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The home of Arkansas Tech University football has a new name. Rick and Harriet Thone were honored on Saturday, Oct. 20, during a ceremony before the Arkansas Tech Homecoming football game when the home of the Wonder Boys was named Thone Stadium at Buerkle Field. The Thones were co-chairs of the Return to Glory capital campaign, which raised $5 million in private donations to help fund renovations to the football stadium and the construction of a new women’s sports complex. Among the renovations at the football stadium are new concession stands, new restrooms, a new scoreboard, a new permanent bandstand, a new press box, a new area for the sale of Tech spirit items, a new entrance to the stadium and numerous other esthetic improvements. Mr. Thone is a 1972 Arkansas Tech graduate. He was an All-America wide receiver on the 1971 Wonder Boys team that won the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference championship with an undefeated regular season record of 11-0 and reached the championship game of the NAIA National Playoffs. Mr. Thone remains the all-time leading receiver in Tech history with 143 receptions for 2,330 yards. He went on to serve as a coach at Tech before moving into private business. Mr. Thone later served as Arkansas Tech Alumni Association president in 1993-94 and was on the Arkansas Tech Board of Trustees for four years. Mrs. Thone grew up with Tech. Her grandfather, Walter Lewis Hood; father, Jack Burns; and brother, Mark Burns, all either played or were fans of Tech football. Her affiliations with Tech include student, freshman Homecoming court, Brown Hall Freshman Sweetheart, alumna, coach’s wife and dorm mother at Brown Hall. Later, she served the university as a member of the Board of Trustees from 2000-05. Mr. and Mrs. Thone are the only husband and wife combination to ever serve as members of the Arkansas Tech Board of Trustees. While the name Thone Stadium is new, the playing surface at the Wonder Boys’ home football facility has been known as Buerkle Field since 1923. That was when then-Tech President Hugh Critz named it in honor of John G. Buerkle, who had been instrumental in developing the field. Buerkle was a mathematics and engineering instructor at Tech from 1920-29. He later returned to serve Tech as physical plant engineer from 1947-62. |
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