08/25/14 Issue

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Henderson State University - Monday, April 22, 2014 - Volume 107, Issue 27 - www.hsuoracle.com Henderson State University - Monday, April 25, 2014 - Volume 107, Issue 27 RENOVATIONS Big changes are happening around campus P.2 SURVIVAL GUIDE Advice for new students on surviving college P.4 SAY HELLO TO SUTLEY HSU welcomes the newest communication professor P.3 ROBERT JORDAN Jordan carries on after his injury P.8 COMIC CON 2014 Connecting a comics class with the greatest convention on Earth P.6

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HSU Oracle

Transcript of 08/25/14 Issue

Page 1: 08/25/14 Issue

Henderson State University - Monday, April 22, 2014 - Volume 107, Issue 27 - www.hsuoracle.comHenderson State University - Monday, April 25, 2014 - Volume 107, Issue 27

RENOVATIONSBig changes are happening

around campus P.2

SURVIVAL GUIDEAdvice for new students on

surviving college P.4

SAY HELLO TO SUTLEYHSU welcomes the newest

communication professor P.3

ROBERT JORDANJordan carries on after his

injury P.8

COMIC CON 2014Connecting a comics class with the greatest convention on Earth P.6

Page 2: 08/25/14 Issue

While students were enjoying a summer vacation, school officials were hard at work evolving the campus in several different plac-es.

The Garrison Center is being remodeled into a more efficient student center, and Res-idence Life began setting the groundwork for two new residence halls.

The Garrison has gone through a series of renovations over the last few years, including the addition of Starbucks and Chick-fil-a, the removal of Quizno’s and the complete recon-struction of the former Day Gym into the Grand Ballroom.

Before the spring 2014 semester let out, construction had begun on the Garrison street and both upstairs and downstairs hall-ways were in the process .

After knocking out a few walls by Star-bucks and adding a few coats of paint, the walk through the hallways of the Garrison will be a little brighter than it was before.

The yellow walls are decorated with multi-ple wooden accents around the radio station.

The carpet on the floors in the Garrison were replaced with multicolored tiles.

The Day Gym, which previously had hard

floors and dim lighting, now has carpeted floors, giant screens and excellent lighting.

It will be used similarly to the Banquet room, but will now be able to hold a larger number of people and provide a more profes-sional location for such events.

There have already been two events held in the new Grand Ballroom.

The Garrison street also got some tender care with the bases of the pillars lining the walls being widened as well as covering all the maroon paint on the bars and walkway with white paint.

Other changes in the Garrison include new carpet in the lecture hall and Banquet room and a new look for the Information Desk. The green countertops are history.

The Reddie Bookstore bought the post of-fice, previously located on the ground floor of the Garrison, from the university.

The post office now operates within the bookstore, while the post office boxes remain below the ground floor.

Students can still go to the ground floor of the Garrison to recieve their mail, but will be expected to go to the Reddie Bookstore if any packages are to be sent or recieved.

Things outside the Garrison center have also been changing. Campus police are no longer next to Arkansas Hall in the Horton House.

They were relocated to the Meeks House, which is on 12th street.

The Horton House was demolished to make room for more greenery and improve the aesthetics of the campus.

Perhaps the most notable change this year will be the construction taking place on the former intramural fields and behind the BCM on Wilson Street.

In both of the locations, new residence fa-cilities are being constructed to help solve the problem of enrollment over housing capacity.

Each year, the number of freshmen en-rolled at Henderson grows.

It is great that so many young adults are pursuing a higher education, but it raises a problem for Residence Life.

Housing all of them on campus is a prob-lem that is consistently growing.

At one point a few years back, some stu-dents had to stay in hotels because there was not enough room in the dorms.

With the addition of two new residence facilities, overcrowding will no longer be an issue.

A 240-bed luxury apartment will be on the intramural fields.

The requirements to live in the apart-ments have not yet been established but will be fleshed out during the upcoming semester.

