Hogs vs. Longhorns says it all
An Arkansas-Texas game must mean something on both sides of the Red River.
Why else would the Longhorn Network televise “The Big Shootout” within days of a College World Series game between the Razorbacks and Longhorns?
Driving home Thursday night, I received this text message from a friend: “Dec. ‘69. Hogs vs. Horns. What was final score … without researching it.” Texas 15, Arkansas 14. That from an eyewitness, without researching it.
Some broken hearts never mend, and I still say that the Longhorns got away with a clipping penalty on James Street’s touchdown run to start the fourth quarter.
With no more prompting than that, much about that cold, cloudy early afternoon, the latest that a football game had been played in Fayetteville, came into sharp focus.
* ABC, which in March persuaded Frank Broyles and Darrell Royal to switch their Southwest Conference grudge match from October, had a virtual super bowl in the last major college-football game of the 1960s: No. 1 Texas vs. No. 2 Arkansas.
* ABC, which then owned exclusive rights to college football, had Chris Schenkel on playby-play, Bud Wilkinson providing commentary and Bill Flemming with sideline reports. The Rev. Billy Graham delivered the invocation, and ABC promoted an upcoming fight: Sonny Liston vs. Leotis Martin.
* Jim Murray penned a satiric column in the Los Angeles Times, written in midair and reprinted on game day by the Arkansas Gazette, that rankled some people around here. In a state that fruits and jellies were sold along the roadside, Ma and Pa Kettle hadn’t been this excited since they got electricity. Or words to that effect.
* Then, the president of the United States almost upstaged the game. Richard Nixon, who played some football at California’s Whittier College, decided he had to be there and present a trophy to college football’s national champion (conveniently forgetting that Penn State also was unbeaten — and that Pennsylvania had more electoral votes than Arkansas).
* Thus ended a week that college students sweated out a draft call (one William Jefferson Clinton backed out of an ROTC commitment after receiving a high lottery number, something that would come up when the Arkansan sought the White House in 1992). Not long after the Vietnam Moratorium in Washington, John Lennon was singing “Give Peace a Chance,” and Nixon, as a Razorback player of that time noted 25 years later, wasn’t especially popular on college campuses in 1969.
But Nixon knew football, and what he witnessed was a humdinger, the last major college game between two all-white teams. At halftime, Arkansas leading 7-0, Nixon told the ABC crew that Texas’ lethal offense was sure to get untracked and that it might take a deep pass.
James Street, a baseball pitcher by trade but never to lose as Texas’ quarterback took it from there. Slick, as they called him (Chris Schenkel insisted on “Jimmy”), added a two-point conversion (making it 14-8) after his impromptu touchdown. Street then got Darrell Royal off the hook with a perfect pass to Randy Peschel on fourth and four, setting up the touchdown (by Jim Bertlesen) that with Happy Feller’s conversion made it 15-14 and sent Nixon (after consoling Arkansas) to the Texas dressing room.
After all these years: What did Nixon know, and when did he know it?
A motion has been brought to the floor to change the subject to baseball. Let us do so.
Since winning NCAA super regionals Monday on their respective home fields, Arkansas and Texas have had time to work themselves into a frenzy for their College World Series
matchup at 1 p.m. Sunday in Omaha, Neb.
Texas, seeking its sixth title on its record 36th CWS appearance, is the blue-chip stock here though Arkansas is given a good chance of winning its first CWS on its ninth visit and fifth under coach Dave Van Horn.
Arkansas would rather play, of course, in Fayetteville’s Baum Stadium, where it went 34-4 this season as opposed to 9-15 in true road games and at neutral sites. Highly ranked all along, the Razorbacks were efficient in a regional sweep of Oral Roberts, Southern Miss and Dallas Baptist, then avenged a rare home loss in a 14-4 super regional rubber game against South Carolina.
Texas, playing both series in Austin, beat Texas A&M for the regional title and won two close games against Tennessee Tech after dropping Game One in the super regional.
The most visible player on either side may be Texas’ Kody Clemens, whose dad pitched for the Longhorns and, like Pete Rose and some others, is still waiting for word from the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
People who watch the Razorbacks closely say this is the best offensive lineup top to bottom that Arkansas has sent to Omaha in years, perhaps ever.
College baseball teams compress so many games into such a short time that regular-season results risk being forgotten. Arkansas claimed two Baum victories over Texas (13-4, 7-5) and one (5-1) against Texas Tech, a second Big 12 team in Omaha. Arkansas played two other CWS qualifiers, going 2-2 against Florida (beating the Gators 8-2 in the SEC tournament in Hoover, Ala.) and losing three on the road to Mississippi State.
An Omaha championship for the Hogs would end the sometimes chaotic 2017-18 UA athletic year on a high note. After the football team hit bottom and the men’s basketball squad never quite topped out, baseball is keeping Hog callers active until late June.
If nothing else, Texas has turned to UA graduate Edrick Floreal, one of the best coached by John McDonnell, to run its track-and-field program. Such things get noticed on this side of the Red River, where WPS stands for more than win, place and show.