Kickin' It
Kai Caddy

Arkadelphia has provided me with many great stories, and last Thursday night was no exception.

Just a week removed from maybe my oddest experience in Arkadelphia, fellow sports editor Josh Goff and I were headed back to town to watch the Bears and Sugar Bears take on Ouachita Baptist.

One week ago, on our way back from Magnolia, we stopped off in Arkadelphia for some gas and were treated to a wonderful story of snakes and the devil from the old lady working the cash register.

Anyway, that’s beside the point.

This week’s trip started off with a bang. We left campus at around 3:30. Stopping off in Maumelle for some McDonald’s, I was nearly hit by the girl trying to get back into traffic without actually looking at the traffic. After avoiding that accident, we got some food and were on our way.

We were incident-free all the way to Arkadelphia, pretty much that is — until we crossed the Ouachita River and some fool decided to pass on a bridge. Always the calm driver, I wasn’t affected. I simply slowed down and let the idiot who nearly hit me head-on get over in the other lane.

So, we arrived at OBU shortly before 5:30, parked right up front and walked right in like we owned the place. We were all ready and prepared to let the ticket-takers know that we were media, but instead just walked right on by. It seemed they were too busy socializing to notice two college kids just waltzing into a game all free-like.

We spotted our seats next to the voice of the Bears himself, Monty Rowell. Quickly, the topic of conversation turned to Bears big man Mark Maxwell and some comments he made in last week’s Echo.

We learned, for the first time, that Mark would be suspended for the OBU game and Saturday’s meeting with Rhema.

Prior to the Sugar Bears game, we went over and had a chat with coach Ron Marvel, who also offered his thoughts on the Maxwell situation.

For the next 20 minutes we saw the Sugar Bears struggle to find the basket. They somehow managed to stay close, and I thought they might pull it off. Of course, besides everyone talking about Maxwell, they also reminded us the Sugar Bears had never played well at OBU.

Between halves, the fine night of driving and basketball seemed relatively normal. That was until OBU Sports Information Director Chris Babb decided to boot a ball back to one of his assistants. That ball headed straight for the press table, and more specifically, my Pepsi.

Having the reflexes of a cat, I quickly jumped toward Monty, and Josh just got out of town. The Pepsi went flying all over my notes, but I was still pretty dry.

Monty, still in shock, told the fine folks listening to the ballgame that “The Echo boys are learning to swim tonight”.

I missed a lot of the beginnings of the second half because I was trying to dry my notes and the table with stats provided to us by Monty. Finally, the SID staff got us some towels. The towels made the process much quicker, as they are slightly more absorbent than stat sheets.

After we got all that dried up, the Sugar Bears continued to struggle from the field but ended up with a shot to tie at the end of the game. Carone Harris’ trey was off, and the Sugar Bears went home with a three-point loss.

Between games no incidents occurred, but we did notice that leading scorer and rebounder Lee Reliford was in uniform. I was pumped from the minute I saw him back out on the court.

The game started, and the undefeated Tigers were roaring. They held the lead the whole way, pretty much.

Most of the OBU fans, seated primarily behind press row, showed off their knowledge of our team in several ways.

The best thing I heard all night from one fan was, “Hey Lamar! (shouting to Lamar Grimes) You went to Indiana State; that’s where Larry Bird went to school.”

I tell you — it was something of sheer genius. The kid knew that our starting point guard was named Lamar, and he knew where Larry Bird went to college.

Anyway, that fan and his buddies were silenced when Mike Monroe hit a free throw with 3.9 seconds left to win the game.

Ah. Nothing like beating a nationally ranked conference opponent at their place. Makes you feel proud to walk out of that gym saying you’re from UCA.

Anyway, on the way out of town we decided to cash in some Taco Bell coupons found in last week’s Echo. After stopping off there for a snack, we rolled through the Wendy’s to finish off the meal.

At Wendy’s I ran into an old high school friend who now attends Henderson State. He seemed ready for the big match-up Thursday night when Coach Chappell and the boys look to knock off the Reddies for the second time this year.

From Arkadelphia to Bryant we had a pretty uneventful trip once again. But after stopping in Bryant for a bathroom break and to pick up a copy of the day’s Bryant Banner, things got interesting. Out of nowhere came a big hunk of tire.

By the time it registered to us that it was a tire, it was too late. We hit it.

After laughing it off and collecting ourselves, we returned to Conway. After finally finding a parking spot (not so easy to do at 1:30 a.m.), I noticed I had a hubcap missing. If my car wasn’t a thing of beauty before, this sure helped out.

Oh well. It was a hell of a trip nonetheless, and the Bears knocked off a nationally ranked team.

Arkadelphia sure has been an interesting spot.