AUSTIN, Texas — Texas’ move to the Southeastern Conference has rekindled an old rivalry once so intense that national championships hung in the balance and a U.S. president made a special trip to attend.
The Texas-Arkansas border clash is a feud that in its heyday was as big as any in the country. It renews this week when the No. 3 Longhorns and Razorbacks meet as programs in the same conference for the first time since 1991.
The Longhorns (8-1, 4-1, No. 3 CFP ) and Razorbacks (5-4, 3-3) have met a handful of times over the last three decades, but the rivalry still drips with lore among the old-timers around both programs.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, a California native, got his first taste of it in 2021 when Arkansas smashed Texas 40-21 and Razorbacks fans stormed the field.
It was Sarkisian’s first defeat with Texas, and he would later declare that Arkansas fans probably hate Texas more than they like themselves. Arkansas coach Sam Pittman agreed.
“I don’t know what (former Texas coach) Darrell Royal did to Arkansas back in the day, but they absolutely hate our guts,” Sarkisian said. “And I think we learned that the first time around when we went there.”
That’s exactly it. The bitterness runs deep across the ages.
The Longhorns-Razorbacks rivalry dates to 1894, and for many years determined supremacy in the old Southwest Conference. It took on national significance from 1960-70 as eight games featured at least one team ranked in the Top 10. Six times, both teams were.
A Longhorns goal-line stand preserved a 7-3 Texas win in 1962 that determined the SWC title. Texas won the national title in 1963. Arkansas went undefeated and claimed a share of the national crown a year later. Royal said the loss cost Texas another championship.
And then came 1969’s No. 1 vs No. 2 “Game of the Century,” or “The Big Shootout” as it’s known in Arkansas.
Anticipating a blockbuster end to college football’s centennial celebration, Texas-Arkansas had been moved from its usual midseason matchup to Dec. 6, making it the only game in the country that day.
President Nixon flew in by helicopter to attend. The Rev. Billy Graham gave the pregame invocation.
Arkansas led 14-0 before Texas rallied to win 15-14, a victory that turned on James Street’s 44-yard pass to Randy Peschel on fourth down. Nixon and his entourage made their way to the crowded, musty Longhorns locker room to greet the players, and presented Royal with a national championship plaque.
“He was walking around like one of the guys. You’re a kid, you’ve just beaten Arkansas, somebody says, `Congratulations’ and you say, `Thanks, buddy!′ and start slapping backs, not realizing it’s the president of the United States,” Street told The Associated Press in 2005.
In Texas lore, the game ranked as the program’s greatest victory until Vince Young and the Longhorns beat USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl for the national championship.
The rivalry split when the Razorbacks left the SWC for the SEC in 1992 and the teams have played only a handful of times since then. Texas leads the overall series 56-23 but the Razorbacks have won four of the six matchups since 2000.
And then Texas joined the SEC, and the league immediately linked the Razorbacks and Longhorns again. It is yet to be determined if the matchup will be an annual one or just every few years, but the latest edition comes at a time when national championship dreams are once again on the line.
Texas is tied atop the SEC with an eye on the conference championship game and the College Football Playoff. Another loss in Fayetteville could severely damage both of those goals.
Pittman said he showed his team some grainy highlights of the 1964 and 1969 matchups, as well as 1991, the last time the Razorbacks and Longhorns met as conference opponents. He wanted his players to feel the history between the schools.
“I think you have to educate the kids on how big the game is to the fans (and) to the university,” Pittman said. “I think rivalry games matter.”
The history lesson made an impact on the Razorbacks.
“We’re here, I mean 60-70 years later and this game still means the world to Arkansas and Texas,” Arkansas offensive lineman Fernando Carmona said. “I’m excited to make history.”
Both teams have a few players left from the 2021 matchup. Of the 11 still on the Texas roster, nine are starters.
Texas players recalled Razorbacks fans jeering the Longhorns bus all the way from the team hotel to the stadium.
“I remember a packed house. I remember them not treating us very well,” senior center Jake Major said.
Texas defensive tackle Alfred Collins remembered the nightmare that was the game.
“It was an introduction to the SEC,” Collins said. “They came out and wanted to whip our (butts) and they did.”
This group of Longhorns likely won’t be intimidated by the crowd, the Razorbacks or what’s at stake. Texas has won nine consecutive games on an opponents’ home field. Pittman noted the roster differences between the Texas team of three years ago and the one coming to play this weekend.
“Their talent level is certainly a lot faster, bigger,” Pittman said.
