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Our throwback Thursday is a look at the 1991 season, the last time the Hogs played TCU, played in the Southwest Conference, and the last time the Hogs visited Amon G. Carter Stadium.
The 1991 season was Jack Crowe's last full season in Fayetteville. I think we all know what shortened the 1992 season, but we're talking about 1991, which gave some hope to Razorback Football fans as they jumped off of the Southwest Conference ship.
What a strange feeling it must've been to be a member of the Arkansas faithful in 1991. The basketball team was exciting, the football team was dreadful, and the SEC was coming. I already wrote an interesting look at what the world would be like had the 1991 season not been a farewell to the SWC.
So, I really tried to find video of this game, but short of paying $110 to a shoddy looking website for a DVD or VHS, I don't have much to go on. I found video of Arkansas playing Texas A&M and TCU playing Texas A&M from the 1991 season, though. Texas A&M obliterated the Horned Frogs 44-7 and beat the Razorbacks 13-3. When the Hogs and the Frogs played, it was a much closer game, 22-21 in favor of the ground and pound Hogs over the pass happy Purple Frogs.
TCU was paced much more by their offense as opposed to the Hogs who were paced by their defense. I want to draw correlations to these current teams, but at this point, it seems like the Hogs are paced by neither.
The most interesting thing I think I can say about the 1991 game, was that the losing coach got fired at the end of the season, and the winning coach only got one more game than the loser. Jim Wacker had a stellar career coaching in Division II, but only posted two winning seasons in his 9 years in Fort Worth. Fortunately, the folks at Gridiron Now were able to catch up with Jack Crowe and reminisce a bit:
“They were blaming us for busting up their conference,” said Jack Crowe, Arkansas’ coach at the time. “We were the only team in the conference not from Texas and so every time we went on the road we just got abused.”Arkansas fell behind 21-0 and it seemed like everything was going against the Razorbacks – including the officials.“They were from Texas, too, so I got two back-to-back 15-yard penalties called against me,” Crowe said. “It was something I saw (Auburn coach) Pat Dye do against Florida State one year. It seemed to calm them (the officials) down.”Arkansas rallied and got a 3-yard touchdown run from E.D. Jackson with 5:36 left to win 22-21. Arkansas finished tied for second in the SWC.
The Hogs left Fort Worth with a W, and the knowledge that the Frogs would have to wait until a bowl game, or the odd non-conference game a quarter century to go for revenge. It's a strange time when teams that have over 50 games played against each other, but haven't played since almost any of their roster was born.
Bonus Throwback: The last time the Hogs went on the road against one of their old southwest conference rivals was Texas Tech in 2014, and what a rollick it was. The Hogs rushed for 438 yards in a 49-28 victory! I doubt Patterson and Bielema will share the enmity we saw with Kingsbury. Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Texas Christian. We really are running through the old Southwest Conference as best as we can. Baylor, Rice, SMU, ...maybe not Houston. We're coming for you.