UA track teams melting pot of success
FAYETTEVILLE — Here’s a suggestion for politicians of all persuasions presently posturing pugnaciously on immigration:
Travel to Fayetteville and ask the University of Arkansas track and field programs how it’s done.
Starting with John McDonnell, its retired 40-time national champion men’s coach from County Mayo, Ireland, who became an Arkansan 42 years ago, it sometimes seems Arkansas’ track and field and cross country teams have naturalized more U.S. citizens than anywhere west of Ellis Island.
The Razorbacks’ international flavor was blended with U.S. ingredients into an Arkansas All-American brew that was brought home during the Nov. 14 unveiling of a statue of McDonnell in front of the west entrance of McDonnell Field, the university’s outdoor track.
From A to Z, rooted from Arkansas to Zambia, they came as one to honor their coach and the university they call their own regardless of where they now live or formerly lived.
So many of them like Irishman Frank O’Mara, Englishman David Swain — whose son Aidan Swain was the fifth scorer Oct. 31 at the SEC meet in Tuscaloosa, Ala., for Coach Chris Bucknam’s cross country team — and Zambia’s Godfrey Siamusiye not only became longtime Americans but longtime Arkansans.
The Razorbacks’ traditional American and foreign blend that turns into an all-for-Arkansas effort continues in men’s track and field and cross country under Bucknam and has since 1990 in women’s track and field and cross country under Lance Harter, just as it did before him under Bev Lewis.
Admittedly, a college track program’s international scope is infinitely less complex than an entire country’s immigration issues. But it’s reassuring to know that at least on some level our melting pot heritage still works.
Just hours before the unveiling ceremony, South African Dominique Scott, a member of Harter’s women’s team, and Kenyan Stanley Kebenei, a member of Bucknam’s team, won the individual titles at the NCAA South Central Regional cross country meets that the UA hosted.
Scott, whose father came all the way from South Africa to watch her run in Fayetteville, led Harter’s team to a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships last Saturday in Terre Haute, Ind.
Kebenei won NCAA South Central Regional not as a Kenyan but as an American serving his adopted country in the National Guard with active duty last summer. Then last Saturday, for the second consecutive year, Kebenei placed sixth out of 246 men to earn All-America honors at the NCAA Championships.
Again he ran Army strong.
A FITTING REWARD
Ken Hatfield will be honored with the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award on Jan. 13 at the American Football Coaches Association banquet.
Hatfield’s life certainly defines the award’s creed.
A University of Arkansas academic All-American and nationally renowned punt returner for Frank Broyles’ 1964 national champions, Hatfield’s .760 winning percentage during his Arkansas coaching tenure (1984-89) tops all Arkansas football coaches.
Far more importantly, Hatfield coached Air Force, Arkansas, Clemson and Rice with integrity above reproach.
An award recognizing one “whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football” could not have a more worthy recipient.