McCollum's Column: Back in the days when Conway let down its hair
Quote:
Tim Horton, an assistant football coach at the University of Arkansas, got one of his first views of the University of Central Arkansas-Hendrix basketball rivalry shortly after he had fallen in love as a Conway High student.
One of his first dates with Lauren Malpica, who would become his wife, was to a Hendrix-UCA basketball game at the old Grove Gymnasium. The couple sat four rows behind the UCA bench with Horton’s father, Harold, UCA’s football coach at the time, along with several UCA officials. Horton noted that Scottie Pippen scored, and he and all the UCA fans around him cheered loudly — except Lauren, who had strong family ties to Hendrix. The Warriors’ Kerry Evans scored and Lauren was the only one in the section who cheered. “I had really fallen for Lauren at this time, but I told her she couldn’t be cheering for Hendrix in this section,” said Horton during an appearance before the Arkansas Sports Club last year. “She looks at me and says, ‘If I can’t cheer for Hendrix, we just might not need to be dating.’”