Five named to UAFS Athletic Hall of Fame

Editor’s note: Story by Jonathan Gipson, sports information director for the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.

Only one University of Arkansas at Fort Smith women’s basketball team has ever finished the season undefeated and won a national championship, so the 1995 Lady Lions team no doubt is regarded as the best of all-time.

Not surprisingly, that team featured two future WNBA stars – guard Kim Williams and center Alisa Burras. Williams was the first player from that team inducted into the Lions Athletic Hall of Fame, and she will now welcome her high school and college teammate to the exclusive club.

Burras is one of five former UAFS players and coaches who make up the Lions Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2011. She will be joined by former men’s basketball player Darrell Walker, former men’s basketball player Harold Raymond “Hal” Smith, former coach and athletic director Jim Wyatt and former friend of the program C.A. Fawcett.

The incoming class will be inducted at 6 p.m. on Friday during the Hall of Fame Banquet at the old UAFS Fieldhouse. Tickets are still available for $25 and may be purchased at the UA Fort Smith Box Office located inside the Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center or on-line at Ticketsage.

“The committee once again did a tremendous job of identifying some really deserving people to represent this year’s Hall of Fame Class. Each person being inducted is incredibly deserving of the honor and did everything to shine a positive light on Lions athletics,” UAFS athletic director Dustin Smith said.

They will join current Hall of Fame members Williams, Ron Brewer, Gayle Kaundart, Bill Crowder, Jimmy Charles, Shelby Breedlove and Clair Bates – all of whom were inducted last year as part of the inaugural class.

“I want to thank the committee for all their hard work in selecting this prestigious class,” Smith said. “We could not have such an incredible class or ceremony if it weren’t for all the committee members’ contributions.”

• Alisa Burras
UAFS women’s basketball coach Louis Whorton built the foundation of his program’s rise to national prominence in the mid-1990s on players he plucked from the rich recruiting grounds of Chicago’s John Marshall High.

Most notably players like 6-foot-3 center Alisa Burras.

As a freshman, Burras helped lead the Lady Lions to a 35-0 record, the NJCAA Region II championship and the program’s first national championship. Burras averaged 22.1 points, eight rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game as a sophomore and was named a Kodak All-American and the Region II MVP.

After her two seasons as a Lady Lion, she was the all-time leader in scoring (1,481 points), rebounds (534), and blocks (121). She helped guide the Lady Lions to a 64-3 record.

Burras played two seasons at Louisiana Tech University, leading the Lady Techsters to a 62-8 record and a national runner-up finish in 1998. She was a Second Team AP All-American, a U.S. Basketball Writers Association All-American and an Honorable Mention Kodak All-American as a senior and was named to the All-Sun Belt Conference team. She finished her college career at Louisiana Tech, which consisted of only 70 games, as the 22nd all-time leading scorer with 1,134 points.

Burras was drafted in the first round (fifth overall) of the 1998 ABL Draft by the Colorado Xplosion and averaged 6.8 points and four rebounds per game during a 13-game stretch before the league disbanded.

She was signed by the WNBA in May of 1999 and allocated to the Cleveland Rockers. She was then drafted in the first round (fourth overall) by the Portland Fire in December of 1999 in the WNBA Expansion Draft.

Burras played three seasons for Portland, which ceased operations following the 2002 season, and was drafted in the first round (ninth overall) of the 2003 WNBA Dispersal Draft by the Seattle Storm, where she finished her career following the 2003 season.

During her five seasons in the WNBA, Burras averaged 6.3 points and 3.4 rebounds per game.

• Darrell Walker
Westark men’s basketball coach Gayle Kaundart sure had an eye for talent, and that was obvious when he recruited and ultimately signed Darrell Walker out of Chicago’s Corliss High School in 1979.

Walker, a 6-foot-4 guard, played only one season for Westark, which was then a junior college program, but led the Lions to a 32-5 record, their sixth consecutive Arkansas Junior College Conference championship, their fourth consecutive NJCAA Region II championship and a berth in the national tournament.

The Lions, who began the season 26-0, finished 13-1 in Arkansas Junior College Conference play and 15-1 in Bi-State Conference play. During his one season with the Lions, Walker averaged 16.9 points and seven rebounds per game and shot 54 percent from the field and 66 percent from the free-throw line.

Walker went on to play three seasons at the University of Arkansas, where he averaged 14.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game and shot 52% from the field and 64 percent from the free-throw line.

It was the beginning of a legendary career for Walker, who was drafted by the New York Knicks with the 12th overall pick in the first round of the 1983 NBA Draft. Walker was the second former Westark/UAFS men’s basketball player to play at the game’s highest level.

During his 10-year playing career in the NBA, Walker played for five teams – the Knicks, the Denver Nuggets, the Washington Bullets, the Detroit Pistons and the Chicago Bulls.

He was selected to the 1984 NBA All-Rookie team and was among the league leaders during his career in assists and steals. His best season was in 1989-90 with the Washington Bullets, when he averaged 9.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 8 assists per game.

Walker averaged 8.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists and two steals per game for his pro career and made five playoff appearances, winning an NBA championship with Chicago during his final season.

Walker, who also is a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, went on to become head coach of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors and the Washington Wizards and later an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons.

