My desk is now a Hog Head area

By Ron Kantowski

Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008 | 4:51 p.m.

NOW:

There is now an official University of Arkansas Hog Head sitting on my desk.

Woo Pig Sooey!

I'm happier than a Razorback in slop.

Actually, I'm not much of a Razorbacks fan. I just dig those red plastic hats that are shaped like an angry hog.

Which, I might add, also would describe Razorback fans after the team's closer-than-expected 28-24 victory over mighty Western Illinois on Saturday.

I thought I might pick up one of those hats for a song a few years back when John Robinson's Rebels knocked the pig snot out of Arkansas in the Las Vegas Bowl. But Razorbacks fans took their beating like men. Or women with real broad shoulders. They wore those hats proudly, even on their way out of the stadium, although one guy from Hot Springs said he would trade me his for one of Jerry Tarkanian's towels. Provided it still had the bite marks.

Anyway, Trent Ogle, one of the videographers from the Sun's New Media staff and a native Razorback, heard me telling that story last week. He went to the Western Illinois game and brought back my official Hog Head.

Apparently, my money's no good in Fayetteville, because Trent refused to take any.

In an expression of gratitude, I did not bust his (pork) chops about Arkansas only beating a Division I-AA school that calls itself the "Fighting Leathernecks" by four points.

THEN:

It was 1969, and President Nixon was sitting in the stands for that year's Game of the Century -- Texas vs. Arkansas, with the national championship riding on the outcome.

Bill Montgomery, Chuck Dicus and Bill Burnett for Arkansas. Steve Worster, Jim Bertelson and Cotton Spreyer for Texas. And Happy Feller, the kicker. And finally, on 4th-and-3 with time running out and a nation watching, little James Street, the Texas quarterback, throwing the bomb with his team trailing 14-8. And a little-used tight end named Randy Peschel catching it.

There are three things that can happen when you throw a forward pass, Darrell Royal, the old Texas coach, once famously said. And two are bad.

The third one was beating Arkansas 15-14 two plays later, then receiving the trophy from President Nixon in the visiting locker room.

That wasn't so bad.