McCollum's Column: Raymond Bright one of stars to get shining moment
One of the stars to be inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame on Friday night will be Bright.
The late Raymond Bright, a University of Arkansas coaching legend who will be part of an 11-member class.
As I heard the news of Bright’s induction, I thought of a column I did after the beloved coach died in 2008, one written after I had talked to several former players and friends.
In honor of Bright’s achievement, we’ll reprise the column:
“When I first received the news Tuesday that legendary coach Raymond Bright had died, I tried to think of the people who loved him who might furnish some kind words for a feature obituary.
That got wonderfully complicated because the widening list included just about everybody I know in Conway. It was like I could close my eyes, put my finger on a random page in the phone book and take my pick.
During 25-plus years here, I don’t know of a more beloved figure in this community and I mean the kind of “take you outside and me and my buddies will totally whip your booty if you even think of saying a derogatory word about coach Bright” type of love.
He had a large family. He had a larger extended family so much that people in Conway were trying to figure out Tuesday whether there was a facility in Conway large enough to handle the crowd for the funeral or memorial service.
I talked several people Tuesday who had to pause for a moment or two to sob when they reflected on how Bright had touched them.
And most were folks who just don’t cry, even if something is broken.
“When I think of what he has meant to my life, tears come to my eyes and I just don’t do that,” said Arkansas and UCA Sports Hall of Famer Henry Hawk when his mentor was presented the Elijah Pitts Award by the Conway Athletic Awards Commission for lifetime achievement.
Bright was crusty on the exterior, firm with a loud gruff voice. That masked a soft heart for people, especially helping young men become the best they could be. Those among “the best they could be” was an all-star group that included Bobby Tiner, Hawk, Dennis Fulmer, Bill Nutter and a host of others who are legends in Faulkner County sports history.
“He could call you an S.O.B. and do it in a way that made you happy,” Hawk said at the Pitts luncheon.
Most of his peers and players he mentored described him as a genius at motivation, a maestro of pushing the right inspirational buttons that struck just the proper chords for every individual.
“He had a knack for dealing tough love,” said Conway football coach Kenny Smith. “Every young person is different and you have to push different buttons. Raymond knew just the right buttons for everybody he coached.”
“He was a master motivator; that’s why he was so successful everywhere he coached,” said Ken Stephens at an Arkansas Sports Club tribute to Bright last year.
And that carried over to other areas, even in retirement.
“Coach Bright and I went on several fishing trips and they all were memorable,” said UCA football coach Clint Conque, who developed a close relationship with Bright during his nine years at the university. “Angele (Conque’s wife), myself and our sons (Chasse, Benton and Zachary) had some great times at their lakehouse; he was like a grandfather to them. He would sometimes call up my boys and say, ‘the catfish are getting too many and too big at my place and somebody needs to come catch them.’
“A couple of weeks ago, Doretta (his widow) sent Benton, who is about to leave for the U.S. Military Academy in a month to play football, a picture of him with a big catfish he caught at their place. I could tell that meant a lot of Benton. Coach Bright was just a genuine good person and that’s what made him an icon. When I came here as a young coach, he was a model and mentor for me.”
There are countless Raymond Bright stories. Here are a few from four people, representative of the type of man and coach he was;
When he was recently inducted into the Arkansas Track and Field Hall of Fame as one of the nation’s most respected starters, Joe Wessell, a former sprinter at UCA for Bright, recalled, “Raymond Bright always had something to challenge you with in practice. I remember I had a bad practice one day and he came to me and said that he was going to take me to the next meet but I was just gonna set blocks; I wasn’t going to run because I hadn’t done my best in practice. I never lost another race.”
Buzz Bolding, Conway athletic director, remembers when, as a player for UCA, he got ejected from a game.
“I go by coach Bright on the sideline and he didn’t say a word,” Bolding said. “He just looked at me and muttered, Well! I knew I was in trouble. Every day in practice that week, I had to run a sprint for every minute of that game that I missed and that was in addition to the regular sprints and running that everybody did. I can assure you, I never got kicked out of another game.
“I also remember when our team went out to eat at a restaurant on out-of-town trips, if the owner of that restaurant did not tell coach Bright afterwards that our group was one of the best groups of young men he had ever had in the restaurant, there would be a price to pay.”
“I remember running in a track meet for him and he told me to go over and enter the long jump,” said Bill Nutter, a former Frank E. Robins winner as the outstanding athlete at Conway High and a member of the Hendrix Sports Hall of Honor and Arkansas Track and Field Hall of Fame. “I hadn’t long-jumped much and I didn’t do well. Coach Bright later asked me how I did and I said, ‘pretty bad.’ He then asked me if I had tried as well as I could do and I said yes. He said, That’s all you can do.’
“Later when I was an assistant coach for him at UCA, I was coaching defensive backs and they didn’t do well in a game. I felt badly, then coach Bright asked me the same question, ‘Did I coach them as well as I could?’ I said yes and he again said ‘that’s all you can do.’ That kind of thing stuck with me the rest of my career.”
Conque recalled a fishing trip with coach Bright at a lake near Russellville.
“We’re about 200 yards out and I see water running in the boat and I say ‘Coach, I think we’re taking on water,’” Conque said. “He tells me that he thought the boat had holes in it but the seals should be holding.
“Now, we’re paddling and we’re both pretty big guys and I keep seeing more water and I say, ‘Coach, I think we’re sinking and I think we better get back to shore.’ Just as we get to the dock, we link up with another boat pulling out. When Raymond and I then try to get out of the boat, everybody flips over in the water. We’re in the water and there go our cell phones and tackle and everything. We lost about everything and we’re in the water for about 10 minutes. I looked at that boat and it had as many holes as Swiss cheese. We have to drive back to Conway soaking wet.”
That’s direct evidence that Raymond Bright could not walk on water.
Just don’t try to tell that to his former players.”
(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)
