he did seem to fill the Bama role that your family has long done for Arkansas and seems to have absolute respect around the whole country not just the SEC. I did like to read hiim when I wanted to know the probable real state of Bama athletics. I assume your brother probably had insight from his sports marketing days in Tuscalooser with some good stores. Guys like Cecil Hurt are few and far between for us readers.
for those who don’t know, Cecil Hurt passed this week from pneumonia complicatons
As Fred noted, Cecil used to post on Arkansas boards as “Actual Fact”. Not sure if he posted on HI but definitely on the old Pigpen. I missed it when he stopped. I felt like he gave us good info without being a Tide homer. Of course being a Tide homer was harder when DuBose was there. And if he wrote something in the paper you could take it to the bank.
OT: I remember mailing Booth Rand an actual paper check once to help support the old Pigpen board. (Does anyone have an update on him?)
Booth is still around, working for the state. He sold the Pen and it eventually morphed into the 247 HawgSports.com website.
I don’t know if you knew this, but at one point Booth was negotiating with some guys out of Virginia who wanted to create a network of college fan/news sites (they started and still run a UVa site called The Sabre). Looked like everything was a go, they were going to take over the Pen and I was actually going to go on their payroll as a site co-manager. But they were trying to get funding from CBS, thought that was a done deal, then it wasn’t, and the whole thing fell apart quickly. Booth sold out to Hawg Sports shortly afterward.
I played high school basketball with Booth. He was a good shooter.
To answer the original question, probably not. I have only a bare minimum stories on Cecil. I’d be hard pressed to do it justice. The Alabama folks will do a great job with this. My brother could tell me a couple but that’s where I’d find the best on Cecil.
The best Butch told me was when Mike Gottfried was Alabama hoops coach. Butch and Cecil were waiting with Gottfried in a hallway after Alabama beat South Carolina. Dave Odom, then USC coach, was droning way too long. Gottfried asked what could take so long. Cecil said, “He’s probably explaining how he never got to a Final Four at Wake Forrest in 4 years with Tim Duncan.”
Well, that’s really funny. He did have some wit.
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