Vision for Arkansas (Long)

[Boles Hog]

I took a few liberties with Ronald Reagan's "Vision for America" speech prior to the 1980 election, but I think the message is the same.....


The question before us tonight: for the first time in our memory, many Arkansans are asking: does college football still have a place for the Razorbacks, for its fans, for its great dreams? There are some who answer "no;" that our energy is spent, our days of greatness at an end, that a great institutional malaise is upon us.

They say we must cut our expectations, conserve and withdraw, that we must tell our younger fans not to dream as we once dreamed.

This year, we lost a friend who was more than an icon of college football; to generations he was a symbol of our state itself. And when he died, the headlines seemed to convey all the doubt about the University of Arkansas, all the nostalgia for a seemingly lost past. "The Last Razorback Hero," said one headline, "Mr. Woo Pig Sooie dies, " said another.
Well, many of us knew Frank Broyles well, and no one would have been angrier at being called the "last Razorback hero."
Many times before he passed, he would say, "There is just one Razorback.  Our fans are the greatest in the country."  Frank Broyles did not believe that our university was ready for the dust bin of history, and if we'll just think about it we too will know it isn't.

Have we forgotten that night, several years ago when so many of our Razorback fans stood outside the Drake Field terminal awaiting the return of a disappointed Razorback team. A team that had just lost a heartbreaker to the University of Tennessee, in a most surreal way? Those players had worked so hard to bring the Razorbacks to national prominence in the 1998 season.  These players endured several seasons of missed expectations.  When the plane touched down and the door opened, the crowd lifted the spirits of that team.

As fans, we knew on the gray January 1st day in 1965, the pride of a state swelled when a National Championship was earned.  We felt a vision for the future.

During this last few weeks, I have had a chance to meet and talk with many Razorback fans from every corner of our great state. I find no malaise, I find nothing wrong with the Razorback people and players. Oh, they are frustrated, even angry at what has become of our football program. But more than anything they are filled with pride and as hopeful as they have always been.

Tonight, my fellow Hog fans, let us reach into our proud past—and look forward to forward to our future.
In the coming weeks, we will have decisions to make.  We need to ask ourselves "What is our vision for the future?".  The decision is out of our hands, but it will be critical in determining the path we will follow in the years ahead.

If you feel that Coach Bielema has the program on the right path and deserves another year, then you should make it clear with your attendance and support at the last two home games. If he has given you the kind of leadership you are looking for, if he instills in you pride for the Arkansas Razorback program and a sense of optimism about our future, then he should get another year.
But consider these questions as well when you finally make your decision:
Are you more confident that our program will rebound and create excitement for our state or are you less confident?
Are you satisfied that 7 to 8 wins is the best we can expect? Is annual visit to the Texas Bowl or Liberty Bowl something you are prepared to live with?

Is our program more capable of competing in the conference or is it weaker?

Is there more stability in the world or less?

And, most importantly--quite simply--the basic question of our lives: are you happier today than when Coach Bielema became the head coach at the University of Arkansas?

I cannot answer those questions for you. Only you can.

Let us resolve that young Arkansans will always see the Bell Towers at Old Main and find a place where they can have a source of pride in their Razorbacks and then look to when they can experience a great place of higher learning.

Let's choose to find our way back....