The main complex will come with a club-house that will be available to be booked for

events. There will also be a study space and a luxury-style swimming pool.

The intramural fields have been moved next to the baseball field so intramural sports can continue on the normal schedule through-out the year.

There will be another residence hall locat-ed on Wilson Street behind the BCM building. The hall will have 300 beds and will be set up in the same suite-style as East and West hall.

However, in this residence hall, private bedrooms will be available to students, but limited in number.

Financial aid can be used to pay for both of the new residence halls, although prices have not yet been established for either build-ing.

Henderson is also in the process of pur-chasing Whispering Oaks. The deal is not yet finalized, but is expected to be by September at the latest. Until then, the university is mak-ing payments to Whispering Oaks to house students there. Once the deal is final, students will be able to make payments the same way payments are made for dorms.

The structures are expected to be com-pletely finished and ready for move in day be-fore the beginning of next school year.

Big renovations hit campus for a college faceliftBY STEPHANIE MALCOLM

2 FEATURES VIEWS HUMOR SPORT

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGESPhoto by Jeff Gilmore

Page 3: 08/25/14 Issue

There are many new faces around Hender-son these days, but not all of them are incom-ing freshmen.

In addition to new students, the university will be welcoming several new faculty mem-bers to the school with a heart.

Among these faculty members is Bill Sut-ley, an assistant professor of mass media and communication.

Sutley comes to Henderson from Colum-bus, Georgia where he had been the associate director of public relations at Columbus State University. for several years.

Sutley may be new to the Henderson fami-ly, but he is far from a stranger to the town of Arkadelphia.

Sutley graduated from Ouachita Baptist University with a bachelor’s degree in journal-

ism nut he didn’t stop there. He pursued a master’s degree at the Uni-

versity of Missouri-Columbia in journalism and continued his education even further at the University of Southern Mississippi.

He completed everything but his disserta-tion.

More than the things he learned through his education, Sutley wants to bring his own personal experiences to the students in the mass media and communication department.

“I want students to learn from my mistakes and learn to from my successes,” said Sutley.

When Sutley says he wants students to learn from his successes and his mistakes, he means it.

“Frankly, I do think that having done some things on deadline maybe that I regret, it’s

good for students to know about,” said Sutley. Sutley has built quite a resume working at

several different newspapers before he began his teaching career at Auburn University.

“I think that of anything, what I want to bring to the table is the importance of criti-cal thinking,” Sutley said. “Critical thinking is about asking the right questions.”

He explains that there is a direct link be-tween writing well and speaking well.

The two go hand in hand. “Critical thinking and good writing skills,

to me, are the heart of everything,” Sutley said.

In addition to becoming a new professor on campus, he will also be taking over as the advisor to the Star yearbook.

Sutley has some experience working with a student yearbook already.

He worked on his schoool yearbook staff. when he was in high school.

He aims to keep the Star as a hands-on publication.

Although Sutley was previously an Ouachita tiger, is looking forward to being on the other side of the ravine and becoming a member of the Henderson family.

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Photo courtesy of Bill Sutley

AUGUST 25, 2014 FEATURES VIEWS HUMOR SPORT

OBU alumni lands new job at HendersonBY J.D. ROBERTS

SWIFTBOAT SUTLEY

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4 NEWS VIEWS HUMOR SPORT

Summer is fading fast into the past and with the new semester descending upon us, comes new visions for the future, great expectations, and responsibilities for students. If you have never experienced the gauntlet of attending a higher education

facility, get ready to hang on to your seat for one of the most intense rides of your life. As with any new quest, you may be feeling a bit anxious or overwhelmed about the new semester. Take a breath. That’s normal. We’ve all had to adapt and sacrifice some-thing we cherished to be able to overcome and traverse to the other side.

First things first, make a plan about what you want to achieve while you’re in school. Write out your plan and make some lists. Such as, do I have my financial aid in order? What days and times do I have free to study and do homework?

