D-Making of D-Mac

With Arkansas' football season just days away I thought I would post these photos I shot for a story published in TMN last weekend about Darren McFadden's family life growing up in Little Rock. Sports writer Alex Abrams and I spent about five hours in Little Rock in mid-July interviewing and photographing McFadden's family members. The woman in the lead photo above is McFadden's mother, Mini Muhammad. Miss Mini, as she is known by friends and family, is a really nice lady and was fun to visit with for the hour-and-a-half we spent with her.


McFadden's grandmother, Helen McFadden, and father, Graylon McFadden, hold the star Arkansas tailback's Doak Walker Award in Helen's living room in North Little Rock. McFadden left the trophy with his grandmother for safe keeping. The solid bronze statue must weigh 20 pounds. I can tell you she is just touching the trophy and McFadden's father is actually holding it.


Mini Muhammad sorts through a box full of Darren's awards and newspaper clippings dating from the present back to his high school days.


Darren's sister, Medina Johns, talks about her younger brother while styling a clients hair at Q's Barber and Salon in east Little Rock. "He was definitely a star. He was runnin' all over them boys," Johns said of Darren's days playing football at Oak Grove High School.

Only 6 more days til football season kick's off.