wilson that we have the game won now because we are in field goal range. All Jones had to do was play it safe.) But three plays later, Jones was forced from the pocket and fumbled when the ball was punched out of his grasp from behind by Larry Dibbles. Texas’ Brian Robison recovered at the 8.
Everette Hatcher is a regular contributor to the Saline Courier, and his political blog is http://www.HaltingArkansasLiberalswithTruth.com. Everette and his wife, Jill, live in Alexander and have four children and two grandchildren
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