Today at 8:24 a.m. <br>by <a class="underlined-byline" href="https://www.wholehogsports.com/staff/matt-jones">Matt Jones</a> <br>Bob Holt’s parents were educators and taught him at an early age the fundamentals that laid a foundation for a life spent as a reporter. <br>Sit at the front of the room. Listen and take notes. Always ask questions. <br>Bob never ran out of questions. He was too curious. Even in the final moments of his life he was asking questions of coaches and players like he had done for more than four decades. <br>Bob died Wednesday at University Hospital in Columbia, Mo. He collapsed following the Razorbacks’ game at nearby Faurot Field last Saturday. <br>That he died in Columbia was bittersweet. He was a University of Missouri graduate who loved his alma mater. He was among the happiest to see the Tigers join the SEC because it gave him more opportunities to return home.<br>Bob was born in Saginaw, Mich., the youngest of four children to Milford and Jane Holt. His father was a fan of the Detroit Tigers. Listening to the legendary Tigers radio announcer Ernie Harwell with his father planted a love for sports in Bob’s heart at a young age. <br>The family moved to La Crosse, Wis., when he was in second grade. There he watched the Green Bay Packers on a local affiliate in black and white, and on frozen school yards he and his friends pretended to be Bart Starr and Ray Nitschke. <br>Years later Bob bought one share of Packers stock. That, he liked to inform everyone, made him an NFL owner. <br>Holt’s final childhood move came in the fourth grade when his father was hired as the dean of teacher education at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. His mother was a librarian. <br>The Holts were married for more than 70 years and never left Cape Girardeau. Bob considered it his hometown. <br>Arkansas was his adopted state. He spent almost all of his 43 1/2 years as a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Fayetteville. He also spent parts of three years as a correspondent for the newspaper in Dallas at a time when the Razorbacks frequented the state of Texas as a member of the Southwest Conference. <br>In Dallas, Bob spent time as a beat reporter covering the Dallas Cowboys after the franchise was purchased by Arkansan Jerry Jones. He interviewed professional athletes with Arkansas ties who were passing through at Reunion Arena or Arlington Stadium, providing readers back home with an update on their careers and lives. <br>It was all part of a legendary career that made Bob a household name in Arkansas. He was as well-liked as Paul Eells, whose death in 2006 shocked our state. <br>Bob's death has, too. <br>He was inducted to the Arkansas Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 2022 as part of a class that included Chris Mortensen, Mike Irwin and Mike Nail. He won our state’s sportswriter of the year award four times — all since 2000 when he was well into his career — and is a finalist again this year for the award. <br>He was also a Hall of Fame person, always willing to lend a hand, lend an ear or lend a dollar to anyone who crossed his path. As reality set in early this week, the task to inform Bob’s close friends of his condition was daunting. Perhaps no one has ever had such an inner circle. <br>Bob never married and never had children. With his family scattered about, his friends — other reporters, coaches, ADs and sports information directors — became his family. <br>Every game, press conference or open practice was like a family reunion for Bob. It’s probably why you could never get him to take a day off. <br>His life's work was informing readers about the Razorbacks, beginning at a time when the local beat reporter was the primary connection between the fan and the team. Bob was hired by the Arkansas Democrat in June 1981 just after he graduated from Mizzou. Among the other candidates for the job was Dennis Dodd, now a college football columnist for CBS. <br>Bob cut his teeth covering legendary basketball coach Norm Stewart for the student newspaper at Mizzou. When he got to Arkansas he was surrounded by more legends — basketball coach Eddie Sutton, football coach Lou Holtz and AD Frank Broyles, to name a few. <br>Every coach, administrator and most every athlete at Arkansas for more than four decades has a Bob story. You will hear many of those shared in the coming days. <br>He was our state's premier basketball and track reporter. He followed Arkansas' legendary track and field teams all over the U.S., chronicling the Hall of Fame career of John McDonnell. <br>Bob was a long-time officer for the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and wrote each year for the prestigious Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook. He covered the Razorbacks' basketball golden years under Sutton and Nolan Richardson, and his byline told the story of Arkansas' national championship from Charlotte in 1994. <br>Richardson, who could become perturbed at Bob's insistence on asking the same question as many ways as it took to get the quote he wanted, was among the closest to Bob. When it was time for Bob to be inducted to the Arkansas Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame, it was Richardson who presented him for induction. <br>Every coach loved Bob, even if they did not always like his line of questioning. No one could stay mad at someone so likable. <br>Bob was my father’s age, but became like a brother through our 14 years working together. We shared trips, holidays and life events together. <br>He was there on my wedding day on a snowy afternoon. He hurried to cover a basketball game back in Fayetteville that night wearing a suit and tie, quizzed over and over about why he was all dressed up. <br>Ironically the opponent that night was UTSA, the same team that will be at Bud Walton Arena on Saturday in the first game since his death.<br>He dined at our table on Thanksgiving. He brought food to the hospital on the day one of our daughters was born. <br>Bob was always looking out for those he cared about. <br>Like the time a prominent former player became frustrated with the program due to a decision that had a direct personal effect. Write a story and quote me, Bob was told. <br>Instead, Bob talked his friend down and advised against making that kind of decision when emotions were high. An attention-grabbing headline or salacious story was not worth the damage it might do to his friend’s reputation. <br>It took many years before I fully appreciated the on-the-job education I was receiving from Bob. He was universally admired in our profession. What others would give to be in my shoes to work so closely with a legendary figure in their field. <br>What I learned from Bob is that a good sports reporter, when it comes down to it, has three characteristics. <br>First is the skillset. That is the easy part when you have been well trained. <br>Second is the knowledge of your readership and beat to understand what makes a compelling story. Those are not easy to find on a daily basis, let alone for 40-plus years. <br>Third, and most important, is the ability to execute the story. That takes trust and relationships, and those cannot be microwaved. Bob had those relationships and he earned that trust. <br>He was the sports reporter and person we all strived to be. You might not agree with the reporter, but no one had a bad thing to say about the man. He was like a magnet, always drawing people in and befriending them, but never in a way that sacrificed his integrity. <br>There are few better friends or advocates than Bob. It’s why those who knew him have hurt so badly this week.<br>Just last week Bob called late the night before Thanksgiving. He was spending it with family in Kansas City before the next day’s basketball game. <br>Bob's phone calls were not ordinary conversations. They could be hour-long marathons that would run the gamut of topics. Packers, pets, politics — it all was on topic for Bob. <br>Those calls will be among what I miss most about him. No matter how chaotic the times, he always had a nugget of wisdom from a life well lived that would make me feel better.<br>Bob was planning his retirement. He wanted to sell his house, travel and sleep in. It was something he talked about more frequently the last few years and it was close to becoming reality. <br>His work is finished, just not in the way we all had hoped it would end. <br>The number of lives Bob touched is countless. The stories of his kindness and generosity will always be told by those who were blessed to know him. <br>Bob Holt will be missed like he was loved — greatly. <br><a href="#" onclick="event.preventDefault();Osano.cm.showDrawer('osano-cm-dom-info-dialog-open')">Privacy Preferences</a><br>Copyright © 2024, Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC. (NWA Media)<br>All rights reserved.<br>This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC.<br>Material from the Associated Press is Copyright © 2024, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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