Although it didn’t have any major implication (it was pre-conference and we would go on to finish 5-6 for the season), the 2004 game with Texas in Fayetteville caused me great despair for weeks. We had that game wrapped up!! With us driving for the go ahead score, the great Matt Jones coughed the ball up inside their 10 yard line and they sat on the ball to end the game.

The atmosphere at that game was phenomenal…only the USC game a couple years later matched it. And to have won that game would have given us the series home and home sweep over Texas.

It STILL HURTS!

The Razorbacks entered the 2007 season with the national media creating more buzz aroung D-MAC than the actual team, but locally Arkansas fans felt this team was better than the 2006 team which reached as high as #5 in the national rankings.
    The loss to a less than mediocre Alabama team in the second game of the season was significant for two reasons. Firstly, the high hopes (perhaps too optimistic) came crashing down, and these hopes fell a long way considering their high starting point. Secondly, it intensified the state division over Houston Nutt. Even though the debate was already there, the Alabama game caused the explosion that resulted in each side moving to further extremes on the spectrum. Plus the game was painful enough considering our relentless comeback, then heartbreak loss as Alabama ran the same play as before to score the game winning touchdown. Plus the questionable third down pass by Casey Dick in the final minutes of the fourth quarter which stopped the clock allowing Alabama sufficient time to score the game winner. We lost that game twice.
    We lost the game, we lost the the season which SHOULD have ened in a BCS bowl, and we lost a coach that had the perfect personality for a Razorback coach but lacked the ability to bring a deserving and capable team out of mediocrity.
Ala 38 Ark 34
My vote for the biggest heartbreaker is the 1998 Tennessee Clint Stoerner fumble. Tenn 28 Ark 24

I’ve only been a Razorback fan since 2005, so my frame of reference isn’t very large, but even in that short amount of time, there have been plenty of occasions for heartbreak. The relevance of these games range from crushing to almost meaningless, but all were characterized by a gloom hovering over campus the following Monday. Rounding out the more relevant losses are the ‘06 loss to LSU, the Capital One Bowl loss to Wisconsin, and the (especially embarrassing) Cotton Bowl loss to Mizzou. Less meaningful, but still painful (sometimes for personal reasons) were the ’05 loss to Vanderbilt (at home), the ’07 loss to Alabama, and the ’08 loss to Ole Miss. Two other losses stick out as being embarrassing for another reason. Starting in 2006, I would always be assigned a demonstration for the mechanical engineering department for an event called “Engineering Highlights”, which is a recruitment event for high school seniors interested in engineering. I’m not sure if it was planned this way, but it was always scheduled on a Saturday with an away game, and they always played the game during the lunch break for everyone to watch. In 2007 and 2008, it happened to be scheduled for the Tennessee and South Carolina games, respectively, which were two of the most pathetic showings by a Razorback team. Not exactly the thing you want to show for a campus recruiting event.

There is no comparison. None. Absolutely none. Montgomery throws his first interception in over a thousand (OK maybe it was 163 or somoething) passes inside the Texas 10-yard line when a field goal puts the game away at 17-8. AND, it still took the most unbelievable pass in the history of Texas football for the Horns to beat us 15-14. You don’t know the year? You are not a Hog!

Well, the one that stands out the most was the Stoerner fumble vs Tennessee. I was at a sports bar here in Kansas City and watching the game. In the next room were a bunch of K-State fans and K-State football fans are very obnoxious. They basically think that they’re the best in the world (for what reason I do not know). But anyways, I was talking all kinds of smack with them because they were beating Nebraska and declaring themselves to be the next #1 in the polls when they came out on Monday. I told them in not so uncertain terms that the Hogs were fixin to be #1 and K-State wasn’t qualified to be our practice dummies. As Charlie Daniels once sang, “I laid it on thicker and heavier as I went.” To the point that I had pretty much alienated the entire group of K-State douchebags. Then the fumble happened and their entire room came down upon me like a ton of bricks. If it wasn’t bad enough that we lost the game those co**suckers poured salt on the wound and twisted the knife in further. I went home and curled up in the fetal position in the corner of my bedroom for the next 2 weeks. I still get sick to my stomach thinking about that play and that day. Calgon can’t take me away from that immense pain.

Excellent topic, guys. It’s interesting to hear what different people say to a question such as this.

Here’s my 2 cents:

The ‘88-’89 academic year was the first that I followed Razorback sports AND

My apologies for the inadvertent key stroke above. To continue…

The ‘88-’89 academic year was the first that I followed Razorback sports AND was aware of the implications surrounding each game. In the span of time from that year to present, the obvious choices for most heartbreaking losses are the ’95 basketball title game and the ’98 football game @ Knoxville. So as not to divulge too much of my life history, suffice it to say that on those particular days, something happened in my personal life that serves to dampen the blow dealt by those losses.

Therefore, my vote is ‘06 football vs LSU. For the first time in my life, the Hogs were being mentioned in the same sentence as “football national title” AT THE END OF THE SEASON. They climbed to #5 in the AP poll, and with hindsight being 20/20, a win vs LSU and then vs Florida in the SECCG would have given the Hogs a spot in the BCS title game. To make matters worse, I watched the game with three LSU fans. I was working out of the country at the time, as were they. We happened upon each other about three weeks before our game, and made plans at that time to watch together. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that LSU fans can’t party, because these guys were a hoot. They were also very congenial in victory. I think they could sense how devastated I was, even though I was trying to play good host and not show it.

I didn’t get out of bed the next day.

