Catching Raccoon Makes Grant Harmon Overnight Celebrity

When Fayetteville native had chance he had to just reach down and grab raccoon at Baum-Walker

Author:
Andy Hodges
Updated:
May 15, 2022 4:55 PM EDT
Original:
May 15, 2022

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — We don't really know what happened to the raccoon, but we know about the guy that grabbed him.

Grant Harmon, born and raised in Fayetteville, let his country raising kick in Friday night when a raccoon that suddenly found himself surrounded by over 11,000 people, well, went into full panic mode.

He had seen the furry critter that tends to roam neighborhoods all over town. The stadiums are easy pickings for them.

And the raccoon that discovered itself around Section 117 along the third baseline ran around several areas before Harmon saw it. He tried to convince someone else to snatch it up.

Then the thing ran under him. For those who aren't aware, raccoons can become pets, but have a disturbing tendency to have a little mean streak in them.

The Rally Raccoon isn't a pet and probably wasn't interested in becoming one. Despite this, Harmon felt he still had to grab it.

"I can’t not grab it when I was telling them to grab it," Harmon said in the pressbox during the Razorbacks' game with Vanderbilt on Saturday night. "If I was telling people to grab it, I had to be able to do it myself."

Grabbing was one thing. Getting bitten (that was captured on Twitter for the world to see) was something else.

"That's when he bit me," he said showing his hand.

Harmon said several times the bite wasn't that bad. He was immediately encouraged to seek medical attention, which resulted in a tetanus shot followed by the first of what will be a couple of rabies shots.

"Man, that hurt way worse," Harmon said. "They had to put it right into my hand, like between my fingers, so that was not very pleasant."

Harmon has numerous interviews over the next few days, including an appearance on the SEC Network’s “Rally Cap” show with Dari Nowkhah on Sunday night.