Make a plan B. Having a contingency plan in your back pocket helps assure that you re-main on track. Buying a big block calendar for appointments and placing it in your immediate surroundings may also help with reducing scheduling conflicts at mid-terms and finals.

Also, don’t forget about making a little time for a stress reliever. We all love our video games and communicating with each other on social media. However, balancing your time efficiently will help you focus and keep your priorities on track.

Your plan may look good on paper but you have to work it to get ahead of the game successfully. Attending every class on time and coming prepared is elementary; you should make it mandatory on your list of priorities to relax.

You don’t have to like your professor. Get past that hiccup and absorb the knowledge they are sharing. After all, we are all paying a hefty price for our education and should try to get the most information out of our instruc-tors.

Surround yourself with some great friends, a support group of sorts, who make studying a priority. Your grade can often benefit from having regular study partners and sessions.

At one point in time, we all had to make the decision to either come to Henderson or return here for this semester. Now that you’re here, don’t lose sight of the big prize at the end. Before you know it, homework and test preps will cover you up like

a wool blanket and life as you knew it will cease to exist. But, it will be your discipline and determination that muscles you through the cycle. Never give up, no matter how bleak a situation can get. Reach out to your advisors and counselors if you find yourself not exactly on track with your plan.

College is a collage of experiences that most of us will take with us and treasure for a long time to come. Be that student. Take care of what you have to do when you have to, so you can make it to the other side successfully. If you are not going to take it seriously, why should anyone else take you seriously?

Times are going to be tough, so you have to learn to be tougher. You will learn to wake up too early, go to bed too late, and understand how long you can survive on ramen

BY MOE SKINNER

FRESHMEN SURVIVAL GUIDE

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One week of fear. One week of uncer-tainty. One week of anticipation. One week of keeping a secret from my family.

A week can feel like a lifetime. That is how long it took me to get the

courage to let my secret out. My sister, my boyfriend Logan, and my

dad were all sitting at the dining room table laughing and talking.

Mom was in the kitchen getting dinner ready and chiming in on the conversation.

I sat quietly at the table and looked back and forth, from mom to dad, from dad to sis-ter, and I told myself that I was given a bless-ing.

I quietly butted into the conversation and it all came out, like word vomit: “I’m preg-nant.”

According to Kost & Henshaw (2010), teen pregnancy has been on the decline since the 1990s, yet 750,000 teens become pregnant each year and 85 percent of those are unin-tended.

The transitions surrounding an unplanned pregnancy are drastically different from a typ-ical planned pregnancy.

As a college student, I found myself faced with an unplanned pregnancy at the age of 19.

From the time my pregnancy was con-firmed to the birth of Kali, I had decisions to make that most women will not have to face with traditional motherhood.

The first decision I had to make was how to tell my family.

Most pregnancies are announced with joy and excitement.

How would my family react? Would they kick me out of my home?

Would they support me emotionally or cut me out of their lives?

These are some questions that went through my head every day.

When telling my family I had to remem-ber, it could be much worse.

As I sat staring at my plate and not know-ing what to do next, my dad stood up from his chair, shook Logan’s hand, and told us con-gratulations.

My mother had a blank stare on her face and as the news sunk in she began to smile. A big weight was taken off of my shoulders.

After the breaking news, weeks went by. My parents welcomed Logan and me with open arms, giving us a roof over our heads so we could save money.

They stood by our side through it all and gave us more than we could ever ask for.

The second major decision was whether to marry the father.

Traditional pregnancies happen between a husband and wife or two people living togeth-er who have made a commitment.

If we married now, would it last? I did not want to raise Kali in a broken

home, but I also did not want her living with parents who married too quickly.

We were asked quite often if we would be getting married, which most people expected

to happen. After talking about it, Logan and I decided

that we didn’t want to rush everything all at once.

Finding out I was pregnant was a shock and a big step in our relationship.

We didn’t want to add any more big chang-es.

We should marry because we love each other and want the commitment for the rest of our lives, not because we have a child to-gether.