Baseball, the most recent one to LSU, but that could be replaced by a loss tonight.

Golf, we were one stroke away from a national title this year, but Texas A&M won instead.
 
Basketball, gotta be the 1995 game against UCLA. No loss since has had that level of importance.

Football, I go to these games more than the others, so I am going to have to agree with Sue E. Pig and go with a game I went to, the 2006 loss to LSU at War Memorial. The image of Trenton Holiday running that kick back after we scored is, unfortunately, forever etched in my mind. We would have gotten a BCS bowl of some kind if we had won that game, maybe even gotten to the national championship game. Instead, it started a three game losing streak to end what should have been the magical season.

’98 Tennessee is with the ’95 title game in a class all by themselves.

‘04 Texas was pretty bad, but lacked a whole lot of meaning other than playing Texas. Of course, some would say that’s plenty.

More recently, though, it’s tough to top ‘06 LSU. If I ever have to see Trindon Holliday moving his legs at a mile a minute to KO the Hogs’ already-slim championship hopes again, it will be too soon.

I am only 14 years old so many of the above heartbreaks I have no recollection of If I was even born. But for me it had to be the 06 SEC Championship game against Florida. After the loss to LSU the week before we had to play the gators for a chance to play in the Sugar Bowl a small consolation to playing in the NC which people had been talking about. We had the Gators on the ropes when reggie Fish completley made a mockery of himself and muffed that punt. That gave Florida all the momentum not to mention another 7 points which led them to win the game and eventually the national championship. For the first time in my young life I didnt think I could have been more devestated

What a wonderfully devastating thread. Unfortunately there are ample choices to choose from. Growing up in Fayetteville in the 80s, my first dose of heartbreak at a childhood-level were 1) the UNLV-Ark / LG-Todd Day bball showdown in 1991, 2) UCLA-Ark Cotton Bowl in 1989, and 3) Miami-Ark nailbiter in 1988. Later on, crushing defeats in basketball to Memphis and Missouri in the early 90s still leave a lasting mark. The UCLA-Ark 1995 Nat. Champ. game was the first time I remember shedding a few tears, while I know I probably did the same for the 1998 Tenn-Ark Stoerner fumble. The colapse of the 2006 football season, including the SEC champ game where I watched in person as the ball dropped through Fish’s hands, was especially painful.

But, to me, even though it didn’t have that much riding on the game as many of the other games I mentioned, the Texas-Ark football game in 2005 where Matt Jones fumbled the ball when we were in FG range is the toughest defeat I’ve witnessed. Perhaps it was the ample booze my party snuck into the stadium, or that it was going to be my first time to witness in person a Hog victory over UT, or the fact that I don’t remember the stadium ever being that loud (possible exception is 1999 Tenn-Ark redemption goal post game), but I almost passed out after watching the ball bounce helplessly across the turf and into the burnt orange hands. My friends and I were already engineering plans to scale Hog Heaven to take down the goal posts when it all went for naught.

As they say, there’s always next year.

WPS

Great stuff. I love hearing y’all’s take. Lurkers – don’t be shy.

Losing to Indiana State in 1979 was the worst for me. What a bitter way for Sidney Moncrief, the greatest basketball player in Razorback history, to end his career.

Maybe if I ever get over it, I might write something about it.

Any loss to Tex-ass is bad, but I hate Tennessee just as much. I can remember a bumper sticker from the SWC days that said “Beat the rush, hate Texas early.” That summed up my feelings when we moved to the SEC and began to face the Vols. I told friends, “They’re orange and have a big ‘T’, what’s not to hate?” Even though I’ve been watching since about ‘68, Stoerner’s fumble sticks in my gut more than any. I had to endure watching that with my damn Texan in-laws in San Angelo.

Dido on the all of the above. The most recent one perhaps is the one that still hurts the most. That would be the ‘07 Bama loss. Its funny that a game that was relatively meaningless could hurt so many people. I couldn’t move when that game ended, but that might have been all the homebrew that started flowing like water as we made our comeback. I could barely talk the next day.
‘95 UCLA and ’88 Miami are up there as well. And oh yeah, the ’04 Texas game. I don’t remember the year but the Greg Horn Texas game blew pretty hard as well. Go to go schedule an extra session with my therapist, now. later.

I’ve got to mention that getting Fished in the 2006 SEC Championship game really hurt. Despite the loss to LSU, I still wanted that trophy badly because, hey, let’s all admit it, an SEC championship is damn near a national championship.

Also, this may be an odd one to mention, but the bowl loss to UNLV stands out to me as well, primarily because I happened to be at the game. And the knucklehead locals who came to the game were wicked rude and trying to start fights and things (I wouldn’t call these folks fans, since I think most of them wandered in off the strip after an all-nighter, just to have something to do). And all I wanted to do was show up at this high-school quality stadium and demonstrate to this non-football state how the SEC brings it. Ouch.

Regardless, the 1998 fumble in Knoxville is my most painful loss. ‘Nuff said about the loss, but I would like to reiterate that this was a case where a loss set up a certain amount of poetic justice with the incredible win the following year. So that kind of makes me think about the gloriousness of sports, and why they’re so rewarding to follow, despite big losses. Because hey, without big losses, there can be no big wins. And it may seem that Razorbacks have had more than our share of big losses, but I would submit that it’s because we’ve scrapped our way into a whole lot of meaningful games and often, though not always, as the underdog. (For example: that awesome job last night of scrapping our way into a rematch with LSU in the CWS!)