Clay Henry: Weber Spoke Every Player’s Language

As word spread Tuesday night that Dean Weber had passed, texts began to pour into my phone.

In typical fashion, they were just of the did-you-know fashion. They quickly changed to a series of messages about the greatness of the man who taped ankles for 35 seasons for the Arkansas Razorbacks football team.

One of my first messages was from Chuck Barrett, the radio voice of the Razorbacks. We discussed via text if there was anyone other than Frank Broyles who knew as much about Razorback Nation as Dean.

No, we agreed. We considered others. It wasn’t close.

There was a phone call to another radio buddy, former Razorback quarterback Matt Jones. Weber mentored Jones like a son and they drew closer through later years over many lunches.

Jones had been to see Weber many times after he became ill, including Friday of last week.

“It had been a couple of weeks and it was like he had aged 100 years, so it was tough to see him like that,” Jones said. “But he still had his sense of humor. He was always a very funny man, lots of jabs. You’d leave sometimes wondering if he liked you.”

Weber loved Jones like a son.

“One thing he said that was really funny Friday, Deano said the word cool,” Jones said. “Deano never said cool.

“But he knew your language. He could talk Matt Jones. He could talk like Anthony Lucas. He talked Darren McFadden’s language. If he talked with you, definitely you listened. He was a firecracker.

“I had a hard time going to sleep Tuesday night when I got some calls about his passing, but I knew I was in a position of love and that he had touched so many lives so that his spirit was alive and well.”

Yes, he taped ankles all of those years. Former UA head coach Houston Nutt wanted to make sure all knew that aspect just dwarfed what he did.

“Lots of trainers, as they get older, they don’t tape ankles any more,” Nutt said. “That wasn’t Dean.”

There might have been a dozen men and women working in his training rooms that could tape ankles, but Weber never stopped until he was no longer head trainer.

“That’s why he always knew the pulse of our team,” Nutt said. “That’s why he could tell me who needed a push, a lift up or someone I needed to get in line. He knew.

“He knew what to tell Coach Broyles. He was among the first to tell him not only were we outgrowing the stadium, but the building we were working in, too. And when we started making plans, they all went through Dean. He knew what we needed and where to put it.”

Nutt said his relationship started when Weber taped his ankle as an 18-year-old freshman in 1976. That would have been Weber’s third season with the Razorbacks.

“I’ll never forget it,” Nutt said. “It was August two-a-days. He was taping my ankle and two of our offensive linemen, R. C. Thielemann and Greg Koch, picked Dean up and threw him in the whirlpool.

“I thought, wow, this is a different type of relationship between a trainer and the players.”

Fast forward to 1998 when Nutt returned as head coach for the Razorbacks. Weber was still the trainer.

“As a head coach, I got very close to Dean,” Nutt said. “I’d have a staff meeting on Thursday night and then I’d have another meeting, just me and Dean, at 10 p.m. Thursday. Those were great conversations.”

That’s because Weber knew everyone so well, including the walk-ons, but especially the stars like running back Darren McFadden. No one on campus was as close to McFadden as Weber.

“I want to emphasize that Dean treated everyone the same and had no favoritism,” McFadden said. “So everyone would say the same as me about Dean. He was their guy.

“But I did have a great relationship with Dean. I have called him weekly – or he called me – even before he got sick last summer. It developed beyond a player-trainer relationship. We considered each other family.”

After McFadden finished his playing career there was a mention to Weber that rabbit hunting spots were drying up in Pulaski County. He asked Weber if there might be some places McFadden could bring his grandfather for some hunts in Washington County.

“Of course, Dean knew everyone there and soon we were hunting some pretty good spots in his area,” McFadden said. “He’d call around and we’d have some place to hunt.”

McFadden said there were many great conversations through the years, some in the training room, many more on the phone.

“The training room talks, I doubt I can tell you exactly what was said,” McFadden said. “You know training room talk is a different language. Our language might not be so good, that’s both of us. Those were some colorful words, not appropriate for me to tell you.”