If there's one pastime that dominates all others this time of year, it's Razorbacks football. But if there's another pastime that dominates all others, why, it'd have to be the great outdoors.
In that spirit, the state's Game and Fish Foundation held its 32nd Outdoor Hall of Fame Induction Banquet on Sept. 4 inside the Statehouse Convention Center, and to the hunter and angler it was a lollapalooza of fauna, or the pursuit thereof.
Along with enjoying a Whole Hog barbecue dinner, the thousand or so hunting and fishing enthusiasts in the Governor's Hall visited with Game and Fish officers, policy makers, equipment vendors and one another.
They also bid on dozens of live and silent auction items that ran an interesting circuit, from entirely indoors (a wine and cheese party for 12 inside Cheers Restaurant in the Heights, a Swedish massage at Rejuvenation Clinic Day Spa) to outdoors (fishing and hunting trips) and from on water (fishing boats and guided trips) to underwater ("Electrofishing fish management inspection of your privately owned lake" from Fisheries Answers by AC).
To the list of 78 hall of famers the foundation etched the names Dr. Doyne and Nancy Williams, pre-eminent trapshooters who have taken home more than three dozen world championships; C.B. Thompson Jr., the North Little Rock/Sherwood sporting goods retailer (Fort Thompson); and the late Darrell "Monty" Carmikle, a wildlife officer killed while on duty in 2008.
Along with these four, former U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt (R-Ark.) received the Legacy Award for his conservation achievements over 26 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, the most coruscating of which was his lobbying and legislative efforts to put a halt to plans to dam the Buffalo River, immediately followed by legislation to preserve the river in perpetuity and fold it into the National Parks System.
High Profile on 09/14/2014