Texas recruit draws inspiration from former Hog

Junior athlete Byron Hanspard Jr., an Arkansas football target, said he gets inspiration from a former Razorbacks basketball great Dean Tolson.

Tolson was a fifth-round draft pick of the Seattle SuperSonics in 1974 after finishing his three-year career at Arkansas with 1,316 points and 845 rebounds. After three years with Seattle, he played several years overseas until being urged by his mother to get his degree.

He called then-Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles, who arranged for the school to pay for his tuition. Tolson went on to earn a degree in history in 1988 and a Masters in education, graduating magna cum laude in 2007. His graduation from Arkansas in 1988 was a featured story in…