A winter storm canceled more than 400 flights Friday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, including the one carrying professional golfer Ben Crenshaw to Little Rock for the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet.
Crenshaw couldn't make it to watch his caddie, Carl Jackson, be inducted, but Scotty Sayers, the manager for the two-time Masters winner, made it out of Dallas Love Field for the ceremony, which was attended by a record crowd of nearly 1,200 at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
"Ben's pretty tore up about not being here," Jackson said. "Those things happen."
Jackson was among 12 athletes and coaches inducted Friday at the 57th annual ceremony. The others were Dwight Adams (football), Pat Bradley (basketball), Ron Calcagni (football), Eldon Hawley (football/track and field), Stephen Jones (football), Stan Lee (golf), Mike Malham Jr. (football) and Christy Smith (basketball). Leon Clements (basketball), Jack Fleck (golf) and Bowden Wyatt (football) were inducted posthumously.
Jones, the chief operating officer for the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, had the biggest group of supporters among the inductees. Sheffield Nelson helped organize the group of about 140 that included Jones' father Jerry, one of about 25 attendees who managed to get out of Dallas on two planes that weren't held up by the weather.
"We're half snow dogs," said Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys owner who was inducted into the hall of fame in 1999. "We wouldn't have missed it. It's a tremendous honor for Stephen, and we weren't going to let a little snow keep us from here. Arkansas means so much to us, as well as the Sports Hall of Fame."
Stephen Jones said he was overwhelmed by his support.
"I am just so honored and humbled to get to be a part of this," said Jones, a former Little Rock Catholic quarterback who also lettered for the Arkansas Razorbacks football team in 1984-1987. "So many people have supported me through the years, and at the end of the day you are who you surround yourself with, and I am lucky to have a lot of wonderful people in my life.
Bradley, who ranks fifth in career scoring for Arkansas men's basketball team, was joined by his parents, his brother, his sister and his grandmother. His family arrived two nights earlier from snowy Boston, and Bradley joked that they can take central Arkansas' recent cold and icy weather back to New England.
"They flew in, thankfully, Wednesday when the snow was coming down, so they brought a little bit with them," Bradley said. "They're planning on staying about a week until they get full and get on my nerves, then they've got to get out."
Bradley's college coach, Nolan Richardson, left Fayetteville before snow hit that area. Richardson, a 1998 Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame inductee, said he wasn't going to miss seeing the induction of his shooting guard who once considered going back to Massachusetts before ever playing a game for the Razorbacks.
"I wasn't going to miss my boy Pat," Richardson said. "Pat couldn't have left Arkansas. We loved him too much.
"He is a different breed. I wish they were all his breed, though."
Calcagni, who led the Razorbacks football team to an upset victory over No. 2 Oklahoma in the 1978 Orange Bowl, said there were concerns about his 28-year-old daughter Danielle getting to Little Rock from Fargo, N.D., because of the weather. Calcagni said fortunately she arrived Friday, a day later than intended.
For Smith, a four-time honorable mention All-American point guard for Arkansas' women's basketball team who is now an assistant coach for the team, arrived Friday from Fayetteville following Thursday night's 56-51 loss to Kentucky.
The induction ceremony provided Smith a brief break as the Razorbacks try to make a late push for an NCAA Tournament bid. Smith said her mission today is to get back to Northwest Arkansas so she can leave for the team's final SEC regular-season game Sunday at Missouri.
"Got to get back to [Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport] by noon," Smith said. "We definitely need to get two more wins -- one against Missouri and another in the SEC Tournament -- then things could be looking good for us."
Sports on 02/28/2015