Willie Hordge??? - ELITETRACK

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Willie Hordge is no longer a Razorback
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Hordge is fast in, fast out for Hogs
BY SCOTT CAIN

FAYETTEVILLE ??? Willie Hordge, at one time the nation???s fastest high school sprinter, has had to leave the Arkansas football and track teams.

Hordge is no longer on either team for reasons relating to his qualifier status, university officials said Friday. They said that is all they could release because federal law prohibits disclosure of any personally identifiable information on a student.

Qualifier status refers to an athlete???s initial eligibility that must be gained before he is qualified to practice and compete on the NCAA level.

Hordge redshirted as a cornerback in football last season and figured prominently into the plans for track???s 400-meter relay team.

Hordge???s phone number in Houston no longer works, and he could not be reached for comment.

Coach Houston Nutt said he was trying to find out more information and could not comment.

Marshall White, coach at Forest Brook High School in Houston where Hordge graduated, said Hordge visited the school Wednesday but White did not get to talk to him. White said he was unaware of Hordge???s departure from Arkansas or his plans.

If Hordge???s initial eligibility has been revoked, his only option to return to Arkansas or to participate in any other NCAA program would be to go to junior college. He would need 50 credit hours to transfer back to Arkansas.

Six months ago, Hordge???s scholarship to Arkansas was one of the few bright spots for his mother, Danette Hordge. She is a single mother in need of a heart transplant and had her left arm amputated in November 2002, she told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazettefor a story on Hordge that ran in August. "What he doesn???t know is that what he is doing is making me happy," Danette Hordge said. "It???s making me want to go on, it???s making me fight even harder."

This time a year ago, Hordge was being recruited by several schools, eventually narrowing his choices to Arkansas, Texas A&M, Alabama, Mississippi State and Miami. Some schools backed off because Hordge hadn???t qualified academically.

A full schedule hadn???t allowed him enough rest to properly prepare for the ACT initially, Hordge said last summer. When he found some quiet time, he took the ACT and received a 21 that helped make him eligible. "If I want to do something real bad, I???m going to try my best," Hordge told the Democrat-Gazette for the story in August. "Everybody was worried except for me."

Track & Field News labeled Hordge as the nation???s fastest prep sprinter when he was in high school, and he was named 2002 Nike high school track Athlete of the Year. He holds the national 100-meter dash record by a high school junior with a time of 10.21 seconds. Hordge anchored the USA Junior 400 relay team that set a world record at the World Juniors Championship in Jamaica with a time of 38.92. In July in Barbados, Hordge anchored the USA Junior relay team that set the Pan American Junior Championship record in 39.29.

Now that Hordge is gone, only two scholarship cornerbacks are on Arkansas??? roster heading into spring practice: sophomore Michael Coe and redshirt freshman Chris Houston.