WHEREAS:  On December 16th, 2023, the Harding University Bisons football team defeated the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers in the NCAA Division II National Championship;

WHEREAS:  The Bisons broke several school records last season, scoring 97 total touchdowns and defeating five teams ranked in the top 25 in the country by the American Football Coaches Association. The Bisons also became the first team in the history of college football to run more than 6,000 yards in one season;

WHEREAS:  Harding’s coach, Paul Simmons, was named the 2023 Sportsperson of the Year by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette after leading the team to a historic season;

WHEREAS:  Simmons, a Harding graduate who has been involved with the school’s football team since 1997, defined the Bisons’ program as “unselfish,” saying the word described the team’s “toughness [and] discipline”; and

WHEREAS:  The Harding Bisons brought pride and national attention to Arkansas, the City of Searcy, and Harding University.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, Governor of the State of Arkansas, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the laws of the State of Arkansas, do hereby proclaim February 5th, 2024, as

“A DAY OF CELEBRATION OF HARDING FOOTBALL’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP”

IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of Arkansas to be affixed this 2nd day of February, in the year of our Lord 2024.