Harold Horton: Born To Coach

Hogs+ Senior Contributor Clay Henry recently sat down with Harold Horton, Louis Campbell, Tim Horton, and Mike Boschetti to tell the stories of one of Arkansas’ most important figures. Watch it on Hogs+ here.

When first approached about doing interviews and podcasts for Hogs+ there were certain topics that were presented. In the same sentence was this: Come up with some on your own and we will do them.

Immediately, there was one that was automatic: great friend Harold Horton, one of the men I’d put on my Razorback Mount Rushmore.

Yes, Frank Broyles is up there, too. Then, you have a handful that would be on a rotation, based on mood. I can’t argue against Nolan Richardson, John McDonnell, Eddie Sutton, Dave Van Horn, Wilson Matthews, Darren McFadden, Sidney Moncrief, Mike Conley, Loyd Phillips, Lance Alworth and Dan Hampton. They are giants. I surely left off some worthy of Rushmore status.

But there are times you have a personal bias that overruns what others might think. My guy that I can’t take off that wonderful, top-of-the-mountain status is Harold Horton.

It’s not just one thing like some of those others. He was a team captain during the early Broyles days, a part of three-straight Southwest Conference championship teams. He was a leader when there were leaders and great players everywhere.

Horton was the first former Arkansas player under Broyles to be tapped as an assistant coach, given the greatest linebacker corps in school history in 1968. He took over for another Rushmore type, Matthews, and was handed a great foursome: Cliff Powell, Lynn Garner, Guy Parker and Mike Boschetti.

Under Lou Holtz, Horton coached defensive line, meshing with coordinator Monte Kiffin, changing the way that man approached technique. That story is in our conversation on Hogs+. It’s classic, one of the fascinating stories I heard on the way to duck camp many times.

Horton coached Hampton, Dale White, Reggie Freeman and Jimmy Walker as the Hogs whipped Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl and outplayed a great UCLA team on the way to a tie in the Fiesta Bowl.

Horton has great tales from his days of coaching with Jimmy Johnson, Joe Gibbs, Larry Beightol and so many other legends.

Detailed in our interview was the shocking reality that Holtz fired him. That put Horton in private business at Arkhola, but only briefly. Holtz would later begin an apology campaign, complete with letters, phone calls and a bear hug when their paths crossed at coaching conventions.

Central Arkansas hired Horton to coach during my last week at the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway. We had conversations about who to call to get an interview. I told Horton, already a close friend, to call Jeff Farris, the UCA president. That proved correct. Horton would lose only three AIC games in eight seasons. He finished on a 38-game unbeaten streak.

Our friendship goes back to childhood for me. There were all sorts of ties. My older brother, Butch, was sports information director at Arkansas when Horton coached under Broyles and Holtz. They lived across the street from each other.

Then there are the DeWitt and family ties on my wife’s side. Her mother’s sister is married to Don Horton, Harold’s brother. So my trips to DeWitt for any vacation or holiday almost always included fishing trips with Don or his sons, Mark and Scott. They grew up with Jean Ann in DeWitt.

Almost always a Christmas dinner might include the Hortons and the Ashcrafts with wild game as the main fare. Sometime during the day, there would be a phone call from Harold to the Ashcraft house and we’d talk. It just came about naturally that Harold and I would later duck hunt together at Steel Wings near Carlisle as guests of Tom Schueck and Wayne Reed from Lexicon Steel.

I learned early to hang with Harold at football practice, taking a page from my dad’s practice playbook. Orville Henry’s practice notes were taken as he sat with the likes of Matthews, Horton and many other former UA coaches like Louis Campbell. I still get excited when Louis, Harold and I go to lunch. I wish those conversations could be taped. They are incredibly relevant as far as coaching technique to this day.

As Horton worked in football operations for Danny Ford, it seemed easy for me to plop down beside him on the practice field—if I stayed quiet. Horton watched practice with piercing focus. You might interject a question now and then for a golden nugget of information, but I knew to pick my spots. We watched practice as Harold transitioned to the Razorback Foundation, eventually as President.

If you want to see Harold smile, ask him about son Tim, or one of his grandchildren or nephews. He is proud of all of them and knows the latest because he keeps up. He’ll be in the stands to watch grandson Barrett Banister, a wide receiver at Missouri.

Interestingly, there was also a great relationship forming during those days with Tim. Just before Tim sat down for an interview for the Hogs+ video piece, he reminded me that I introduced him to Conway as Harold was being hired at UCA.

“I still have the clipping with the headline: Wampus Kittens to benefit from Horton hiring,” Tim said, explaining that to his son, Jackson, in Harold’s study.

I had forgotten that I’d written that a great football tailback and track star was on the way to Conway to play for the ninth-grade team. And Tim was a great player—a wonderful football player and tremendous hurdler.

It was a pleasure to write about Tim as a Razorback and maintain a friendship whether he coached at Air Force, Kansas State, Arkansas, Auburn, Vanderbilt or now Air Force—again—on a second tour of duty in Colorado Springs.

Yes, this was going to be among the first assignments for Hogs+ and it turned out great, just like anything Harold Horton ever touched, including that loud 10 gauge shotgun that takes out ducks before they are within my range.

I know everyone will enjoy learning more about one of my greatest friends and someone I consider Razorback Royalty.