Roberson Remembers: Ole Miss and Arkansas - A College Football Series of Significance - Ole Miss Athletics

To say there have been some unusual football games between Ole Miss and Arkansas is the proverbial understatement. It's a series that began long before the Razorbacks joined charter member Ole Miss in the Southeastern Conference 30 years ago.

Perhaps no other game of historical significance between the two schools proved this better than the 1960 game, an era when both teams were good but Ole Miss was a national title contender every season.

Ole Miss won the game that season 10-7 in Little Rock, but there was much debate from Arkansas as to the outcome.

Late in the game with the score 7-7, Ole Miss placekicker Allen Green lined up for a go-ahead field goal. He kicked the football through the uprights, but referee Tommy Bell had signaled timeout. Reportedly, he did so because the players could not hear their signals due to crowd noise inside War Memorial Stadium.

So Green lined up again and kicked the football. This time it appeared the kick might have missed, and to those Razorback fans in the end zone, there was no doubt that it did. But Bell immediately signaled the kick "good," certainly all Rebels agreed with that, and the game ended 10-7 in favor of Ole Miss.

The Rebels did not lose a game that season - only a 6-6 tie with a mediocre LSU team in Oxford was a blemish - and they were awarded a national championship by the Football Writers Association of America at 10-0-1.

"Each December, a man in Arkansas sends me a Christmas card," wrote legendary Ole Miss head coach John Vaught in his 1971 memoir "Rebel Coach." "He wants to haunt me, not wish me a Merry Christmas.

"The man draws slanted goal posts on the back of the card," Vaught continued. "I understand. He doesn't want me to forget something I learned a long time ago. Football fans have long memories."

The 1961 game, won by the Rebels 16-0 on dedication day of the renovated and expanded Mississippi Memorial Stadium in Jackson, was the last in the era. Besides two Sugar Bowl wins by Ole Miss in 1963 and 1970, it was 20 years before the teams played another game.

When they finally did meet in 1981 in Jackson, one of the largest crowds in the history of Mississippi sports showed up for the 27-13 Hogs' win. Fans on both sides of the Mississippi River were pleased to see the series return.

Ole Miss and Arkansas had already played for 11 consecutive seasons prior to their first SEC matchup in 1992. During that transition stretch for the Razorbacks, the Rebels won four games in a row (1990-93).

The 1990 game played in Little Rock was the most memorable of the era. Chris Mitchell, the first recipient of the Chucky Mullins Courage Award, made a last second hit on Hogs' tailback Ron Dickerson after some of his Rebel teammates had slowed Dickerson down just enough that Mitchell's hit knocked him sideways and short of the goal as time expired.

Final score that day: Ole Miss 21, Arkansas 17.

Through the years there've been all kinds of moments in this series. There was - at the time - the longest game in NCAA history, a 58-56 win in seven overtimes by Arkansas in 2001 in Oxford.

And there was Houston Nutt's first game against Arkansas when he was the Rebels' head coach after 10 seasons as the Razorbacks' head coach. Ole Miss won a 23-21 nailbiter in Fayetteville in 2008.

But nothing was more painful for Ole Miss than the 53-52 overtime loss to Arkansas in 2015 in Oxford. The Rebels could have continued on a path toward the SEC Championship game as the SEC West's representative had they won. As it turned out, their consolation prize was quite noteworthy, a ninth trip for the program to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans and a 48-20 victory against Oklahoma State.

Way back in 1914, Ole Miss won 13-7 on the field, but the Razorbacks disputed the results. They still do. Arkansas does not acknowledge the Ole Miss victory. In 1938 in Memphis, a major brawl broke out among players from both teams. When the dust settled, Ole Miss had a 20-14 victory.

More recently, Arkansas won 33-21 last season in Fayetteville, but the Rebels had won the prior two seasons - 37-33 in Little Rock in 2018, and 31-17 in Oxford in 2019.

So it's time once again for Ole Miss and Arkansas to renew their ancient and storied series. You can expect the unexpected, but perhaps more than that, expect a good college football contest between two rivals of more than a century.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

Roberson Remembers: Ole Miss and Arkansas - A College Football Series of Significance

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