John Tyson, the CEO of Tyson Foods and billionaire from Northwest Arkansas, has become somewhat of a local celebrity around Fayetteville in recent weeks.
After word got out he was somewhat of a middleman between Arkansas Athletics Director Hunter Yurachek and new Razorback basketball coach John Calipari, Tyson became a hometown hero, getting a standing ovation at Calipari's introductory press conference inside Bud Walton Arena on April 10.
Tyson spoke to Bo Mattingly in an interview with Hogs Plus, and he talked about what his role was in the hire that shook the college basketball landscape.
“Yurachek said, ‘Well, who would you hire?’ and I said, ‘Well, coach Cal,’” Tyson said. “So he said, ‘Well, is he interested?’” and I said to Hunter, ‘I don’t mind making the call,’ because I didn’t know if he was interested or not.”
Tyson’s involvement didn’t stop there, however. With a move of that magnitude, Tyson told Yurachek he needed to start preparations.
“I said, ‘If we’re going to make the call, you need to have your ducks in a row before we make the call,'" Tyson said. "'You need to know it’s funded. You need to know you’ve worked with your chancellor, the board of trustees, because it’ll move pretty quickly.’”
The deal came together quickly, indeed. Both Calipari and Yurachek were in Phoenix for the Final Four, which is where, Calipari said, the two met for 15 minutes to talk about the opening.
That meeting took place because of the relationship Calipari and Tyson have.
“Whatever John Tyson would ask me to do, I’m doing,” Calipari said April 10. “'I need you to meet with our AD. He’s going to go through some stuff. I want you to talk to him and help him out. He’s a good man. You’re going to love meeting him.' And we did.”
Tyson talked about making that same phone call from his point of view, and it turns out he made the call at the perfect time.
“I said, ‘Well, I’ll just give Coach Cal a call tomorrow morning,’" Tyson said. "And something in my gut said ‘No, just go ahead and call now, because I didn’t want to have any regrets. And Coach Cal told me had I not called that night, he would have already been on an airplane leaving Arizona. So they wouldn’t have had the face-to-face (meeting).”
Reports coming out around the same time as Calipari’s exodus to Arkansas seemed to indicate Tyson wasn’t just helping with the hire but also with a massive NIL figure to bring players to the program.
Interestingly, Tyson seemed to somewhat refute those reports.
“For everybody out there, we need NIL money,” Tyson said. “Let’s get this on the record. I didn’t write a big check for NIL, but I did help like a lot of families who put money into the (Razorback Foundation).”
That money that he gave to the Razorback Foundation helped secure the over $7 million contract Calipari has with Arkansas.
“The Razorback Foundation is where a lot of salaries are managed, they do it for Coach (Sam Pittman), Coach Van Horn,” Tyson said. “So the foundation is where they do the add-ons to the base salary of the university. So I made a commitment to Hunter to help in that context.”
Tyson went on to say that even though there wasn’t a blank check, he does try to help in that department.
“There was some help, but not to the degree that I wrote a blank check for Coach Cal to help out,” Tyson said. “So, we all need to help because the NIL helps all sports.”
The NIL support shouldn’t stop at the big three sports of football, basketball and baseball, though. Tyson understands that and said he likes to support the teams that most don’t think about.
“I’ve helped the NIL in different sports," Tyson said. "Primarily I try to help the sports nobody else thinks about. Track, nobody thinks about track. Women’s track, men’s track, women’s golf. The bigger sports are the ones people seem to be more attracted to.”
Tyson’s involvement doesn’t just stop with athletics, though. He said he wants the University of Arkansas to succeed, both on and off the field.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is the Gene Tyson Early Education Building on campus,” Tyson said. “Up until we gave that money for those students that are going to become our teachers, they were still going to school in a World War II Quonset hut. So that was the commitment on our campus to our teachers in early education."
