Ken Duke is a great golfer, but he's a greater Arkansan.
Duke, a regular on the PGA Tour, not only said yes when asked to be a celebrity golfer in the annual Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame golf tournament, but he immediately became a hole sponsor for $500, too.
And like when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, he's paying his own expenses.
The night of his 2014 induction, Duke was in a golf tournament but received permission to play a morning round that Friday, and he chartered a plane that brought him and his wife to Little Rock that evening. He flew back out as soon as the ceremony ended.
All at his own expense.
Duke is one of the many headliners who will play in the June 11 golf tournament at Chenal Country Club in Little Rock. Ken Hatfield, Darrell Walker, Chuck Barrett, Justin Acri, Pat Bradley, Ron Calcagni, Johnny Lee (the singer), Kevin McReynolds and Wess Moore are many of the others.
Every team will have a celebrity golfer as the teams vie for more than $15,000 in prizes, which include beautiful Wilson golf bags and assorted other equipment. The tournament is competitive, and that's why at a golf committee meeting Wednesday in the Simmons Bank building a lot of good-natured kidding was aimed at Rodney Peel, who won last year's tournament. His celebrity was longtime amateur champion golfer Stan Lee.
It was suggested it might look bad if a Hall of Fame board member won two years in a row. Peel disagreed.
In addition to prizes for first and second, there are door prizes. Every golfer receives a golf shirt and hat.
Only a few team spots remain, and they can be reserved by calling (501) 313-4158.
This tournament has grown into one of the most fun in the state, and good folks like those at Frost LLC, Rush and Linda Harding, Gene and Jerry Jones, PotlatchDeltic and Glazer's Distributors make it happen.
Greg Flesher, chairman of the golf tournament, has been on top of this from the get-go, and Terri Johnson, executive director of the Hall of Fame, has worked tirelessly.
One thing that will be an added bonus is that the new book The First 60 Years 1958-2018 will be sold all day at the country club. The book is a compete history of the Hall of Fame with biographies on every inductee. It is $35 plus tax, and the tournament is just six days before Father's Day.
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This is news worth repeating: On Tuesday, Houston Nutt was inducted into the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame.
Nutt led the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Razorbacks to two Cotton Bowls and then did the same at Ole Miss. He is 3-1 in Cotton Bowl games.
At Arkansas, he beat Texas 27-6 in 2000 and lost to Oklahoma 10-3 in 2002.
At Ole Miss he won back-to-back Cotton Bowls, beating Texas Tech 47-34 in 2009 and Oklahoma State 21-7 in 2010. In those four games, his teams outscored their opponents 98-57.
Nutt is now an analyst for CBS during football season.
. . .
Starting on Sunday, this paper will add a new column. Brooks Kubena -- who covers Arkansas State University, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff and the University of Central Arkansas -- will write about those programs exclusively.
Kubena is a native of Houston and a University of Texas graduate. He joined this paper a little more than a year ago and became an award-winning writer in his first year.
He played high school football and is a gifted singer and musician, as well as a talented writer.
His column, "Naturally Stated," will anchor Page 2 of the sports section each Sunday.
Sports on 05/10/2018