BryantDaily.com turns 10 today

On this day 10 years ago, the first stories were posted on BryantDaily.com. They were high school basketball game stories featuring Bryant against Cabot. Blake Condley was the head coach for the Lady Hornets and Mark Smith was the head coach for the Hornets.

Those stories are still on the site. You can look them up. In fact, every story posted since then is still there.

I have lots of people to thank, most especially my wife, Jan, my kids, Ben and Kate and the rest of my extended family, who encouraged me and supported me when things were going well and when they weren’t.

Thanks also to:

• Rick Nation and Kevin Nagle, two of the best sports photographers around;
• Those who have advertised on the site, particularly Everett Buick GMC and Chad Hendrix along with Bin There Dump That and Pat Blakley. They’ve been with me from the outset. Also, to Laryssa Calley, who has been great support. Plus, all the others who have advertised, especially early on;
• All those who have subscribed. Without you and the advertisers, BryantDaily.com would never have made it this far. And, by extension, would not continue without you;
• All the coaches including athletic directors Mike Lee and Tom Farmer, who have been gracious with their time and cooperation;
• Chris Eley, Jay Muse and company at 1011 Web Solutions (now defunct) that helped me get up and running;
• John Tucker and the folks at Flex 360 for working out the redesign and hosting the site since then;
• Everybody else that has helped along the way in any way;
• Everybody that reads or has read stories on the site;
• God Almighty.

When the Bryant Times newspaper folded in the fall of 2008, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I needed to stay in Bryant because, at the time, we had moved Jan’s mother from Plano, Texas, to a retirement center in central Arkansas, promising her we would stick around and help take care of her.

It was the new Bryant Hornets baseball coach at the time, Kirk Bock, among others that suggested I go on-line. At first, I tried to get the owners of the Bryant Times to just move that publication to the internet, but they weren’t interested. Coach Bock suggested I call Bennett Horne in Harrison, who had made that transition. Bennett had actually worked for me at a radio station in Fayetteville back in the early 80’s so that was an easy call.

With his help and friends here in Bryant like Rick, my brother Mike and Kirk Stewart, we worked out something of a business plan, 1011 was picked to develop the site, the hosting and the logo (which is still being used). 

We went live on Jan. 23, 2009.

We’ve gone through various stages. For a while, there were even writers that could actually cover local news. They would come and go, and we couldn’t keep it going consistently so I abandoned that idea.

Again, thanks so much to all of you who read the site, share it on social media or by word of mouth. Your support has helped me continue to do what I love to do, cover Bryant sports. I’m deeply grateful.

We’re always open to more advertising, of course, and more subscriptions. That’s what keeps BryantDaily.com going.