The time I almost forgot about cold beer.
Almost...
Memories differ dramatically in their duration, from the fleeting sensory trace to enduring long-term knowledge, and are fundamentally individual, shaped by unique perspectives, emotions, and interpretations rather than objective fact.
That’s a fancy way of saying we all remember differently, but it happened to be a long-weekend filled with remembrance. Here are a few examples that sprang-to-mind for me:
April 19
American Revolution turns 250 - anniversary of the “shot heard round the world” as described by American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson in the Battle of Lexington.
OKC bombing turns 30 - most devastating act of domestic terrorism in US history. 168 killed. 684 injured. Original plan was to bomb Simmons Tower in Little Rock, Arkansas, but terrorist Timothy McVeigh thought the mixed-use of governmental and civilian offices and the building including a flower shop was against their efforts to attack the government.
WrestleMania turns 41 - the WWE event took place in Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas over the weekend.
April 20
Easter turns ~1992 - The cornerstone of the Christian faith is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s celebrated every year on Easter. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:14: “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”
420 turns 54 - In 1971, five students at San Rafael High School in Marin County, California, who called themselves "the Waldos," would meet at 4:20 p.m. every day to search for an abandoned cannabis crop on campus that they had heard about. They chose the time 4:20 p.m. because it was after their classes and extracurricular activities. "420" became their code word to refer to their cannabis-related activities, allowing them to communicate discreetly.
One of the Waldo members had a brother who was friends with Phil Lesh, the bassist for the Grateful Dead. The term "420" spread within the band's circle and among their devoted fans, known as "Deadheads," who often followed the band on tour.
April 21
Mark Twain turns 190 - if you like southern literature and whit (and I do), you have to love Samuel Clemens (more on name changes to come).
Battle of San Jacinto turns 170 - this is when Texas officially got its independence from Mexico, which is still taught in Texas elementary schools like it’s the 4th of July.
Boston Marathon turns 128 - the world’s oldest marathon is also celebrating its 12th anniversary since the tragic bombing incident. On a side note, it’s pretty terrifying that the Beijing half-marathon allowed robots to compete this year. While man still dominated with a time of 1:02:36. The fastest humanoid robot crossed the finish line in 2:40:42. Which isn’t bad for a first outing that still required 3 pitstops for charging its battery.
April 22
Earth Day turns 55 - anniversary of the date set aside to recognize climate change and inspiration for the Captain Planet super hero.
Oklahoma Land Rush turns 136 - 1.9 million acres were claimed beginning at noon on this day for the Boomers that waited for the gunshot and days or hours earlier for the Sooners that cheated the system.
I’ll always remember this date because after moving to Oklahoma after law school I wanted to go to 89er Days in Guthrie, Oklahoma, but felt I needed other motives to convince my wife. So I told her we could go antiquing in Guthrie over one weekend and it “just happened” to be during the parade and other events of the festival.
Max turns 39 - happy birthday, buddy!
What does any of this have to do with Razorbacks sports?
Well with the late push of the Arkansas Razorbacks Basketball team in the NCAA Tournament and Coach John Calipari’s recruiting and transfer portal additions alongside Coach Dave Van Horn’s red hot and suddenly ice cold baseball team, I had kind of forgotten about Coach Sam Pittman and the Razorbacks football team.
Samuel Don Pittman was born November 28, 1961 in El Reno, Oklahoma. But early on he shortened his name to “Sam” and dropped reference to his dad’s name in “Don”. By the time he was playing youth sports he had picked up the nickname Pitt Boss (a reference to a barbecue pit master).
Looking at media guides from his early coaching career he was routinely called “Pitt Boss”, “The Man”, and “Pitt-Man”. In a 2022 interview on Greg McElroy’s “Always College Football” podcast Pittman responded to a question about his favorite nickname with, “I like the Boss Hog, I like Pitt Boss. I called my wife Mama Hog, she hated it. I don’t know why, so that’s out. I don’t know what it is, as long as it doesn’t have cuss words in it, I’m happy with whatever they call me.” (So I guess he doesn’t like Bobby Mother F***ing Petrino).
When he was known as the “Pitt Boss” he was 170-139 as an assistant coach:
Northern Illinois (Offensive Line):
1994: 4-7
1995: 3-8
(Total: 7-15)
Cincinnati (Offensive Tackles/Tight Ends):
1996: 6-5
(Total: 6-5)
Oklahoma (Offensive Line):
1997: 4-8
1998: 5-6
(Total: 9-14)
Western Michigan (Offensive Line):
1999: 7-5
(Total: 7-5)
Missouri (Offensive Line):
2000: 3-8
(Total: 3-8)
Kansas (Offensive Line):
2001: 3-8
(Total: 3-8)
Northern Illinois (Offensive Line / Asst. Head Coach):
2003: 10-2
2004: 9-3
2005: 7-5
2006: 7-6
(Total: 33-16)
North Carolina (Offensive Line / Assoc. Head Coach):
2007: 4-8
2008: 8-5
2009: 8-5
2010: 8-5
2011: 7-6
(Total: 35-29)
Tennessee (Offensive Line):
2012: 5-7
(Total: 5-7)
Arkansas (Asst. Head Coach / Offensive Line / Recruiting Coord.):
2013: 3-9
2014: 7-6
2015: 8-5
(Total: 18-20)
Georgia (Offensive Line / Assoc. Head Coach):
2016: 8-5
2017: 13-2
2018: 11-3
2019: 12-2
(Total: 44-12)
And he started his career at Arkansas 18-16 as the Pitt Boss, but then he renamed himself “Coach Cold Beer”.
