Arkansas Razorbacks
The Arkansas Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the intercollegiate athletics teams representing the University of Arkansas, located in Fayetteville. The University of Arkansas student body voted to change the name of the school mascot in 1910 to the Arkansas Razorbacks after a hard-fought battle against LSU in which they were said to play like a "wild band of Razorback hogs" by former coach Hugo Bezdek. The Arkansas Razorbacks are the only major sports team in the U.S. with a porcine nickname, though the Texas A&M–Kingsville Javelinas play in Division II.
The University of Arkansas currently fields 19 total varsity teams in 13 sports, and competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I level as a member of the Southeastern Conference.
History
After classes were first held at the university, a contest was held on campus to select school colors. Cardinal was selected over heliotrope, a shade of moderate purple. The first Arkansas football team was formed that same year and was known as the "Arkansas Cardinals". Arkansas merchandise sold at the highest levels in school history during the 2012–13 academic year when royalties through CLC ranked 10th best in the nation.In 1909, the football team finished a 7–0 season, allowing only 18 points on defense and scoring 186 points on offense. College Football Hall of Fame coach Hugo Bezdek proclaimed his team played "like a wild band of razorback hogs". The name proved so popular that it was changed for the 1910 season. The tradition of calling the hogs, "Woo, Pig! Sooie" was added in the 1920s.
In 1957, Frank Broyles was hired as the head football coach and served in that position for 19 years. Broyles' team was awarded the 1964 National Championship by the Football Writers Association of America and the Helms Athletic Foundation. At the time, the AP Poll and UPI Coaches Poll both awarded their championships before bowl games, and they gave their awards to an undefeated Alabama. However, Alabama lost the 1965 Orange Bowl game to Texas, while Arkansas won the 1965 Cotton Bowl Classic against Nebraska. The FWAA and HAF both awarded their national championship designations to Arkansas, who was the only team to go undefeated through the bowl games that year. Both the University of Arkansas and the University of Alabama claimed national championships for 1964.
In 1969, Broyles' team was ranked #2 and played the #1-ranked Texas Longhorns, coached by Darrell Royal, in Fayetteville. The game, known as "The Big Shootout" is perhaps the most notable football game in Razorback history. President Richard Nixon was even in attendance. The Razorbacks led 14–0 until the 4th quarter when Texas scored 15 unanswered points and won the game 15-14. Nixon gave Texas the UPI national championship trophy after the game. In the second half, Arkansas missed a field goal attempt, and then turned the ball over inside the Texas 5 yard line on another possession.
After Broyles left coaching to focus on his other job as Athletic Director, he hired Lou Holtz to take over his former position. Holtz served as the head football coach from 1977 through the 1983 season. Under Holtz, the Razorbacks continued their success, beating Oklahoma in the 1978 Orange Bowl to finish the 1977 season 11-1 overall and ranked #3 in the final polls. After finishing the 1978 season 9-2-1 with a tie against UCLA in the 1978 Fiesta Bowl, Arkansas won a share of the Southwest Conference championship in 1979, but lost to Alabama in the 1980 Sugar Bowl to finish 10-2. Holtz's last four teams finished 7-5 in 1980, 8-4 in 1981, 9-2-1 in 1982, and 6-5 in 1983.
In 1971, the women's athletic department was formed. On January 1, 2008, the men's and women's athletic departments merged along with a new athletic director.
The basketball team rose to prominence in the 1970s now under the coaching of Eddie Sutton and with future NBA star Sidney Moncrief along with Marvin Delph and Ron Brewer, three similarly sized Arkansas-bred guards, known as "The Triplets". The team made a Final Four appearance under him, finishing 3rd by defeating Notre Dame on a last-second shot in the now-defunct consolation game.
In the 1980s, the football team was now coached by former Razorback All-American Ken Hatfield, and established itself as a powerful running team. The Razorbacks challenged for the SWC title each year, winning the conference championship in 1988 and 1989, and went to the Cotton Bowl Classic twice. Hatfield's teams established excellent regular-season records, but had difficulty winning bowl games, finishing 1-5 in bowls under Hatfield.
In 1990, Broyles announced that the Razorbacks would leave the Southwest Conference and join the Southeastern Conference beginning in the 1991-92 school year, setting off a major realignment in college football. Now with twelve teams, the SEC broke up into two separate divisions with Arkansas in the West with Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and LSU. In 1995, the Arkansas Razorbacks won its first SEC Western Division Title in football, but lost to East Division champion Florida in the SEC Championship Game.
In 1994, Nolan Richardson's basketball Razorbacks won the NCAA Tournament. His basketball teams challenged for the SEC and national championships regularly during the 1990s, making three trips to the Final Four and two to the championship game while compiling a record of 389–169 in his 17 years as the head basketball coach.
