Lessons Learned

In today’s society, we are all sometimes guilty of a bit of sensationalism. Words like unprecedented, unique and unparalleled are inserted liberally not as accurate descriptions, but more in the way of an exclamation point – a way to add some extra pizzazz!

Consider the difference between relaying a story to your friend in a coffee shop conversation vs. hiring a Hollywood movie voiceover professional to take it up a notch. “In a world where reality collides with destiny….” All of course, accented with a griping orchestral score amplified by epic surround sound.

Much like most of life’s stories and challenges, the sports environment we find ourselves in today likely falls somewhere in between those two extremes. There is no debating that life with the new virus, COVID-19, qualifies as extraordinary circumstances. However, in the world of sports, there are at least a couple of parallels that have shaped the course we are on currently and may help provide a map for the road ahead.

In the wake of the 48 hours that COVID-19 brought sports to a standstill, I had several colleagues ask if I had experienced anything previously that could compare? Each crises carries its own challenges, but from the standpoint of a sports full sprint to stop in short order, only one came to mind. Like everyone alive at the time, I vividly remember where I was on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

It was just another regular game week in the football season. Arkansas was preparing to host North Texas on Saturday at Razorback Stadium. I was in my office at the Broyles Athletics Center when longtime administrative assistant Mary Lynn Gibson mentioned that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We turned on the 32-inch tube TV. As reports continued, a second plane hit the other World Trade Center tower.

Soon nearly the entire department was huddled around one of the few televisions in the building. I called to check on my wife Ruth who was home with our infant daughter Emma. My colleagues did the same. The black clouds that hovered over New York City, Washington D.C. and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, now figuratively cast a shadow over the entire nation. 

Previously scheduled meetings were canceled and plans were made to get student-athletes and staff members back to Fayetteville. After all, flights had been grounded and rental cars were being commandeered at a record pace. The women’s golf team was stranded at the St. Louis airport. They were required to vacate and eventually were picked up by a van commissioned from Fayetteville at the home of a family friend of one of the golfers. In the end, all eventually returned safely to campus.

Once the immediate logistics had been addressed, attention turned to the major questions that still lingered. What was next? Would sporting events continue even as the nation grieved this national tragedy?

Initial indications passed along from the White House conveyed a desire for sports to continue to help the nation begin to heal from a nation’s shared grief. The NFL announced it would play games on the upcoming Sunday. Accordingly, the Southeastern Conference, under then Commissioner Roy Kramer, determined with its member institutions, that it would continue competition, including an upcoming weekend of football.

It wasn’t the first time sports had dealt with this quandary. In the immediate aftermath of John F. Kennedy assassination in Dallas on Friday, November 22, 1963, sports officials were faced with similar challenges, albeit in a much shorter window.

It was with that somber backdrop Arkansas played its final game of the 1963 season against Texas Tech in Fayetteville. Arkansas won 27-20 on the day. The Razorback victory ended a largely forgettable 5-5 season, but more importantly marked the first win in what would become a school-record 22-game winning streak, including the first football national championship in school history in 1964.

As later duplicated, including both last month and in 2001, professional leagues had a profound influence on decisions related to the college game in 1963. Based largely on a conversation and recommendation from an old friend and President Kennedy’s press secretary Pierre Salinger, 37-year-old NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle announced the NFL would play its schedule on Sunday. They did, less than 48 hours after Kennedy was gunned down. Rozelle later called it the worst decision he ever made.

In 2001, as the stories and images of Ground Zero streamed into the nation’s conscience and fear of the unknown swelled, it became apparent that sports and its role in the healing process would need to wait at least temporarily. Critics began to question the decisions to continue and no doubt the words of American philosopher George Santayana loomed – “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Eventually the NFL reversed course, the SEC followed suit and games were postponed. In the case of Arkansas, the North Texas game was canceled and replaced later in the season with Weber State coming to Fayetteville on a previously open date for the Razorbacks in the 2001 football schedule.

Eventually, both collegiate and professional sports would play a major role in rallying the nation. Teams began to carry both American and state flags onto the field before games. Renditions of “God Bless America” became a staple of seventh inning stretches. Players donned tributes on their hats, uniforms and cleats to those who had been lost. Sports provided a canvas to display the unity, resolve and resiliency of the American people.

As we look ahead to what awaits the world of sports in the months to come, nothing is certain. This pandemic and our progress against it will dictate the timeline. We must not mistake the endless speculation for definitive confirmation.

In the interim, it is wasted energy to get up in arms about someone seemingly sliding too far on the optimistic or pessimistic scale in relation to the return of sports. Some speak from what they know now, while others speak from what they hope for the future. Then again, that succinctly encapsulates the practical and emotional divide that lives inside all sports fans. The realities of today pitted against the promise of the future is one of the compelling elements that makes sports so fascinating in the first place. 

What lies ahead? We don’t know for sure, but perhaps we would be best served to take a cue from the past. Whenever stadiums open and players return to the field or court, we can count on the fact that sports will play an important part in helping all of us move forward. Until then, we will continue to rally together and face the daunting challenges ahead. Perhaps one day soon, today’s hope will transform into tomorrow’s reality and sports will be back again.

Razorback Road is a column written by Senior Associate Athletic Director for Public Relations and Former Student-Athlete Engagement Kevin Trainor (@KTHogs). Trainor is a graduate of the University of Arkansas and has worked for Razorback Athletics for more than 25 years.