Football Fans Love A Winner

FARMINGTON’S 1973 CHAMPIONSHIP RUN

FARMINGTON — On opening week during its 1973 Class B football championship season, Farmington took care of the blemish on its 11-1 championship campaign the year before.

The Cardinals whipped rival Prairie Grove, 52- 6, the first of 12 opponents to fall during a perfect 12- 0 season that became part of a 34- game winning streak that lasted until a 28-15 playoff loss to Gillett in the 1974 semifinals and included a 20-14 playoff win in 1974 over Murfreesboro.

Another streak the 1973 team maintained featured four straight undefeated conference seasons in which the Cardinals ruled their league by going 27-0 from 1972-1975.

Dave Campbell’s Arkansas Football Magazine ranked Farmington No. 1 in the preseason and football fans love winners. All-Conference guard Ron Hudson recalls people came from Fayetteville and all around Northwest Arkansas to watch the Cardinals play because at the time other area schools weren’t winning as much.

“When we came out on Friday night at five thirty or six o’clock it was packed. There were cars lining the parking lot two and three deep to watch us,” Hudson said. “They came out of the woodwork to come and watch us and it was packed. I mean it was a packed Friday night and so it was exciting. It was fun to play for.”

Legendary coach Allen Holland brought the first state championships in any sport to Farmington.

“In the old days they only took the winner of each conference which made it a lot simpler,” Holland said.

Since there were only six conferences across the Natural State two teams got a bye and Farmington drew a bye in both 1972 and 1973.

“We were fortunate to get a bye so we only had to play two games, but you still have to win them,” Holland said.

The disadvantage to getting a bye sometimes manifests against teams facing an opponent that had a game to get over any playoff jitters but the Cardinals never skipped a beat. The year before Farmington knocked off 1971 state champion in the 1972 semifinal and the teams would meet again in the 1973 playoffs.

In the first round, Danville routed Mountain Pine, 46-12, bringing up a rematch of the 1972 semifinal. Farmington emerged with a 31-24 win to reach the Class B State football championship for the second straight year in 1973.

Hazen advanced up the opposite side of the bracket with wins over Gillett (13-0) and Mineral Springs (26-22) in the semifinal.

Hudson, whose brothers Bobby and Kenny Hudson also played on the 1973 squad, cherishes memories from the state championship game that went down to the wire with the Cardinals nursing a four-point lead and needing four straight defensive plays to halt a Hazen foray into the red zone.

“It was wet and cold and we beat Hazen in the finals, 10-6. We stopped them on the one-foot-line,” Hudson said.

Hazen had first-and-goal at the Cardinal one, but never found the end zone, disdaining a 3- point field goal kick which would have still left them trailing by a point.

“Del Scarborough, he tackled one of the Lisko boys who went to Arkansas State on a scholarship and that preserved the win, 10-6, and there was 30 seconds to go in the game,” Hudson said. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I mean, them guys I’d go to war with. We had a good time though. Two state championships is good.”

Farmington completed a perfect season 12-0 overall and 7-0 in league play.

The 1973 Cardinals scored 501 points, averaging 41.8 points per game while holding opponents to a meager 53 points on the season and allowing an average of 4.4 points.