We all knew that last month’s football game between the University of Arkansas Razorbacks and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Golden Lions at Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium wouldn’t be close. The Razorbacks play in the powerful Southeastern Conference of NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision. The Golden Lions are a struggling team from the Football Championship Subdivision.
But anyone with a sense of Arkansas history knew this was about much more than football. Arkansans witnessed a UA football team play an in-state opponent for the first time since 1944. The school broke its 77-year scheduling drought against a historically Black college and sent a message of unity in the process.
UAPB has been underfunded for decades, and its prominent alumni haven’t always received the credit they deserve for helping build this state. Give credit to UA athletic director Hunter Yurachek for agreeing to this game. Yurachek, who wasn’t raised in Arkansas and thus isn’t saddled with past…