Thought this was a funny, little story. I was in Fayetteville, Arkansas covering the NCAA track meet last week. By the way, on a side note, how clutch is Bob Braman’s group? His men’s team was missing a ton of elite-caliber competitors – guys that would have scored big points. Because of that, before the meet they weren’t even in the conversation, really, to compete for the national title. And yet, thanks to some astounding final-day performances, they finished in a tie for second place and just .21 seconds (if Baylor could have overtaken Texas A&M on the final leg of the 400-meter relay) from a fourth straight national title. The baseball team is always criticized for not playing well in the postseason. The football team had its problems as well when it was a national power. But somehow, someway, Braman always gets clutch performances from his athletes when he needs them the most.

OK, back to the story. This is how dominant Arkansas has been at track over the years. I was walking in the halls of their insanely nice track facility (which has a blown-up donation check of $3 million from Tyson Foods on the wall) when I saw a utility closet open.

And much to my disbelief, when I looked closer I was stunned at what was keeping the door ajar. It was an NCAA second-place track and field trophy. That’s right. Arkansas has so many trophies in the sport, so many national titles, that it uses its second-place ones as doorstops. In total, there were 10 second-place or third-place trophies in that utility closet, right along with boxes and other office supplies. How crazy is that? Anyway. Just thought that was funny.

And it made me wonder what Braman plans on doing with the second-place and fourth-place trophies he picked up this past weekend. I’m thinking they might be displayed a little more prominently. At least for now.