On December 10, 1997, Houston Nutt was hired as head football coach for the Razorbacks to replace Danny Ford, who had been head coach since 1993, and the 1998 season was his first full season. Highly sought after as a Little Rock Central quarterback, Nutt had been the last recruit to sign under Broyles, but transferred to Oklahoma State University because he did not fit Holtz's offensive plans. Nutt would guide the Hogs to 3 SEC West Division title in 1998, 2002, and 2006, plus bowl victories over Texas in the 2000 Cotton Bowl Classic and over Missouri in the 2003 Independence Bowl. Nutt also coached running back Darren McFadden from 2005 to 2007, who would finish his career at Arkansas as the all-time leading rusher in school history, as well as the most decorated player to ever wear a Razorback football uniform. McFadden would be 1st team All-SEC for three years in a row, 1st team All-American in 2006 and 2007, and he would win the Doak Walker Award as the nation's best RB in 2006 and 2007, and the Walter Camp Award in 2007 as the nation's most outstanding player. McFadden would also finish as runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in 2006 and 2007.
Soon after Houston Dale Nutt's departure, two significant things happened. First, AD Broyles retired, and he was replaced by new AD Jeff Long. Second, Long then hired Atlanta Falcons head coach Bobby Petrino, who abruptly departed the NFL to lead the Hogs. After a losing record in his first season, and finishing 8-5 in 2009 after winning the 2010 Liberty Bowl, Petrino led the team to a BCS game in 2010, but lost to Ohio State in the 2011 Sugar Bowl to finish the season 10-3. In 2011 his team would finish 11-2 and ranked #5 in the final polls after beating Kansas State in the 2012 Cotton Bowl Classic, thanks to a heavy passing attack. On April 1, 2012, Petrino drove his motorcycle into a ditch with a passenger aboard. He was fired after it was revealed this passenger was his mistress whom he had hired onto his staff. AD Jeff Long introduced special teams coordinator, and former Michigan State head coach, John L. Smith as the interim coach for the 2012 season in late April.
Smith entered the season as the steward of a preseason Top 10 squad with multiple preseason Heisman hopefuls. He recorded the school's first loss to a Sunbelt team in the program's 100-year history as Louisiana Monroe pulled the upset in Little Rock. In only his second game, he had managed the second-largest drop from the AP ranking narrowly missing the #1 spot held by Michigan after losing the season opener to Appalachian State just five years before.
In 2011, Long hired former Nolan Richardson assistant coach Mike Anderson as the new men's basketball head coach. Anderson's tenure was an up-and-down roller coaster, featuring highs such as a last second victory over Kentucky in 2015, plus NCAA tournament teams in 2015, 2017, and 2018. But Anderson ultimately failed to take the Razorbacks back to national prominence on a consistent basis, and he was let go by new AD Hunter Yurachek after the 2018-2019 season.
Yurachek then hired Nevada coach Eric Musselman to take over as the new head coach in the 2019-2020 season. Following a 20 win first year, Musselman coached his next two teams to the NCAA's Elite Eight in the 2021 and 2022 tournaments. Both teams finished ranked in the AP Top 20 and the UPI Top 10.
On December 4, 2012, the school named former University of Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema as head coach for the 2013 season. Coach Bielema rebuilt the team around a power running game and strong defense and led the Hogs back to a winning record in 2014 including back-to-back shutouts over top ten teams, the first time in history such a feat had been accomplished by an unranked team, and a victory over Texas in the 2014 Texas Bowl at the end of the season. Bielema would coach Arkansas to another bowl victory in 2015, beating Kansas State in the 2016 Liberty Bowl. However, his team collapsed in the last couple of games in 2016, and then stumbled to a losing record in 2017. AD Jeff Long had already been let go by the school prior to the end of the 2017 season, and interim AD Julie Cromer fired Bielema after the final game.
Cromer then hired SMU head coach Chad Morris as the new head coach after the 2017 season. Cromer would then leave Arkansas to become the AD at Ohio University in the summer of 2019 after she was replaced by current Athletics Director Hunter Yurachek in early 2018. Morris' tenure as the head coach of the football team is considered one of the worst in school history. Over one full season, and a shortened second season, Morris never won an SEC game, and both of his teams would finish with abysmal records of 2-10. Yurachek fired Morris with two games left in the 2019 season, and promoted tight ends coach Barry Lunney Jr to interim head coach for the final two games. Lunney left after the season was over, and Yurachek hired Georgia offensive line coach Sam Pittman as Arkansas' new head coach. Pittman had been the Razorbacks offensive line coach under Bielema from 2013 to 2015, and had produced some of the best linemen, and offensive lines, in school history. Several former players signed a petition asking Yurachek to hire Pittman.
In 2020, Arkansas only played ten games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Arkansas' last conference victory had been on October 28, 2017 against Ole Miss. On October 3, 2020, Pittman's Razorbacks broke a 20-game SEC losing streak by defeating Mississippi St in Starkville, 21-14. The team would finish the SEC-only season at 3-7, also beating Ole Miss and Tennessee. Pittman's 2021 squad would improve upon the previous season in a big way, going 9-4 overall after beating Penn State in the 2022 Outback Bowl on New Year's Day, and finish ranked in the final AP Top 25 at #21. Pittman would be named the 2021 AFCA Region 2 Coach of the Year.