President Bill Clinton on the cover of Sports Illustrated during Arkansas basketball’s national championship season in 1994
Former Arkansas Governor and President of the United States Bill Clinton is expected to be in Fayetteville on Saturday.
Clinton is set to be honored at halftime of the Arkansas-LSU basketball game as part of a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Arkansas’ 1994 national championship.
According to a press release issued Monday, the former president will be presented with a framed No. 42 jersey (Clinton was the 42nd governor of Arkansas, as well as the 42nd U.S. president) to honor his Razorback fandom.
Clinton attended the NCAA Championship game in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 4, 1994, and is still the only sitting president to attend a national championship game while in office.
Multiple media outlets reported last week that the university would retire the No. 42 jersey in his honor after an ESPN reporter asked Clinton about it.
UA spokesman Kevin Trainor would not answer our questions about whether retiring the jersey was part of the ceremony. The only basketball jersey the UA has ever retired is Sidney Moncrief’s No. 32, and even that jersey never made its way into the rafters of Bud Walton Arena (it was retired during the Hogs’ tenure at Barnhill Arena.)
“I’d refer you to the (press) release on that,” he said. “Everything that is happening on Saturday is in that release.”
In addition to a ceremony honoring Clinton, several former players on Arkansas’ six Final Four teams will also be honored at the game.
“We are pleased to welcome these Razorback basketball greats back to campus as they are as much a part of our present as they are our past,” Long said.
Corliss Williamson, Scotty Thurman, Al Dillard, Jim Counce, Lee Mayberry, Todd Day, U.S. Reed, Oliver Miller, head coach Nolan Richardson and former radio play-by-play broadcaster Mike Nail are a few of the Razorback legends expected to be in attendance on Saturday.
Tipoff for Saturday’s Arkansas-LSU matchup is set for 4 p.m. The game will be televised by ESPNU.
