I was at an ABA game in Springdale last year. Notes’ son was playing for the Pine Bluff team and both Notes and Nolan were at the game. Many people went up to Nolan and shook his hand or got an autograph and thanked him for everything he did for the Razorbacks.

I think most Hog fans have positive feelings toward Nolan these days.

I totally agree Charlie. I have 99% good memories of Nolan and his teams. Wish it could haven ended more positively for both sides, but hey, it was great while it lasted.

Nolan is an exceptionally courageous and iconoclastic human being, more than a coach. Without his passion and confidence in himself, Arkansas would never have won a championship. As he says in the interview, winning erases color. I have always thought the UofA made a huge mistake firing him, because he not only coached, won, and put 40 minutes of Hell on the map, but he made us think about race, about what it means to be an Arkansaan, to be from the South, to fight prejudice whether it’s because you’re black and coaching in Arkansas or white and simply from Arkansas. Nolan should have that statue built for him he always said, if he were white, they would construct. And what he is creating for Mexico in these qualifying games, again, shows his quality as a human being and his talent as a coach, a talent I for one deeply regret the UofA abandoned.

The UofA did not make a mistake in firing Nolan. The only mistake was the way everything went down and Nolan shoulders much of that blame himself.

The state of the program when Nolan was fired was dismal.