• Harold Raymond “Hal” Smith
His name is Harold Raymond “Hal” Smith, but baseball fans simply know him as the “Barling Darling.”

A multi-sport athlete, Smith, a native of Barling, Ark., played basketball at the Fort Smith Boys and Girls Club and while attending Fort Smith High School, but it was clear that baseball was his true passion.

There was no organized high school baseball at the time, so Smith honed his skills while playing summer American Legion baseball in Fort Smith for three years. The 17-year-old catcher caught the eyes of a St. Louis Cardinals scout and signed a professional contract at the end of the 1948 Legion season.

Smith had already played one season of junior college basketball at Fort Smith Junior College (1947-48) and was described as “an excellent ball-handler who showed up well at guard and was fast with the footwork.”

He continued to play for the Lions during the fall semester of the 1948-49 season but left the junior college, which didn’t have a baseball team at the time, at the semester break. Smith began spring training with the Houston Buffs, which was the AA minor league affiliate of the Cardinals.

Smith’s march to the Major Leagues was briefly interrupted in January of 1951, when he joined the Air Force during the Korean Conflict. He received a hardship discharge in June of 1951.

He made his Major League debut on May 2, 1956, and went on to play six seasons for the Cardinals, earning All-Star accolades in 1957 and 1959. He retired from baseball after the 1961 season because of a heart ailment but returned briefly in 1965, playing four games with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

During his seven-year pro career, Smith batted .258 with 23 home runs and 172 RBI in 570 games. He appeared in 548 games as a catcher and recorded 2,810 putouts and 247 assists, committed only 33 errors in 2,890 opportunities and compiled an impressive 0.989 fielding percentage.

After retiring as a player, Smith worked as a coach, minor league manager and scout for the Cardinals and also coached for the Pirates, the Cincinnati Reds and the Milwaukee Brewers. Smith has been inducted into the Fort Smith Boys and Girls Club Hall of Fame, the Texas Scouts Association Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

• Jim Wyatt
Jim Wyatt has been described as hard working, determined and competitive, a respected leader who is humble and honest and someone who defines integrity and who worked tirelessly behind the scenes in an effort to make others stand out and flourish.

It’s an honest description for a man who, whether as a player, coach or administrator, helped make UA Fort Smith athletics into the proud, tradition-rich program that it is today.

A 1957 graduate of County Line High School, Wyatt played basketball for two seasons at Fort Smith Junior College  and went on to play two seasons at the College of the Ozarks.

Wyatt coached basketball one season at Fourche Valley High School, where his girls’ basketball team finished 20-5, won the Yell County Tournament and the district tournament and qualified for the state tournament. It was the first time a Fourche Valley team in any sport qualified for the state tournament.

Wyatt went on to coach three seasons at Fort Smith’s Ramsey Junior High, where he coached basketball and was assistant football coach. He was later the assistant basketball coach under head coach Ronnie Bateman at Fort Smith Southside High School for nine seasons, which included one state runner-up finish.

Wyatt joined Westark coach Gayle Kaundart’s staff in 1974 and coached five national tournament teams, including the 1981 NJCAA national championship team. The Lions also won six Region II tournament championships during his tenure.

As assistant coach, he coached and mentored two future University of Arkansas Razorbacks and NBA players in Ron Brewer and Darrell Walker.

He was named athletic director in 1982 – a position he held for 16 years – and later served as the director of the UAFS Fitness Center until his retirement in 2003.

• C.A. Fawcett
C.A. Fawcett was a loan officer at Fort Smith’s First National Bank, but Westark College players probably best remember their most diehard fan for his skills as a chef.

Fawcett loved to cook hamburgers – sometimes upwards of 500 hamburgers – for student-athletes, coaches and athletic department staff, so much so that the college eventually built him his own specially-designed grill. It was just one of the many ways Fawcett supported an athletic program he had grown to love over the years.

A native of Beebe, Ark., Fawcett played against future Lions men’s basketball coach Gayle Kaundart during his prep basketball days – Fawcett playing for the Badgers and Kaundart for the Alma Airedales. The two became close friends during Kaundart’s days as boys basketball coach at Fort Smith’s Northside High School.

Fawcett created the booster club at Northside and, at the request of then Westark president Shelby Breedlove, created Westark’s first athletics booster club – the Century Club – in 1974. The Century Club provided support for the athletics program through its membership fee, which initially was $100.

Fawcett, who played football one season at the University of Arkansas, enjoyed being around coaches and players, rarely missed an out of town game and loved attending the NJCAA national tournament in Hutchinson, Kan. His goal was to see Westark become one of the premiere junior college athletic programs in the nation, a goal accomplished due largely to Fawcett’s tireless efforts as a loyal friend of the program.

With Fawcett’s guidance as a leader and a fundraiser, the Century Club purchased a home that would first serve as a place to feed basketball and baseball players and later as a residence for the women’s basketball team. That project was just one of the many undertaken by the Century Club over the years in its effort to help the program.

Since its founding, the Century Club has evolved into the Regulus Club and now the UA Fort Smith Lions Athletic Club. Fawcett’s memory lives on through the C.A. Fawcett Award, which is awarded to the Athletic Club Member of the Year.