Taking these changes day by day has made our relationship stronger and we plan to one day marry.

The other decisions I have had to make do not seem as important as the first two, yet they have impacted my life.

I chose to continue my college education but with a March due date, realized that online classes were my best option.

What I did not realize was that I would be very bored and lonesome.

The only real personal contact I had was with my employers, my parents, and Logan.

I missed the day-to-day interaction with the other students and last minute planning with friends.

It was common for Logan and me to go out on the weekend or at night with friends to ride around and hang out.

Now that I was pregnant, it was not safe for my baby to be riding on the back of a four-wheeler and it was uncomfortable for me.

I also had a difficult time staying awake. Our friends would call and ask us to come hang out and build a fire, but all I wanted to do was go to bed.

I was very lucky to have a few friends who supported my decision to keep and raise my baby.

They were there for me when I needed

help physically, mentally, and emotionally. However, I found that some people were

not friends after all. They refused to communicate with me be-

cause I was no fun anymore. This was rather hard to understand but

now that I have my baby, I realize it was their loss.

On March 6, 2014, Kali Jane Heard ar-rived.

This was by far, the best day of my life. Logan and I fell in love instantly:

7 pounds and .03 ounces, full head of brown hair, big blue eyes, and the most pre-cious dimples.

The doctor held her up for me to see and tears filled my eyes. She was healthy, alert, and absolutely perfect.

The next day it was time to go home and let the fun begin. I did not sleep for the first 2 weeks.

My mother and I took turns through the night, but we were still worn out. I cried when Kali cried. I soon figured out this was going to take time.

At 3 months, Kali slept all night and I en-joyed every hour she let me sleep.

Before motherhood, the priorities in my life were shopping and hanging out with my friends.

Now I have been focused more on school, work, and spending time with my new little family.

I now have attainable goals for myself with school, managing money, and putting my family before myself.

My main goal is to finish school, get a job in my educational field, and raise Kali in a healthy environment.

Without the support of my family, I will not be able to provide for Kali, continue my education, and hopefully realize my dream of helping others in the same situation.

5AUGUST 25, 2014 NEWS VIEWS HUMOR SPORT

Henderson student opens up about her own teen pregancyBy Alison Wyatt

FROM TEEN TO MOM

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Nerd mecca. Mardi Gras for geeks. The temple of dork.

All of these have been used to describe San Diego Comic Con International, or SDCC. Thanks to Henderson, I was fortu-nate enough to make the pilgrimage this sum-mer.

Last spring, I enrolled in Comics as Com-munication with Dr. Randy Duncan, profes-sor of communication.

Duncan has been attending and present-ing at SDCC since 1992 and has been help-ing Henderson students attend for roughly a decade.

On the first day of class, he passed out a piece of paper that read, “Want to go to Com-ic Con?”

He then explained that the Comic Arts Conference occurs as part of the convention and students in his comic studies courses have the chance to go.

As a lover of all things pop culture, attend-ing SDCC had long been on my “bucket list,” so I knew that it was something I had to do.

I spent the rest of the semester research-ing, writing, and submitting my proposal be-fore getting word in April that I would be at-tending.

I would be representing the university along with Dr. Duncan and Dr. Travis Lang-ley, professor of psychology, who is also heav-ily involved with the conference.

The next three months would consist of

intense research, writing, and trying to juggle the project with ongoing academic work.

As the travel date grew near, planning for the four days of SDCC took over.

Comic Con is split between three major activities: panels, a massive trade show, and activities.

While there are “only” 130,00 tickets avail-able for entering the convention center, the area around the convention center turns into a cornucopia of free events that would take an entire page to name off.

These free events attract thousands more visitors and the downtown area becomes a sea of humanity.

Inside, large sets of double doors separate the lobby and the trade show on the first floor.

After checking in, I walked into the huge expanse for the first time.

