Memory Lane: Arkansas 67, Arkansas State 64 (1987)
by Stephen Expat on Jul 14, 2009 12:58 PM CDT
in Arkansas Razorback Basketball
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PrintIn March 1987, for the only time since 1948, Arkansas played Arkansas State in basketball. The footage below (once again courtesy of YouTuber acnhs09) is from that legendary game, which took place in the first round of the NIT.
To set the stage: Nolan Richardson was in his second season at Arkansas and, before the contest against ASU, had compiled a record of 30-29 at the school. Speculation was rampant that a loss to the then-Indians - whom, along with other in-state schools, Frank Broyles refused to schedule regular-season games against - would result in Nolan getting canned.
Richardson has long maintained that Frank assured him before the game that his job was safe, regardless of how the game against ASU turned out. However, I have always found it hard to believe that Frank wouldn't have fired Nolan if the Hogs had lost this game. This, after all, is a man who fired Jack Crowe immediately following a season-opening loss to The Citadel, and losing to Arkansas State surely ranked very, very high on the athletic director's list of nightmare scenarios.
The anticipation and hype surrounding this game were incredible, and, amazingly, the game lived up to the billing. ASU led by nine at intermission and by as many as 21 points in the second half (around the 2:42 mark of the clip below, you can hear the color commentator say, "This thing is close to being out of hand.").
Needless to say, Nolan's job status wasn't looking so rosy.
But the Hogs, fueled by the late-game heroics of Ron Huery and - somewhat surprisingly, to say the least - Cannon Whitby, returned from the brink to force overtime, in which they outscored ASU eight to five.
All in all, an absolutely electric night in Barnhill Arena. Amazingly (and this probably warrants a separate post to flesh out the point), the Razorback media guides does not list this game as one of the program's 10 most memorable contests. (One can almost imagine Frank Broyles ordering this game off any such list.)
Whatever the opinion of the athletic department, it's hard to think of a more memorable and important game from the Richardson era. If the Hogs had lost this one, Nolan might not have been around to create the glory years that followed.
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UA v ASU basketball
That game was only important for what didn’t happen. If the Hogs had lost Nolan probably would’ve been fired, so the game is important in that respect, but come on, one of the ten most memorable? For ASU fans maybe. Razorback fans have 2 NCAA finals games, four other final four games including Boot’s last second shot to beat Notre Dame in the consolation game, a win over #1 North Carolina with Michael Jordan, a huge national game against UNLV in Barnhill, the 1978 comeback win over Texas that landed Sidney on SI, the first win over Houston when it joined the SWC, beating Shaq & LSU, and several dozen others that had national impacts. A program that has been to six final fours & even more elite 8 & sweet 16’s of course doesn’t rank a NIT win by a bad team as one of of its top 10
That game
Hogtied, I’d say it was important for four more reasons.
1. The UA program survived and went on to become national champions defusing the ill-conceived notion of damage. An OT win sent quite a message of equality.
2. It defused the idea that such a game can build a program. Catalina managed three more NIT trips and twice came within a win of Madison Square Garden but never made it to the NCAA.
3. Totally forgotten is that UA lost the next game and UALR was the last Arkansas squad to exit the NIT that year.
4. KARK reported that the television ratings were better than a Super Bowl telecast in Arkansas, verifying there is an economically quantifiable interest in such a game (ie. something to gain in playing… namely dollars). The game was syndicated by KARK to F’ville/Ft.Smith market, Jonesboro, Springfield, MO and Monroe, LA.
Memorable is in the eye of the beholder
Hogtied,
Fair enough. Perhaps I overstated things when I said that it was “amazing” that the ASU game wasn’t on the 10 most memorable list.
But I certainly consider it one of the 10 most memorable Hog games I’ve seen. Perhaps the setting wasn’t the most glamorous (first round of the NIT). But add everything up – Nolan’s job status, the huge second-half deficit, the sheer novelty of seeing Arkansas and ASU play, the electric atmosphere in Barnhill – and it definitely makes my list.
By the way
The Hogs should definitely play against in-state schools. It’s a silly, overly cautious and arrogant policy.
Sad Memory
Nolan called timeout with stAte up 20 and the only noise was coming from our section of the arena. My brother turned me and said “We’re going to lose” and I said “I know:”
Depth ruled from that point forward as Cat wasn’t subbing his top 4.
Stephen, as to the policy, it was a product of the era of only conference champs being tied to bowl games. Second place in the SWC or SEC was no assurance of post-season and 7th sure as heck wasn’t.
It was an era when the NCAA declared no school could be on national television more than 5 times in 2 years and every conference was covered by the TV contract with part of the money divided equally among all Division I and part paid based on appearances.
It was in the last vestiges of that environment that Miami became a national player just a few years after nearly dropping to I-AA while drawing crowds that would disappoint ASU or Troy who don’t play nearly as attractive of a schedule.
Rags to riches was still possible in those days and the policy made perfect sense.
Oh man do I remember that game
We made up signs for it and everything.
One of them, “Wally Hall Eats Quiche”, rated a mention from the aforementioned writer the next day in the paper. We were huge Nolan Richardson fans at the time and didn’t care for Hall’s attitude toward him.
Wandering around on the floor after the game an ASU fan took one sign from us and tore it in half. My friends and I chose not to make the news that night by starting a brawl.
We were down by 20 with 8 minutes to play and I recall the crowd nearly willing the team to win. Whitby was hitting everything and Ron Heury was driving the baseline at will to tie the game.
ASU had nothing in the tank at the end. I saw it as the first real vindication of “40 Minutes Of Hell”.
One every crowd (or more)
You don’t make the news for stuff like that. An Ole Miss fan got his nose bloodied years ago when a grabbed an ASU pennant from an 8 year old kid and tore it in half when ASU turned the ball over to seal the win for the Rebs.
No news of it anywhere, but would have only been better if the kid rather than his dad had done it.
Knew one ASU fan got his back window busted out of his car but that was about it, everyone else seemed pretty cordial.
Vivid memories of that crazy game
I was at the game on the north side of Barnhill. The ASU seat allotment seemed to be the top 15 rows of the north side (nice job, Frank!). They were way up there. The ASU fans made a tremendous amount of noise until the tide turned at the end. I remember a lot of tension in the air- everyone on the UA side wanted to stop the ASU argument that they should be on the same court as the Hogs and the anxiety just built as the point spread widened.
Plus many of us were pulling for a Nolan that was, as stated above, on uncertain ground.
Not a top 10 (or top 200) win, but it would have been a top 5 bad loss.
by Hog Fan in Houston on Jul 15, 2009 8:39 AM CDT reply actions
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