By Roy Ockert Jr.

Like any football fan, I always look forward to a new season. Your favorite team is undefeated on Aug. 1, and no matter how last season went, there is at least some hope for the future.

As a longtime fan of Arkansas State University football — both the Indians and Red Wolves — I’m always excited when practice begins and the pre-season accolades start rolling in.

This year, though, the first game at least will be bittersweet. For more than 20 years Pat and I have had seats next to those of Steve and Sharon Bryant of Batesville, who died May 12 in a tragic plane crash near Marianna. They were on their way home from a family weekend when something went terribly wrong.

We were lucky to get front-row seats on the 45-yard line when we moved back to Jonesboro in 2001. A-State football fortunes had been down, and good season tickets were readily available. We were even more fortunate that our seats were next to the Bryants and just in front of our longtime friends, John and Dianne Phelps.

Actually I didn’t meet Steve until he opened Bryant’s Pharmacy and Healthcare Center at Batesville in the late 1970s or early 1980s. I had been editor of the Batesville Guard since leaving the ASU faculty in 1975, and I recognized the name from his football-playing years at ASU. From that start, of course, he built quite a healthcare operation, with pharmacies in several other communities as well. He had one in Jonesboro for a time.

But our paths didn’t cross much until later and then in the ASU football stadium, where we found many common interests. Like Pat and me, Steve and Sharon were college sweethearts and had been married 50 years in December.

Steve, an excellent pilot who had his own plane, served in the “Indian Air Force” for many years, flying coaches for recruiting, scouting and other football business. Of course, we know that term became obsolete so I suppose it became the “Red Wolves Air Force.”

Steve and Sharon were ardent ASU football supporters, and they proved it over and over with their time, money and voices. The office of Butch Jones bears a plaque noting it as the Steve Bryant Family Head Coach’s Suite — an honor bestowed after they made a donation of $150,000 to the athletics program in 2009.

That was just one of several major gifts the Bryants made to the program over the years.

And the Bryants’ generosity didn’t stop with athletics. They were regular contributors to many good causes. Steve had built a prosperous business, and he and Sharon believed in giving back to the communities they loved.

I saw their unsolicited generosity first-hand. After my retirement, when we were establishing the Roy and Pat Ockert Herald Editor Scholarship, a check from the Bryants helped us make the endowment level. A member of the same college fraternity as I was (Lambda Chi Alpha), twice Steve called me when we were establishing endowments in honor of outstanding members and asked what we needed to get over the top. He then wrote the check.

As daughters Mallory and Monica wrote in their obituary: “More than anything, Steve and Sharon were known as two of the nicest people you will ever meet. We are all better people for having been touched by their lives.”

I’ll also remember Steve as a staunch A-State cheerleader who would stand and yell beside me on the opponent’s third and short, who would high five everyone around on ASU scores and who would join the celebration on the field after a victory to congratulate coaches and players.

Having lettered as a defensive end on the undefeated 1970 team coached by Bennie Ellender, as well as the next two teams, he knew football. He could have been a radio analyst, often predicting the play before the snap. He would frequently alert a defensive back with a shout that a pass was on its way.

Steve and Sharon usually showed up at games just before the kickoff. Steve would work at his Batesville pharmacy until closing time, then collect Sharon for the flight to Jonesboro. The timing was often tight.

By all accounts, Steve was a good pilot and flew a lot. During a timeout he’d be checking the weather for the return flight. As it happened, they made the trip by car for most games the last couple of years because of weather conditions. 

He had made at least one emergency landing previously. In 2001, on a flight to Fayetteville in a different plane, he found that he was unable to extend the main landing gear due to a lack of hydraulic fluid. He diverted to the Fort Smith airport and landed without injury to himself or a passenger.

I don’t know what happened on May 12, but the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report indicated that turbulent wind conditions had been noted in southern Arkansas. I can’t imagine the pain of sudden felt by their family.

A celebration of the Bryants’ lives will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday (July 27) in Independence Hall at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville. We’ll be there, and we’ll also remember Steve and Sharon on Aug. 31 when the whistle blows for the season-opening kickoff at Centennial Bank Stadium. 

Roy Ockert is a former editor of The Jonesboro Sun, The Courier at Russellville and The Batesville Guard. He can be reached at royo@suddenlink.net.