FAYETTEVILLE -- Interesting that Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long now pleads for the unity from which the Razorbacks and the University of Arkansas they represent persistently unite the state of Arkansas.
Because for too long it seems the UA approaches becoming the University of Arrogance more into opulence than its all-strata statewide constituency sustaining it so uniquely.
Arkansas' reciprocated love affair with its Razorbacks and its flagship university in Fayetteville immediately attracted Frank Broyles, then a 23-year-old assistant Baylor coach in town for the 1948 Arkansas vs. Baylor game.
"My dream job," said Broyles, still living the dream, retired at 91 in Fayetteville after 50 years as Arkansas' head football coach and/or athletic director.
Certainly wealthy donors affected the UA from its origins, but the increasing emphasis on wealth seems to be straining relationships on which the UA is built.
Apparently, Long now notices the strain. He knows that although approved by the UA board of trustees, a portion of UA alumni disapproved of the UA's estimated $160 million project mostly for enclosing the north end of Reynolds Razorback Stadium with 4,000 additional luxury suites and seats.
And he knows south of Northwest Arkansas some people grow restive as the Razorbacks' one football game per year contract with War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock expires after 2018.
"I don't want this state to turn our stadium expansion into a stadium debate," Long told Monday's Little Rock Touchdown Club meeting. "We need the entire state behind us."
The UA always needs statewide support, but it seems to be making it increasingly difficult to keep.
Other than the euphoria the Razorbacks generated by upsetting No. 15 TCU in double overtime Saturday night in Fort Worth, the timing of a call for unity could not have been worse.
On Friday night, the UA hosts a $450,000 black-tie, four-course meal at the Campaign Arkansas Gala Dinner for 400 big donors.
Sunday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette disclosed resentment expressed to new UA Chancellor Joe Steinmetz by some of the very donors Friday's gathering was designed to impress to give to the UA's $1 billion fund-raising campaign.
"A lot of people are unhappy with what they perceive to be the priorities of the UA," retired Fayetteville banker Hayden McIlroy wrote Steinmetz, according to the Democrat-Gazette.
The $450,000 actually is scaled back from the original estimate for the event, Steinmetz told the Democrat-Gazette.
The lavish amount spent to woo only begets woe from McIlroy and presumably some other longtime Arkansans long giving to the UA.
Not surprising to those knowing Arkansas. For most of that Arkansas genre are more impressed with what the UA gave them than impressing by what they give to the UA. And they appreciate others' UA loyalty regardless if their incomes gives them less to give.
Linda McBride, the widow of generous Razorbacks booster Bob McBride, once said, "Just because we happen to have more than some doesn't make us better Razorbacks fans than anyone."
It's no different for most Arkies, whatever UA facets they support.
Sports on 09/14/2016