It is almost like a statewide athletic reunion when the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame hosts the Pat Summerall Classic.
Monday, at always manicured and beautiful Chenal Valley Country Club, 38 teams were joined by long list of celebrities for an afternoon of fun in the sun, although there was a threat of rain showers.
Larry Lacewell, the headliner for Monday night's "Talking Football," is always entertaining.
He recalled the night he was inducted into the Fordyce Hall of Fame (to go along with the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and the Arkansas-Monticello Hall of Fame) and when it was all over his wife Chris turned to him and said that was the best speech he had ever given.
"I asked her, 'What was different about it?' " Lacewell said. "She told me, 'It was only seven minutes long.' "
Lacewell is well known for his wit as well as being Arkansas State's all-time winningest football coach, the director of scouting for the Dallas Cowboys and as the defensive coordinator on two national championship teams at Oklahoma.
He's forgotten more about football than most people will ever know.
Joe Foley, the UALR women's basketball coach, was also on hand. Foley and his three national championship teams at Arkansas Tech are being honored by the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in the fall of 2016.
Joe Kleine, Kevin McReynolds, Wes Flanigan, Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay and dozens of others were in attendance for the tournament that is competitive but probably has more sportsmanship than anything else.
There is not enough room in this column to name all the men and women who donated an afternoon to support the Hall of Fame.
Deltic Timber, one of Arkansas' great businesses, is the major sponsor but others step up, including Wilson Sporting Goods, Simmons Bank, Entergy and Arkansas Urology.
What made it an even more special day was that John Bailey, Wilson's sales manager for all of the South, was there. Wilson donates 40 golf bags and numerous other prizes.
Bailey, who is on the Hall of Fame board of directors, has been battling cancer, and he felt good enough to ride with his friend Barry Molder from Conway to not only take part in the lunch but ride around watching the golfers.
As written in this space before, John Bailey is one of the truly good guys in the world. And his driver Monday afternoon knows a little about golf, too, having attended five PGA events this year to watch his son Bryce, a new dad, play.
There is never a day when Chenal has more tales told, some of them very tall.
State Rep. Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis, the President of the Hall of Fame, came early and stayed late for his first event, and Pastor Tom Wilson, golf chairman and Hall of Fame board member, put in a very long day to end a very successful tournament that has been in the planning stages for months.
Mr. Summerall, a Hall of Famer, helped start this tournament and came every year until his death in 2013. He called a month before he died to confirm the date, that's how much he liked it.
He has his own display at the Hall of Fame Museum, and visitors can be in a booth and hear him or Paul Eells call games.
The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame has open membership, and every member's vote counts toward induction as the top two vote-getters are automatically in if they meet all the criteria.
It appeared that every college and university in Arkansas, as well as numerous high schools, several pro teams and Oaklawn and Southland parks, were well-represented on the day for fun in the sun, even with a threat of rain.
Sports on 06/16/2015