The Central Arkansas Library System spent over $50,000 on a recent promotional campaign featuring University of Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green.
The campaign’s elements included a photo shoot, an in-person signing event with Green in November and digital advertising.
Arkansas
Arkansas AD Once Damaged PGA, British Open Trophy While Disrespecting Golf Legend
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – It’s no secret that former Arkansas athletics director Jeff Long wasn’t exactly loved during his tenure with the Razorbacks. Yet, until now, the disdain shown by former alums, players and staff was a consistent bubble just beneath the surface out of the public eye.
Former Arkansas golfer and PGA legend John Daly spent Tuesday morning on 103.7 “The Buzz” making sure there was no doubt how disliked Long was and still is while talking about an incident of ultimate disrespect by the former Razorbacks AD. For him, the final straw ties directly to his beloved PGA and British Open trophies and the physical damage done to these revered artifacts at Long’s direction.
Arkansas athletics has always meant a lot to Daly, as have its historic artifacts. Former Hogs basketball coach Nolan Richardson once sent him a picture of the floor from the 1994 national championship game and former athletics director Frank Broyles once sent him the Razorback rug that resided in his office for a long time. Both are proudly on display in Daly’s office to this day.
So, in reciprocation of the historic items that had been provided to him, Daly decided shortly after former football coach Houston Nutt finished a rough season that he would show support by donating his PGA and British Open trophies to be put on display as a reminder of what Razorbacks athletes can accomplish.
As time went on, the trophies made their way to The Blessings, which serves as home to Arkansas men and women’s golf. Daly trusted they were in good care until he found out one day that definitely wasn’t the case.
He was scheduled to do an event with the Golf Channel alongside David Faherty and wanted to have his trophies be part of the festivities as well. So, he called up a driver he often uses from around the Fayetteville area whom he refers to as Limo Joe and asked if he could swing by the University of Arkansas to grab his trophies and bring them to him.
“And he looked all over the place for them,” Daly said. “Apparently Jeff Long didn’t like alumni stuff or whatever. The PGA trophy was in a closet and the top of it was broke. I had to get it fixed. The British Open trophy was out of the case, and it was thrown in a closet as well. It was half dented up. Limo, it took him literally three hours to find it. Jeff didn’t want any alumni stuff, so he threw it in a closet, and thank God, Limo found them, and I did the show.”
To add insult to injury, it turns out British Open trophies not only are borderline impossible to earn, they aren’t free when they are earned.
“But, you know, I had paid for that British Open trophy,” Daly said. “It cost me 7,500 pounds. The PGA I got for free, but you talk about disrespect what Jeff Long did. He had no clue what those trophies meant to me, but I had donated them to the University of Arkansas, and Limo found them in a closet.”
The damage to his trophies were simply the cherry on top of a long list of reasons why Daly never found a soft spot in his heart for Long. It takes more than that to develop the strong feelings he willingly shared without hesitation.
“Jeff Long was the worst thing that ever happened to the University of Arkansas,” Daly said. “I’m sorry. He sucked and he was a jerk.”
It was the first of six times Daly referred to Long as a jerk in a four minute span. And he didn’t limit his perception just to Long’s time at Arkansas.
“He’s the worst athletic director that ever came to Arkansas and the worst one that ever went to Pittsburgh, the worst one that ever went to Michigan State, and then he goes to Kansas and tries to fire the basketball coach,” Daly said. “Tried to get rid of the basketball coach that’s getting paid more than any basketball coach – well, maybe [Arkansas coach John Calipari] is now – but he just was mean. He didn’t like alumni.”
David Bazzel, a Razorbacks legend himself who was conducting the interview, referenced a conversation with former Arkansas communications director Rick Schaeffer that showed there were issues with Long from the beginning.
“[Schaeffer said] it was not a pleasant transition from Frank to Jeff, and that Jeff never communicated effectively with Frank,” Bazzel said. “It was just a tense situation, and he didn’t feel comfortable with following the legacy of Frank, and that there were tensions there right off the bat.
Daly had serious contention with how out of touch he felt Long was with the people of Arkansas. One particular sore point was one that made general fans see Long in a negative light without knowing much of what was going on behind the scenes.
“You know, when he was there, he made our stadium Pepsi,” Daly said. “Who in the hell drinks Pepsi in Arkansas?”
While there are always incidents of adults trying to smuggle in alcohol to Razorbacks games over the years, Daly painted a picture of desperate boys and girls trying to find creative ways to get past security with Coca-Cola products.
“All the time that he was there, the most things that kids smuggled in were Diet Coke and Coca-Cola,” Daly said. “You’re gonna make a kid take a Diet Coke and a Coca-Cola out of his boot or or her purse or his jeans or whatever? Oh my God, it’s like a crime. Somebody brought Coke and Diet coke to the University of Arkansas football stadium.”
The trophies now travel with Daly in his bus where they can receive proper care and respect. Still, they serve as a constant reminder of an AD who once had no use for them nor the man who brought attention to the Arkansas program by winning them.
“All I know is thank God we got [current athletics director] Hunter Yurachek,” Daly said. “That’s all I could say. I love him. He’s unbelievable for our program.”
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Arkansas
Promotional campaign featuring Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green cost Central Arkansas Library System over $50,000 | Arkansas Democrat Gazette
A brilliant stretch of offense to close the nonconference schedule had Arkansas basketball feeling optimistic about the roster’s overall shooting. Entering the SEC opener against No. 1 Tennessee, the Razorbacks ranked fourth nationally in field-goal percentage (50.8%) while hitting 3-pointers at a 36.8% rate.
