Stories from the Mud: Davor Rimac
Former Arkansas Razorbacks basketball player shares memories with The Pig Sty
“…I hope Hogs fans never change. No one believes me about the stories I tell about the fanbase. It was just an incredible experience for a person that came from such a different place. I think spending my late teenage years and early twenties in Arkansas—going to school there, making friends, being part of the championship squad—helped me grow as a person and helped prepare me for everything else life had to offer.”
That’s how Davor Rimac ended our conversation about his time as a Razorback. Rimac played basketball professionally all across Europe in Croatia and Switzerland, but it’s our favorite little hamlet tucked into the Ozark Mountains that he remembers so fondly.
Let’s Pulp Fiction this thing and go back to the beginning.
In the 1930s and 40s, Arkansas was hemorrhaging qualified workers who fled the state to find economic prosperity and job prospects. A bunch of Little Rock well-to-dos got together and decided that Arkansas’s PR needed a facelift, changing Arkansas’s nickname from “Wonder State” to “Land of Opportunity.” The new moniker was an instant hit like the Tickle-Me-Elmo or the Cheesy Gordita Crunch.
Ok, maybe we went too far back. Fast forward to 1994. That “Land of Opportunity” marker still meant something to Rimac.
“As the USA gives a young person an opportunity for education as well as a supremely organized athletics competition, my choice was easy,” Rimac said.
Not to get all overly patriotic, but that idea of choice was Rimac’s primary draw to the United States in the first place. By age 16, Rimac was a high-level two-sport athlete in both basketball and tennis. However, juggling both sports and still trying to complete his education was “somewhat impossible” in Yugoslavia.
“Even though I had offers to turn pro in tennis when I was 16, I was not ready to completely stop basketball and put school on pause,” Rimac said. “So that is what brought me to Arkansas. Trying to juggle academics, two sports, and learn English.”
Still, why Arkansas when there were 49 other options also available? Enter a certain charismatic coach in cowboy boots.
“My father was a basketball coach in Switzerland, and some of his American players were on Coach (Nolan) Richardson’s Tulsa NIT Championship Team. The idea was to go to Razorback basketball camp, where one of the players, David Brown, has worked as a coach. After the initial two-week visit to the USA, there was a possibility to go to the USA and play sports and study at the same time.
“Our initial plan was to stay one year, but due to circumstances I ended up going back for my senior year in high school. I finished as one of the top recruits, won Gatorade Player of the Year in 1990, and was recruited by Arkansas, among others.
At that point, there were only two options really. Play for Coach Richardson Play for Coach Richardson, or go back to Yugoslavia, which became Croatia a year later, and try to play on some pro team…it did not hurt that the university was right across the street and that Coach Richardson had an impressive Final Four team already. I knew that I could learn from the best coaches and more experienced players,” Rimac said.
Rimac, now somewhat famously, lived with Richardson during his first year in high school, so there was a “family” dynamic at play in his choice. It’s hard to argue that he made the wrong choice.
At Arkansas, Rimac was a part of the greatest team in school history, which still feels surreal 30 years later.
Rimac shared that, “It still feels a bit unreal, and not in the sense that we won in 1994, but in the sense that we were one game away from repeating. Now that would have been something.”
He also noted that even on that banner-raising team led by a Hall-of-Fame head coach and fantastic players (His favorite being Ken Biley. They were roommates and had heated Madden battles.), it was Razorback fans that left a lasting impression. Hog faithful still have an impact on him decades after the fact.
“Most memorable from the run was all of the arenas filled with Razorback fans that followed us everywhere we played,” Rimac said.
Arkansas Razorback fans are a passionate bunch. It’s debatable if we actually impact winning and losing from our seats in the arena or on our couch. What’s undeniable is the positive impact our support can have on the players.
If you know or have connections to any other former Arkansas Razorback athletes who would like to participate in our Stories from the Mud series, email The Pig Sty at thepigsty94@gmail.com