A sense of giddiness quickly overcame me. I was face-to-face with thousands upon

thousands of people, many in elaborate cos-tumes, massive booths with items for sale, art-ists, and displays from movies, TV shows, and comic book publishers.

As hard as I tried to not be, I was com-pletely overwhelmed.

To get an idea of the scale of things: the convention center’s exhibit hall is 525,000 square feet; Henderson’s dining hall is 22,000.

I attempted to walk around the exhibit hall as long as I could, gawking at movie props, admiring “cosplayers,” browsing one-of-a-

kind collectables, and keeping an eye out for a random celebrity sighting.

But after two hours, I realized that I had only explored a fraction of the hall and decid-ed to venture upstairs where the panel discus-sions take place.

Due to the relatively small size of the rooms, most panels require lining up before-hand.

These lines can start a few minutes before, or in the case of the largest panels, the day before.

Entry into the largest room, Hall H, re-quires attendees to literally sleep on the side-walk overnight.

You quickly learn that to do anything at SDCC, you’re going to wait in a line for it.

One of the more exciting aspects of SDCC is that by just being there, you’re going to experience celebrity sightings.

While walking from the convention center to one of the off-site areas, I ran into a golf cart with the “Mythbusters” Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman sitting on the back.

I also had the pleasure of meeting most of the voice cast of the cartoon “Archer.” Over the course of the weekend, sightings of celeb-rities like Weird Al Yankovic, Tony Hale, the “Walking Dead” cast, and Dolph Lundgren also occurred.

Saturday morning, I knew that I wanted to take some time for myself to prepare for my session.

So, I got a cup of coffee and found a quiet spot at the neighboring Hilton hotel where I could read over my notes in peace.

The session I was taking part in is called a poster session.

As the name implies, you present your research on a large poster along with several other people doing the same.

During the session, visitors wander around the room, looking over your work, and ask questions about it.

After an hour and a half of nonstop talking, the session was over and it was time to celebrate.

I returned to the Hilton, and made my way to the lobby bar to reflect back on the excite-ment of my session and relax with an ice cold beer.

I admit that I had spaced out a bit, lost in thought.

When I snapped back to reality, I noticed that the gentleman sitting next to me looked awfully familiar.

It was in fact, Rob Corddry, creator and

star of “Childrens Hospital,” enjoying a glass of wine with his wife.

After giving him a “I swear I’m not a crazy person” nod, he noticed that I was wearing a professional’s badge and asked me what I did.

I explained to him that I had just finished my session at the academic conference and was then asked to explain my research to the pair.

I spent the next 10 minutes walking them through the evolution of the ethnic minority superhero in comic books and discussing var-ious comic book characters, something that truly became the highlight of my trip.

As crowds began to thin and vendors be-gan packing up their booths on Sunday, I took one last trip through the exhibit hall.

I wanted to soak up the atmosphere one last time, just in case I was never able to come back.

Comic Con is one of the most exhaust-ing, epic, overwhelming, exciting, and coolest things I have ever had the privilege to expe-rience.

Henderson’s connection with the Comic Arts Conference, specifically Dr. Duncan and Dr. Langley, helped me cross off one of my “bucket list” items.

And I can’t wait to do it all over again next year.

One student in the communication department did just that after taking a comic class.

BY J SCOTT MCKINNON

6 NEWS VIEWS HUMOR SPORT

“Want to go to Comic Con?”

FROM THE EDITORS

The Oracle, yours tru-ly, is transitioning into a new format. This is our first issue at the new size and there will be a few unexpected suprises. We ask that you endure this awkward time. Think of this as our newspaper pu-berty. We might be a little lanky and stink from time to time, but through that we will become who we really are.

-The Staff

Page 7: 08/25/14 Issue

The Henderson State University football team has been working hard all summer to prepare for the 2014 season.

Coming off of a two-year-winning streak led by head football coach, Scott Maxfield, 167 players reported for preseason camp on Friday, Aug. 15 to file NCAA paperwork and numerous other things to be eligible for camp.