But preseason concerns appeared to be justified Saturday. The Hogs (11-3, 0-1 SEC) shot a season-low 37.7% from the floor against the Volunteers (14-0, 1-0), going 6 for 29 on 3-pointers and, even worse, 6 for 13 at the free-throw line.
Add it all up, and Arkansas got run out the gym in a 76-52 loss that represented the worst offensive performance of the year.
“Look, you don’t have to make all your 3s, but you can’t miss them all,” Arkansas coach John Calipari said. “You can’t miss 10 in-a-row, or you’re not going to win.”
DJ Wagner and Karter Knox hit on the first two attempts from downtown, but Arkansas then proceeded to miss 19 of its next 21 3-pointers. That drought coincided with a dominant Tennessee run that stretched the lead to double figures, and the Vols led 42-27 at halftime.
The offensive malaise wasn’t a total surprise. Tennessee leads the country in 3-point defense and is second in scoring defense, but it was a giant step back. Arkansas had scored at least 80 points in four straight games.
Boogie Fland and Johnell Davis represented Arkansas’ biggest disappointments from behind the arc. That duo combined to go 2 for 12, with Davis missing all four of his attempts. Davis had missed the Hogs’ previous two games with a wrist injury.
The Razorbacks’ leading 3-point shooter on the season is 7-foot-2 big man Zvonimir Ivisic, who entered Saturday 20 of 44. He went 1 for 2 against Tennessee, but he continues to struggle on the defensive end and has seen his minutes dramatically decrease in recent weeks.
Calipari needs to find a way to keep Ivisic on the floor. His impact stretching opposing defenses is too valuable. The Hogs play most possessions with at least two players who aren’t threats from the outside.
After the game, Calipari said the bad shooting numbers weren’t a product of poor offense. He thought his team generated quality looks, but the shots just would not fall.
However, he didn’t like how the misses negatively affected the Razorbacks in other dimensions.
“If we created a good look, and we miss some of them, I looked at them and said, ‘Guys, you’re not going to make every shot. Just keep playing. Fight.’ You’ve got to learn to fight when you’re not playing well. So this was a great learning experience for this team,” he said.
There are other, more important factors that played into the blowout loss.
Tennessee won the rebounding margin 51-29 and got 29 points from Chaz Lanier. Zakai Zeigler won the battle of New York City point guards against Boogie Fland, and Arkansas couldn’t have asked for a more difficult start to the conference schedule than a road game against the top-ranked team in the country.
Arkansas now has three days to regroup before a home game against No. 23 Ole Miss.
Peyton Bolling was crowned Miss America’s Teen 2025 on Saturday night in Orlando, Florida.
Bolling, who competed as Miss Arkansas’ Teen, is from Rogers and attends Bentonville High School. She performed a jazz dance in the pageant’s talent competition on Saturday. The teen pageant — which includes talent, evening gown and on-stage question segments — is part of the Miss America organization.
Along with the title of Miss America’s Teen, Bolling will receive $50,000 in scholarship money and a yearlong reign, according to the Miss America organization. During her year as Miss America’s Teen, Bolling will travel across the country and use her platform to raise awareness about her philanthropic effort, known as Simple Acts of Citizenship. She’ll also serve as a role model for young girls and a brand ambassador for the Miss America’s Teen program.
Ali Mims, Miss Alabama’s Teen, was named first-runner up for Miss America’s Teen on Saturday and earned $10,000 in scholarship money. Mims, from Harpersville, was featured throughout the finals event and performed a soprano aria during the talent competition, singing “O Mio Babbino Caro” (“Oh, my Dear Papa”) from Giacomo Puccini’s 1918 opera “Gianni Schicchi.”
Also, Mims was one of three winners in Tuesday’s evening gown preliminary for Miss America’s Teen, earning a $3,000 scholarship.
Mims is a student at Chelsea High School. Her philanthropic platform for Miss Alabama’s Teen is the Joyful Noise Foundation: Music Education for the Special Needs Community, It raises money to put musical instruments in special needs classes.
Ali Mims of Harpersville, Alabama, was named first runner-up for Miss America’s Teen on Jan. 4, 2025, in Orlando Florida. Mims competed as Miss Alabama’s Teen in the national pageant.(Courtesy of Miss America IP LLC)
A total of 51 teens were in the running for 2025, competing in preliminary events this week and the finals on Saturday at the Walt Disney Theater in Orlando. All had previously been crowned at pageants in their home states or Puerto Rico.
Aside from Bolling and Mims, the top five finalists were:
- Brooke Bumgarner, Miss Mississippi’s Teen 2024 (second-runner up)
- Abigail Mignucci, Miss New Jersey’s Teen 2024 (third runner-up)
- Macie Krause, Miss Texas’ Teen 2024 (fourth runner-up)
As runners-up, Bumgarner, Mignucci and Krause each earned $10,000 in scholarship money, according to the Miss America organization. The finals were livestreamed on the Miss America YouTube channel and PageantVision.com.
The top 11 contestants for Miss America’s Teen were:
- Ali Mims, Miss Alabama’s Teen 2024
- Keira Bixler, Miss California’s Teen 2024
- Melissa Le, Miss Louisiana’s Teen 2024
- Peyton Bolling, Miss Arkansas’ Teen 2024
- Nicole McClain, Miss Hawaii’s Teen 2024
- Kynlee Schultheis, Miss Oklahoma’s Teen 2024
- Macie Krause, Miss Texas’ Teen 2024
- Abigail Mignucci, Miss New Jersey’s Teen 2024
- Carrington Manous, Miss Georgia’s Teen 2024
- Avery Bradley, Miss Iowa’s Teen 2024
- Brooke Bumgarner, Miss Mississippi’s Teen 2024
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