Authorities in Mississippi have announced that one person has been arrested in connection with last weekend’s shooting that wounded Mizzou star running back Ahmad Hardy. Television station WJTV quotes Laurel police as saying that Rashodrick Harris was arrested early Friday morning in Kentucky.
Mizzou athletic director Laird Veatch updated listeners about Hardy during a one-hour in-studio interview Saturday morning on 939 the Eagle’s “CEO Roundtable.” Mr. Veatch notes he can’t get into much detail because of HIPPA:
“I can tell you that it is certainly unfortunate what took place. But the damage that was done and how it’s been managed afterwards seems to be recoverable. Now I know we’re not at a place where we’re going to speculate on timing and everybody wants to know if he’s going to play this next fall,” he says.
Mr. Veatch tells host Fred Parry that it looks like Hardy will be recovering but he has to go through a process and it’s early in that process. Veatch says by all indications Hardy will be okay but it’s how long that takes to get there. Mr. Veatch says he’s spoken to Mizzou football coach Eliah Drinkwitz and team doctors and that it will be a few weeks to get a sense for how fast recovery might be.
Meantime, the University of Missouri’s athletic director is very appreciative of his new three-year contract extension, which has been approved by the UM Board of Curators. Mr. Veatch tells listeners that the extension is meaningful, saying UM System President Dr. Mun Choi came to him:
“There was no political wrangling, there were none of that behind the scenes. They came to me and said hey we appreciate what you’re doing, and you and your team … and we’ve got a lot of positive things going here and we believe in you and they wanted to carry it forward,” says Veatch.
President Choi says the momentum of Mizzou Athletics is undeniable, thanks to Mr. Veatch’s leadership. Veatch began as athletic director in May 2024 and tells listeners that he and his family are happy to be back in Columbia.
UM Curators praise Veatch’s involvement in a comprehensive restructure and rebrand of the Mizzou Athletics Fund to better align donor impact with program priorities. Mr. Veatch says that in the most recent fiscal year, Mizzou Athletics increased total revenue by about $14-million to a record $182-million.