The Reddies are ranked No. 8 in the AFCA Preseason Top 25 and began practices Satur-day, Aug. 15 around 9: 45 a.m. and continued morning workouts until Satuday, Aug. 23.

The Reddies will participate in 16 practic-es and three scrimmages before their season opens at Southern Nazarene on Sept. 6 at 6 p.m.

The team’s afternoon workouts will begin on Monday, Aug. 25 at approximately 4:20 p.m. allowing the public to attend.

The final scrimmage for the Reddies will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Carpenter-Haygood Stadium.

The freshmen class is learning to adjust to coach Maxfield as well as the transition from high school to college level football.

“The freshmen are working hard,” Max-field said. “It is a big change for them and they are having to fight through the challenges that come with being a first year student athlete.“

The Reddies practiced in full pads on Wednesday before their first scrimmage on Thursday.

Jeff McInerney, new defensive line coach, joins the Reddie family after eight years as head football coach at Central Connecticut State University.

Wednesday began with offensive and de-fensive line meetings at 8 a.m.

Maxfield said, “We want the defensive line to be more of a factor in pressuring the quar-terback, and stuffing the run game.”

The Reddies have four new starters on the offensive line.

“We have to be more consistent and the younger guys are going to have to elevate their game,” Maxfield said.

Nine Henderson Reddie football players achieved Academic All-Great American Con-

ference honors following the 2013-2014 sea-son.

Their grade-point average must be a mini-mum of 3.30 based on the 4.0 system.

“First thing first is for the students to get a college degree and learn life lessons to be able to represent HSU as great people in society,” Jones said.

Jones is very committed that grades come first. “Since our school is a division II college, the student athletes are not shown the rec-ognition that bigger schools show to student athletes,” Jones said.

“The student athletes are expected to be engaged in the community and to do regular things like any other student, and to me that’s the way it should be. “

“Our goal is to have a 3.0 GPA as a team” Maxfield said.

There is also a new addition to the Reddie field house.

The equipment in the field house original-ly came with the building, thirteen years ago and Jones deemed it unsafe.

“The equipment was beyond repair and dangerous”, Jones said. “It shows commit-ment to the team that we make sure that they are safe. When students see commitment, it does motivate them to know that the institu-tion supports them in reaching their goals.”

Coach Maxfield said, “We have an excel-lent weight room and the players are excited about the new equipment.”

Jones is also excited to announce that there will be a new student group on campus to sup-port all sports.

Student residential life is rebranding what was the “Henderson Hooligans” to be known as the “Red Zone”.

“First, teams are here to represent the stu-dent body”, Jones said.

“I want there to be a spirit and collabora-tion between students and athletes.”

The student athletes helped move new stu-dents into their dorms on Tuesday, Aug, 19.

The athletes are also here to give back to the student body.

“To represent your school, you should

want to help give back to the students and re-ally appreciate and support them and the stu-dents should support the student athletes as well.”

There will be a sign up sheet at the first football game allowing any students to be able to join the group.

“This will be a more organized group of student supporters,” Jones said. “It will be a great and real group.”

“I am excited because this gives us an op-portunity to talk with students that are not just athletes, but come from all different kinds of majors and backgrounds. We will all be able to communicate better,” Jones said.

Henderson’s two-time GAC Offensive player of the Year and GAC Male Athlete of the year Kevin Rodgers will be returning as quarterback.

Rodgers has thrown for 10,076 yards and 90 touchdowns in his career.

Darius Davis is also returning and leads in the school’s all-time receiver

Including Davis, six of their top eight re-ceivers will be returning for the 2014 season.

The native from Frisco, Texas has acquired 2,425 yards while receiving and catching 29 touch down passes.

Senior, Dustin Holland, is returning and ranks fifth in career yards receiving with 1,721 yards.

Returning for his junior season, Corey Chappell has totaled 353 yards on 27 recep-tions and will also return kicks this season including his HSU record 100-yard kickoff return against Harding last season.

