MOUNTAIN PINE, Ark. — Mountain Pine High School got a special visit from one of its very own on Friday.
Popular radio personality, and Arkansas native, Bobby Bones traveled back to his roots to give back to the community that he says helped him get to where he is now.
Before he was the main man behind the largest morning show in country radio, Bobby Bones was just a regular hard working young boy from Mountain Pine, Arkansas.
On Friday afternoon, he went back to the gym he used to play in bringing with him a big surprise and an even bigger message.
For the students at Mountain Pine High School, it wasn't their usual pep-rally.
"It was pretty crazy. Everyone was getting ready for him to come and excited," Josiah Walpole, eleventh grader and basketball player, said.
Extra security filled the parking lot while the school sign read a different message than normal: "Welcome Bobby Bones."
Bones said being back home was surreal.
"It's just great to come back home. I love Mountain Pine, I have Arkansas tattooed on my arm," he said.
Bones, the youngest inductee into the National Radio Hall of Fame, made a trip back to the town that was always there for him.
"I didn't have the most stable home life, so I relied on a lot of people to help me," he said.
On Friday afternoon he showed his gratitude by giving every member of the basketball team brand new Air Jordan's.
Walpole said it is an honor to receive them from Bones.
"It was pretty crazy, wasn't expecting it," he said.
This gesture coming from a personal challenge Bobby said he had years ago when he was the one out there on the court.
"Whenever I was growing up, playing ball you had to have matching shoes and if you didn't you were almost shamed so my goal was to never make that be a factor with the players here," he said.
Now, nobody on the Mountain Pine Red Devils basketball team will ever have to experience that feeling.
"It shows us that he actually cares and he comes down to support us," Walpole said.
This one-of-a-kind supporter wanting these players to know one thing.
"You don't have to be the most talented. You don't have to be the rich kid, you don't have to be really anything than someone who's going to put in the effort," Bones said.
The born and raised Arkansan spreading kindness one basketball shoe at a time.
Bones said he wants everyone to know where his roots are.
"This is my home. I want the whole state to know that, that I'm here and I don't have to know you or be a blood relative but I still care about you," he said.
Bobby Bones is a jack of all trades from being crowned winner of the Dancing With the Stars to having his own comedy band, but there could be something else in his future.
He said for the past year he has been asked to run for the Governor of Arkansas.
"To say that I wasn't considering it seriously would be a lie," Bones said.