After beating Ole Miss on November 19, 2022, Pittman was asked, “What will you do to celebrate?” He responded, “I think I'm going to go home and have me a cold beer.”
Since this time that he identified himself as “Coach Cold Beer”, he’s only 12-15.
So maybe Sam Pittman has a name problem?
There’s a psychological effect of names. The theory known as nominative determinism literally means “name-driven outcome”. It’s the idea that people tend to gravitate toward outcomes based on their names. Think Usain Bold being fast, Boss and Champ Bailey being D1 athletes, and William Wordsworth being a famous poet.
Sometimes we are driven by names of strength and dominance in a field, but other times we just need catchy names for popular success.
In my natural tendency to be a maven I picked up on the following name changes in documentaries or books I consumed in the past two weeks:
Reginald Kenneth Dwight becomes Elton Hercules John
Robert Allen Zimmerman becomes Bob Dylan
Lorenzo Pietro Berra becomes Yogi Berra
Trey Gates becomes Bill Gates
Other examples of name changes:
The Facebook becomes Meta
Nicolas Coppola becomes Nicolas Cage
Jennifer Anastassakis becomes Jennifer Aniston
Allan Stewart Konigsberg becomes Woody Allen
BackRub becomes Google
Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web becomes Yahoo!
Brad’s Drink become Pepsi
So now that we remembered Coach Cold Beer and identified his name problem, what’s he been up to?
Because of inclement weather the Arkansas Razorbacks were forced to cancel their spring game on Saturday, but they did land a few new transfer portal players:
Hogs add Troy edge rusher Phillip Lee, 6-4 and 240 pounds
He started 10 of 12 games last year as a junior and had 31 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, 5 sacks, 1 forced fumble and 1 pass breakup. He had 53 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, and 7.5 sacks in 3 seasons at Troy.
Hogs add Kent State linebacker transfer Trent Whalen, 6-2 and 235 pounds
He recorded 46 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 3 quarterback hurries, 1 forced fumble and 1 pass breakup at Southern Utah last year as a redshirt junior. Hcoach he entered the transfer portal.
Hogs add Maine transfer Shakur Smalls, 6-0 and 205 pounds
He recorded 164 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, 4 interceptions and 20 pass breakups in 38 games for the Bears.
Hogs add Stanford defensive back transfer Julian Neal, 6-2 and 200 pounds
He played last year at Fresno State, started 4 of 12 games and had 35 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 2 interceptions and 6 pass breakups.
Coming out of the spring this is what our depth chart is looking like for the fall.
Quarterback:
Taylen Green (RS-SR):
KJ Jackson (RS-FR):
Madden Iamaleava (FR):
Running Back:
Mike Washington Jr. (SR):
Rodney Hill (R-JR):
Tyrell Reed Jr. (R-SO):
Wide Receiver:
O'Mega Blake (RS-SR):
Raylen Sharpe (RS-SR):
Ismael Cisse (RS-SO):
Courtney Crutchfield (RS-FR):
Kam Shanks (R-SO):
Monte Harrison (SO):
CJ Brown (SO):
Tight End:
Rohan Jones (SR):
Andreas Paaske (RS-SR):
Jaden Platt (RS-SO):
Offensive Line:
Jac'Qawn McRoy (RS-FR:
Corey Robinson (RS-SR):
Fernando Carmona (RS-SR):
E'Marion Harris (RS-JR):
Keyshawn Blackstock (RS-JR):
Bubba Craig (RS-SO):
Marcus Dumervil (RS-SSR):
Defensive Line:
Quincy Rhodes Jr. (JR):
Danny Saili (JR):
Ian Geffrard (RS-FR):
Justus Boone (RS-SR):
Kavion Henderson (R-FR):
Ken Talley (RS-JR):.
David Oke (SR): .
Phillip Lee (RS-SR):
Linebacker:
Xavian Sorey (RS-SR):
Stephen Dix Jr. (RS-SR):.
Tavion Wallace (FR):
Trent Whalen (RS-SR):
Defensive Back:
Miguel Mitchell (SR):
Caleb Wooden (SR):
Kani Walker (R-SR):
Jordan Young (RS-SR):
Selman Bridges (SO):
Hudson Clark (RS-SR):
Keshawn Davila (JR):
Julian Neal (RS-SR):
Shakur Smalls (RS-SR):
Special Teams:
Devin Bale (RS-SR):
Blake Ford (RS-JR):
Scott Starzyk (FR):
Ashton Ngo (RS-SR):
Kam Shanks (R-SO):
For Sam Pittman to have success this year, he will have to drop the Cold Beer mentality and resurrect his Pitt Boss edginess. Or maybe he should pick a new nickname like Coach Prime or go by Henry or Malik, which mean “king”.
Or maybe, just maybe, he should simply start going by his given name again. You know the name “Samuel” means “God has heard” in Hebrew. Not that it will have an effect on our final wins-and-loss column, but having the Good Lord on our side, can’t hurt.
Go Hogs!
-KBR
Let the cold beer flow and the good times roll!
WPS. Go Hogs !