Upcoming junior wide receiver Mark Czaus will be returning this season after catch-ing 10 passes for 59 yards last season and is expected to have a big year in 2014.

“You tell the young guys to get in here and listen to the coaches because they know what they are talking about,” said Czaus.

“ The advice we give to them is to watch us, watch what we are doing and try to get them up to speed on what we have been taught. It is all a learning process and you could tell that some of the new guys had the first day jitters.”

Additional reporting by Troy Mitchell, sportds information director.

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Graphic design by Megan Snoddy

AUGUST 25, 2014 NEWS VIEWS HUMOR SPORT

The Reddie football team goes for turkey after their two season win-streak.

BY KAITLYN KITCHENS

THEY’RE BACK AND REDDIE

Page 8: 08/25/14 Issue

8 NEWS FEATURES VIEWS HUMOR

Robert Jordan, Henderson’s all-time leader in receiving passes, has made progress since his career ending injury last season.

BY KAITLYN KITCHENS

ROAD TO RECOVERY

Former Henderson State University lead-er of receiving passes in the history of HSU, Robert Jordan, had a career ending injury on Oct. 26 2013 against the Harding Bison that changed his life forever.

Jordan is now on the road back to recov-ery.

He broke is tibia and fibula when making his third touchdown catch of the game in Henderson’s 45-30 win over Harding.

The fall brought tears to the teammates surrounding him.

In his last game as a Reddie, Jordan caught four passes for 90 yards and three touch-downs for 23, 32 and 11 yards.

He was also named the Great American Conference Offensive Player of the Week.

During his time at HSU he played 29 games and totaled 147 receptions for 2,186

yards and is currently the all-time leading re-ceiver at Henderson State University.

Jordan is ranked second in Henderson’s history in career receiving touchdowns with a total of 20.

“It was one of the worst injuries I’ve ever seen,” head coach Scott Maxfield said to Fox 16.

“When we got out on the field and saw the severity of the injury, it kind of made you step back a little.”

Jordan was immediately transported to White County Medical Center where he went under a two-hour surgery where they put a metal rod in his leg to fix his tibia.

He later had a follow up surgery that Mon-day.

Jordan was overwhelmed with hundreds of messages through social media, including

Harding players and fans that witnessed the injury.

This type of injury is the cause of many athletes ending career, but Jordan has been back at it by running pass routs and spending countless hours in the weight room.

“Anytime you have an injury like that, the NFL is a little bit skeptical”, Maxfield said. “They don’t want any damaged goods, but I think if he can get in the right situation and get that opportunity, I definitely think he’s got the ability to play at that level.”

Football has always been much more than a sport to Jordan it has been his dream.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I used to play football,” Jordan said to Fox 16. “I would run around the house, run around the yard and around the block. Football, it has always been my dream.”

Since the injury, Jordan has pushed to work as hard as he possibly can to reach his dream to play in the NFL.

“I’ve never worked as hard as I have since the injury,” Jordan said. “That really made me work hard and it ain’t no game, your career can be stopped at any time in your life just because of one injury.”

Jordan also refuses to watch the tape of the injury until he hangs up his cleats and pads for good.

“Honestly when I’m done playing football ill probably take a look at it, but as of right now while I’m still playing, no I don’t want to look at it,” Jordan said.

Jordan is currently continuing his rehab in Miami, Fla. where he is originally from, and is hoping to get recognized by the NFL.

“Robert is not eligible for the NFL draft. He was eligible for the 2014 draft but was not selected”, Maxfield said.

Jordan as been back to visit Arkadelphia some over the summer.

He posted a picture via facebook in the new weight room in the field house showing that he is able to lift weights again.

Kevin Rodgers also challenged Jordan for the ice bucket challenge to support ALS.

Rodgers, along with two other football players did the challenge and posted the video on facebook of him challenging Jordan.

Jordan has not yet participated in the chal-lenge.

Additional reporting by Troy Mitchell and Fox 16 News in Little Rock Ark.