Growing up, Leland Barclay harbored dreams of becoming a big-league baseball player. Although that dream didn’t materialize, he eventually found success in another sports-related outlet, writing about the games.
And now, he received one of the highest honors in the state of Arkansas for his craft.
Barclay was one of three honored as the latest inductees into the Arkansas Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame during a ceremony on July 31 in Springdale. A sportswriter for more than 40 years, Barclay was inducted into that particular category.
“It’s a very humbling experience to be included with and honored by the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club and going into the Hall of Fame,” Barclay said. “It’s very humbling.”
Barclay has written thousands of feature stories and game coverage for athletes, not just in the Fort Smith metro but also across all corners of Arkansas. He has written stories for the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith and now with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, writing for its River Valley edition since 2023.
“This has really been a very fun talent to have to go to a press box on Friday nights to cover games and talk to players and coaches, and it’s just really a blessing,” Barclay said. “It’s a blessing to be here today, and something that I’ll cherish forever.”
A 1978 graduate of Van Buren High School, Barclay began writing stories in 1983 for his hometown newspaper, the Press Argus-Courier.
Nearly a decade later, another thing that Barclay is primarily known for around the area and state came to fruition. That’s when he published his first edition of what is now called Barclay’s Almanac of Arkansas High School Football. The publication, which comes out annually, details each football season with records, recaps and scores, as well as those who made each season’s All-State team.
“My first almanac covered the ’93 season, okay, and that was (an idea by) John Cooper, who was the sports editor for the Press Argus, and went on to be a sports editor at the Muskogee (Okla.) Phoenix, and then wrote sports in Shreveport (La.),” Barclay said. “One day, I was talking about all the stuff I had accumulated, playoff scores, list of All-State, All-Stars, all the stuff that I began to accumulate. He said, ‘Well, you should write a book.’
“I thought, ‘Oh, OK.’ And really, I did it, more or less, to organize my notes into something I could find easily, which, in turn, has helped other people, too.”
And to Barclay, one of the lessons he applied early in his career as a sportswriter, that he still utilizes to this day, is that it’s all about the players.
“I think it’s about the players, you know, and high school sports is really the last level where the players play the game for fun and they appreciate the coverage,” he said. “They appreciate playing the game, the opportunity to play the game, and the coaches have been just tremendous, making their players accessible through the years, which just makes it fun to do.”
Barclay was joined at the Hall of Fame ceremony by his wife, Jennifer, and his son, Brennan. He also received congratulations from a video made by former Greenwood football coach Rick Jones, who is now on the staff at the University of Missouri.
With his induction, Barclay now joins some of the elite names in sports journalism in Arkansas, luminaries such as writers Orville Henry and Wally Hall, and broadcasters such as Paul Eells and Mike Nail.
Joining Barclay in the induction ceremony was Kermit Womack, who was recognized in the sportscasting category, and Jim Borden, who received the Hall of Fame’s first Mike Harrison Excellence in Sports Media Award.
Womack began a 70-year career in local radio from 1954 before retiring last year. He launched Rogers radio station KURM in 1979, broadcasting live sporting events across the area for more than 40 years before the station disbanded with his retirement.
Borden is a longtime videographer who founded Network Media Productions in Fayetteville in the 1990s, and has produced numerous sports films, primarily pertaining to University of Arkansas athletics. He also served as the Razorbacks’ director of football film operations.