Andy Rennecke, You’ll Enjoy Arkadelphia, We Promise

 

Andy Rennecke, the sports reporter for the St. Cloud (Minn.) Times who covers the St. Cloud State University football team, and the sports editor for the newspaper did a fine job previewing the big Round One game between their hometown school and the Henderson State Reddies in Arkadelphia Saturday at noon.

Of course, no preview of a game in Arkansas between two folks from Minnesota would be complete without stereotypes and the yucking it up that comes with it. You know, a fake and poorly executed Southern drawl, references to eating grits because that’s all anyone in Arkansas eats. Ever. Thankfully, viewers are spared the no-shoes and no-teeth jokes.

“Howdy do, Y’ALLLL,” Dave DeLand, the sports editor starts out, adding, “That was my Arkansas accent. What do you think?”

DeLand says the trip to Arkadelphia “should be a culture experience” for the reporter, Rennecke, who has never been to the state. DeLand does admit he didn’t know Arkadelphia existed until Sunday night, so we can assume he’s never been to this gem of a small town in southwest Arkansas, either.

Despite this, DeLand seems to know an awful lot about our state. Stereotypes make knowing about any place, person or thing easy, we suppose.

Rennecke points out that in St. Cloud, the football team is lucky to get 2,000-3,000 people out to watch a football game, but in Arkadelphia, 5,000-6,000 coming to watch the game wouldn’t be a big surprise.

Nice set up for funny-man DeLand, who adds, “Not a lot to do in Arkadelphia at noon on a Saturday.”

“You’ll have to have some grits while you’re down there,” DeLand says.

Rennecke adds he does want to try the local cuisine. Nice set up for the funny man, again.

“Grits. That’s it,” DeLand says.

Well, Andy Rennecke, in an effort to help dispel some of the stereotypical “Howdy do, YA’LLLLL” misconceptions your boss has about Arkansas and Arkadelphia, we thought we would offer some suggestions for food beyond grits from our resident Arkadelphia expert and good-eats aficionado, Rex Nelson, a featured contributor to Sporting Life Arkansas. We added links to make it easy for you to bookmark the page and refer to it often during your brief stay in our great state.

From Rex:

  • Fish Net on Highway 7 toward Lake DeGray for fish and seafood
  • Fat Boys in Caddo Valley on steak night
  • The DeGray Lodge itself for the view of the lake while eating a meal
  • The Burger Barn on Pine Street for a real college town atmosphere

“And they could stay at the Captain Henderson House, one of the finest bed and breakfast inns in the country,” Rex adds.

We can’t promise none of these recommendations will have grits on the menu, but we can promise you if you check them out, you’ll come away with an appreciation for Arkansas, Arkadelphia, the people and your “culture experience.”

Sorry, your boss is right about one thing. We guess, unlike the big city of St. Cloud, Minn., there is no subway to the stadium on Saturday morning.

 

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