JONESBORO, Ark. - The University of Denver's Sun Belt
Conference Farewell Tour has begun.
After practicing at DU yesterday, the
team loaded a bus and started the trek to Jonesboro, Ark. It wasn't the
smoothest trip to date. The flight was delayed. Two bags got stuck on a
conveyer belt in the Little Rock Airport, causing an hour-long delay. And the
overall process of getting here, including the two-hour bus drive from Little
Rock, is not exactly easy.
However, the team arrived safely,
checked into a comfortable hotel and ate some dinner before heading to their
rooms for the night. It's hard to ask for much more, although a win tonight
would help set the tone for the rest of the road trip.
This is one of the stranger trips in
the Belt. After tonight's game, the Pioneers will load back on the bus and
travel to Memphis for the night. Tomorrow morning, they catch a flight to
Atlanta and onward to Mobile, Alabama.
Speaking of Mobile, a
lot of people in Jonesboro may have similar travel plans as the
Pioneers. The Arkansas State football team, which won the
co-championship in the Sun Belt West Division, is playing in Mobile, as
well, facing Northern Illinois in the GoDaddy.com Bowl on Sunday.
It will be a big weekend in Mobile,
and DU fans can get a taste of it by watching the Pioneers vs. South Alabama on
ESPN3.com or the ESPN Full Court package on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. MT.
About Jonesboro - My apologies to loyal
readers for a rerun, but last year's description of Jonesboro seemed to capture
the town, so here it is again:
Arkansas State is about two hours northeast of
Little Rock. The bus drives through bigger sounding towns like Jacksonville,
Austin and Newport, but it's not exactly like Florida, Texas or Oregon.
The town of Weiner won a state bowling championship,
according to a few signs scattered around the town of 719.
Jonesboro is located in Craighead County and was
founded on Feb. 19, 1859, when a farmer named Fergus Snoddy donated 15 acres of
his land for what became downtown Jonesboro.
According to the town's website, "Jonesboro was named
after William A. Jones for his support of the legislative act creating the
county. The county, itself, received its name through a practical joke. Senator
Thomas B. Craighead, who represented Crittenden and Mississippi counties, was
against the formation of the county and campaigned actively against it. Senator
Jones waited until a day when Craighead was absent to call for a vote on the
act. Senator Craighead didn't know anything about it until he got back and
found that the county had been named for him."
The first two courthouses in town burned to the
ground, the second of which started during a barroom brawl in 1878, but the
third is still used.
Arkansas State University was founded in 1909 as a
regional agricultural school. Among the people who have walked the campus are
1984 Olympic gold medalist Al Joyner and Rodger Bumpass, whose voice can be heard in
countless cartoons and movies, most notably as Squidward on SpongeBob
SquarePants.
Finally, since it's been a few years since we
mentioned it, and it was a favorite blog reference, here is an excerpt from the 2009 trip to Jonesboro:
Thanks to loyal reader Steve Honda, we learned this
week that Jonesboro was once the home to Bartleby Clown College. Apparently
from 1952-59, the clown college operated in Jonesboro, which was convenient due
to its many railroad connections. According to Wikipedia, which of course is
the leading resource for clown college information, "The loss of Arkansas [sic]
only clown college disappointed many in the industry." There was no
clarification about whether that was the clown industry or the clown teaching
industry.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 9
Total Mileage by Air - 5,450
Total Mileage by Bus - 768
Total
Number of Hotels - 5
Total
Number of Different Airports - 7
Total
Number of Airline Delays - 4
Total
Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total
Number of Bags Lost - 4
Total
Number of Bags Lost Found an Hour Later - 2
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