However, the ground work for Arkansas' successful program was laid by John Barnhill, who coached the football team from 1946 through 1949 and then became athletic director.Īrkansas' current associate AD for finance and development, Wilson Matthews, was the first assistant coach Broyles hired when he arrived.Īs the super-successful head man at Little Rock Central High School, Matthews saw the foundation for Arkansas football success laid when Barnhill organized Razorback Clubs all over the state. If Broyles didn't trigger the fans' fever, he certainly kept it aflame. The enthusiasm survived Jack Mitchell's 5-4-1, 6-4 and 6-4 seasons and the 1958 record of 4-6 under new coach Frank Broyles.īut Broyles went on to win 144 games, lose only 58 and tie five in 19 seasons before starting to devote full time to the athletic directorship in 1977. The fever which rose in 1954 subsided only slightly when Wyatt got into a new Cadillac fans had given him and drove off to the University of Tennessee. But the Razorbacks' fans surpassed the Sooners' when it came to fanaticism. The fever in Arkansas was similar to that in Oklahoma when the Sooners started winning big under Jim Tatum in 1946 and then won bigger _and almost always under Bud Wilkinson. It was the Razorbacks' first winning season since 1947 and their first big winning season since 1937. It was not surprising the epidemic erupted because Arkansas fans' resistance certainly was low. The statewide epidemic of football fever, which still rages unchecked, struck Arkansas in 1954, when Bowden Wyatt's second (and last) Razorback team finished 8-2 in the regular season and won the Southwest Conference championship before losing to Georgia Tech in the Cotton Bowl. Unborn sailors will someday hear that echo, and it will likely become known as a haunted ship.Īll of this will come to pass because some folks from Arkansas wanted pork instead of roast beef.FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. This sound will be echoing in the depths of the USS Ranger for years to come. Hopefully, these folks will have a nice generic cheer, something old-fashioned like: “Rah rah, sis boom bah, go Sun Devils.”īut from that one section of the stadium will come this forlorn oooooooohing like the sound emerging from the mist in a Stephen King movie. Consequently, this won’t be one big hog bog hoedown. Indeed, ASU’s teams are known as the Sun Devils. This animal is a member of the family tayassuidae, which I presume is pronounced something like: “Tay-yah-soooooey-day.”Īlas, Arizona State’s fans do not seem inclined to call the hogs indigenous to their neighborhoods. This beast, which resembles the razorback on the Arkansas helmet, is described as the New World counterpart of the swine. However, it will interest the gentleman from Arizona that the javelina is listed, though not in any detail. You know how nicknames are the rage these days. This would not seem to be a pig, and I forgot to check and see if it was the nickname of an Arkansas lineman. In fact, the only razorback I found in the encyclopedia was the razorback whale. I guess the Arkansas Razorback has more to do with pigskins than pigs. Remarkably, there was nothing about either an Arkansas pig or an Arkansas razorback. ![]() Under pig, I found Beltville, Palouse, Yorkshire Large White, Berkshire, Spotted Poland China, Chester White, Hampshire, Duroc, Maryland, Minnesota and Montana, among others. Flip to another volume and I would understand about these razorbacks-and maybe javelinas. However, under hog with one G and a lower case h, it said: “See pig.” I found James Hogg, Quintin Hogg and Thomas Jefferson Hogg. I hastened to the office and looked up hog. I thought the encyclopedia might be helpful. It is even fashionable to debate which university has the best football team, though that question will be resolved Sunday evening. These pre-game affairs usually develop into no-win debates over which state is the best or the most beautiful. I don’t think anyone from Arkansas can even spell that name, let alone say it. ![]() This fellow Brent Brown, the executive vice president of Arizona State University, was standing at the microphone. This was not to end when the Arkansas folks settled back in their seats, because Arizona State was not about to let the Razorbacks hog the spotlight. John Paul Jones, the first Ranger’s first captain, surely would not have understood, but he probably would have been equally confused by football itself. ![]() you guessed it.Īll of this was transpiring on one of America’s finest fighting ships. ![]() Some of them-again, adults, mind you-even wear silly red plastic hats molded in the shape of a. I was to later learn these people rise in groups of 50,000 to call for these pigs back home in hog heaven. Razorbacks? Pigs? Hogs? What was this they were ordering? Pig-soooooey? Or was it pig-suey? Is it eaten with rice? Or perhaps grits?įrankly, I was content to pig out on the roast beef.
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