Gametime Does Not Interfere With Wedding
Last updated Wednesday, September 24, 2008 8:49 PM CDT in Columns
By Harry King
THE MORNING NEWS
LITTLE ROCK--The announcement of the start time for Arkansas-Texas arrived late in the morning -- about noon in the nation's capital -- and the call to the 202 area code went straight to voice mail.
The unfeeling machine recorded the news: 2:30 p.m. kickoff, ABC-TV.
"Received your message -- you just made my day!" Katie Laning responded in an e-mail. The communications director for Sen. Blanche Lincoln is getting married at 7 p.m. Saturday in Little Rock and she was fretting that the kickoff would conflict with the ceremony. Wedding rings and forever vs. wide receivers and football, so to speak.
The wedding was scheduled long before Hurricane Ike disrupted the plans of many and the fact that Sept. 27 was supposed to be an open date for the Razorbacks was part of the equation.
"The date was ideal for many reasons -- several weeks after the Democratic National Convention; several weeks ahead of the election; and the day after the U.S. Senate plans to adjourn, to name a few," she said. "But as any girl raised in the South -- especially in Razorback country -- can attest, you definitely do your homework and cross-reference any potential date with the college football schedule."
If the Arkansas-Texas game had overlapped the wedding reception, she was going to bring in TVs for her guests. It says something about priorities that a television was never considered for the rehearsal dinner on Friday night even though that meal conflicts with the first presidential debate.
Laning, a native of Little Rock and a 2003 graduate of the University of Virginia, is marrying a native Floridian named Geoff Niebaum. She says he is not a Gator, but is "still earning his stripes in Razorback fan-dom."
"After attending two Arkansas-LSU games and several watch parties, he's progressing along quite nicely," she said. "Just as long as the Hogs don't play South Florida."
Ike did alter the plans of a Heber Springs man who scheduled a business trip to the Austin-San Antonio area for the original week of Arkansas-Texas.
"I had never been to a Texas game in Austin," Ray Brookings said. "I was really looking forward to the experience."
His wife, Signe, was supposed to fly to Dallas on that Friday, join up with some friends, and then drive to Austin for the game.
At midweek, Brookings received several phone calls from Arkansas, updating him on the weather, but he was quite willing to sit in the rain.
After all, it was the Hogs vs. the 'Horns. On Thursday, he found out that the game had been postponed.
Signe, who had her taste buds set on breakfast at Trudy's Tex-Mex Restaurant, where the migas are celebrated, never boarded her flight and Brookings, 56, bailed out of Austin.
He canceled the hotel room reservation without penalty and the airlines gave him a credit for his unused flights.
Brookings and his wife used to live in Dallas, but he's been a regular at Razorback games since they moved to Heber about five years ago.
A regional sales manager for a manufacturer, Brookings is in Las Vegas this week for a trade show. He plans to slip out of the show about 12:30 p.m. local time and watch the game at some sports bar. But, he said, "That's not like being there."
Brookings grew up in Crossett and played football at Arkansas-Monticello. So, why the fondness for the Razorbacks?
"It's the only game in town," he said.
About this columnist
The dean of Arkansas sports writers, Harry King updates his column five days per week with the latest on the Razorbacks. A 35-year veteran of The Associated Press, King joined the Arkansas News Bureau in May of 2002. He's covered the Razorbacks since the Arkansas-Texas game dubbed the Big Shootout in 1969.
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