Five more things about Arkansas Athletics

November 7, 2014

While the University of Arkansas is on spring break, ArkansasRazorbacks.com is giving viewers a chance to learn more about Arkansas Athletics with a special series of 25 Things About the Arkansas Razorbacks You Might Not Know. For the five days, we’ll have installments of five different noteworthy factoids about Arkansas Athletics.
Day 1
:
Wired Razorbacks ||
Day 2: We’re Top 25 ||
Day 3: Arkansas and the SEC
Day 4: A Mascot Like No Other ||
Day 5: America’s Best Facilities

#11 – The First Men’s Tournament Triple Crown In 2006-07, the Arkansas Razorbacks became the first team in Southeastern Conference history to advance to the three major championship games for men’s sports in the same academic season. Behind Heisman runner-up Darren McFadden, Razorback football was in the SEC Championship at the Georgia Dome (at left). Three months later, Arkansas reached the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament finals, also in Atlanta. The season concluded with Dave VanHorn guiding the Razorbacks to the title game of the SEC Baseball Tournament in Hoover, Ala.
	#12 – Fab Firsts for Women’s Teams The first-ever SEC Soccer Player of the Year was a Razorback, Honey Marsh, back in 2004. Arkansas Soccer also gets the nod for the first-ever televised women’s soccer match. The Razorback women’s basketball team produced the first SEC Freshman of the Week in 2004 with Whitney Jones, and now as a senior, Jones plays on the same team is the Razorback to earn five Freshman of the Week honors and sweep the rookie of the year (Co-Freshman from the SEC and Newcomer of the Year from Associated Press), Ceira Ricketts. Golfer Stacy Lewis (at right) was the first woman from the SEC competing as an individual to win the NCAA Championship. And track and field legend Amy Yoder Begley has won more SEC titles than any other athlete – 15 league individual titles. .
#13 – Can’t Hold Hoops Without Arkansas The Razorbacks have an official presence at both SEC basketball tournaments. For the past two seasons, Razorback men’s basketball announcer John George has been the official voice of the SEC Tournament. For 15 of the past 18 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournaments, the University of Arkansas’ crew has been the official statistics, providing not only the final box scores but live stats monitors for media and feeds to the internet. In fact, it was Arkansas’ stat team that pushed the first live stats to the internet from a women’s conference basketball tournament – and only the second ever – way back in 1996. Today, the innovative IP-mapping system for game statistics pioneered by Arkansas is utilized by numerous colleges across the nation.
	#14 – Titletown SEC In track and field, no SEC member can match the performance of the Razorbacks since joining in 1991-92. Arkansas’ men’s team has 47 league team titles in cross country, indoor and outdoor track while the women’s team has 19. Those are impressive totals, but even more so when you consider that Arkansas owns 66 SEC trophies in its just over 17 years with the league. Tennessee leads with 81 (68 in men, 13 in women), compiled over the 75 years of the SEC.
#15 – The Key to the Modern Era Sometimes we forget the Razorbacks began their athletic association in the now defunct Southwest Conference. It was the forward-thinking move by Arkansas to depart the SWC for the SEC in 1991 that reset all of college football. Since moving over to the SEC, the Razorbacks have expanded their sports from just 14 to 19, built a series of home facilities that are second to none and seen its budget expand significantly thanks to the additional revenues provided through the national television contracts of the bigger and better SEC. Ask any coach and they will tell you that if you can compete for the SEC title in any sport, you can compete for the NCAA title. Thanks to making the change in 1991, the Razorbacks can count themselves in that elite group.