For an obvious reason, nose candy appears to be first and foremost on Hog fans' minds today, but here at Razorback Expats, we thought it might be a nice change of pace to talk about something more pleasant. Little Rock's KATV Channel 7 has come up with a great way to pass the hot, lazy and hazy days of summer: by counting down the 16 most memorable Hog football moments since the program joined the SEC.
To help compile the list, Steve Sullivan, the station's sports director, canvassed the state's sports journalistic/broadcasting icons (we were outraged that we didn't get a call), and several of those guys have since published their thoughts on the matter.
ArkansasSports360's Jim Harris says the 20-19 win over Alabama in 1995, which featured Barry Lunney's last-second and slightly controversial touchdown pass to J.J. Meadors, tops his list. Says Harris: "Though the Hogs made noise around the league when they upset then No. 4 Tennessee 25-24 in Knoxville in their first season in the SEC, and even led athletic director Frank Broyles to holler 'The Razorbacks are BACK!' in the press box and outside the dressing room that day, it was the dramatic win at Tuscaloosa, when Alabama was still a national power under Gene Stallings, that said, 'Arkansas has arrived in the SEC.'"
Meanwhile, Razorback broadcaster Rick Schaeffer says last Thanksgiving weekend's triple-overtime upset of No. 1 LSU is the most memorable moment for him, and Harry King of Stephens Media engineers a huge buzzkill by pinpointing Clint Stoerner's 1998 late-game fumble against Tennessee. Says King: "Nothing says the most memorable moments must be positive ones." Fair enough.
Finally, Wally Hall says his most memorable moment of the past 16 years was eating Mexican food with Charles Baker at a P.A.R.K. fundraiser.
The minute I ever declare a particular Razorback game my favorite, I almost immediately change my mind for one reason or another (at some point, I've labeled approximately 5,000 games as "the best" or "my favorite" or something similar). But, for the purposes of this post, I name Barry Lunney and crew's 1992 upset over Tennessee as the most memorable football moment of the last 16 years. I do this for two reasons: 1) it's hard to overstate how much of an upset this was (for some perspective: we had lost to The Citadel in that year's season-opener) and 2) I was there — and the memory of hearing roughly 100,000 people go suddenly silent is an unforgettable one indeed.