Accommodations in place to park for Hogs

A week from today there’s going to be some frustration over getting into War Memorial Stadium, but not a lot more than usual because people get confused about parking.

Parking for scholarship donors is at a premium for a Thursday game because on Saturdays the Health Department is closed and the students at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock — as well as many nonmedical workers — are off, freeing up quite a bit of parking.

Not for this game. The Health Department will shut down early and classes at UAMS will let out at noon. Apparently some employees will work from home that day.

The hospital can’t close. It is a fully functioning medical facility, and parking for those on duty will not, and should not, be available for a football game.

Sometime next week, the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville will release a map for how to get to and from the game and which parking lots are available. That map will be run in this newspaper, so stay tuned for further details.

The golf course parking and some of the world’s greatest tailgating will not be affected.

Get your tickets, and if you can, go early.

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For whatever reason, the last time the University of Texas had a No. 1 recruiting class was 2002, but the Longhorns have entered the recruiting race with a new blast.

One of the few personal spaces a player has on campus, other than those who live in dorms, is his locker.

When UA Athletic Director Jeff Long developed the Fred W. Smith Football Center, much emphasis was placed on big, welcoming lockers for the kids. There also are great medical facilities, meeting rooms, etc., but the lockers were for the players, and it was obvious from day one that they like their lockers.

Texas has taken the locker rooms to a new level, and it seems to be paying off in recruiting.

The Longhorns recently revealed remodeled lockers, and they are almost mini-dens.

Each locker has its own personal TV, which is common in the NFL, but colleges don’t have the stacks of money the pros do.

Texas reached out to the same guy who redesigned Alabama’s locker rooms, Sam Allen, a former Marine sergeant.

Allen, who with the help of his dad, John, had been manufacturing lockers for decades, started a company to create custom lockers. Some of their clients have been Clemson, TCU, Oklahoma, Stanford, LSU, Pittsburgh, Washington and Alabama.

The name of Allen’s company? Longhorn Lockers.

Don’t know whether the Horns got any extra consideration, but the price per locker was $8,700.

Coach Tom Herman has openly admitted it was done to boost recruiting, and the early returns are good.

There is lots of time left before kids sign on the dotted line, but Texas is currently ranked No. 4 in the country in recruiting. It has 18 commitments, 13 from the Lone Star State.

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It’s been a big summer for our man Charlie Fiss, a native of Springdale and UA graduate who worked in the sports information department before joining the old Southwest Conference and then the Cotton Bowl.

This summer, Charlie was inducted into the Football Writers Association of America and CoSIDA halls of fame and was awarded the Bert McGrane Award for contributions to college football.

It doesn’t end there. Charlie went to Berlin with his girlfriend, Jen Schuck, where she competed in the world stenography competition. She took home the gold medal and title of world champion as the fastest stenographer in the world.