By John R. Schirmer
Editor
It may seem strange, but I almost didn’t go to the Battle of the Ravine between Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist Saturday afternoon in Arkadelphia.
After the Scrapper game Friday night, I wasn’t quite ready for more football. Some of you can relate.
Finally, I had to go. There was no way around it.
BOTR, after all, is one of the great rivalry games in all of college football. It’s the only game in the United States where the visiting team walks across the street for an away game.
For a while every year, Arkadelphia is divided between OBU and HSU fans. They go to church together, shop together, go to high school games together, but BOTR week is another story.
The rivalry is legendary – OBU students guarding the Tiger, purple Jello in the HSU fountain, a future Arkansas governor allegedly being involved in a premature lighting of Henderson’s bonfire (a whole day premature), HSU reportedly kidnapping Ouachita’s Homecoming queen.
As Rex Nelson says, every Arkansan should attend at least one Battle of the Ravine. There’s nothing else like it in college sports.
Like many OBU fans, I parked at Cliff Harris stadium just ahead of the Tiger Walk, where the OBU players began their journey across Highway 67 and on to Carpenter-Haygood Stadium.
At that point, there was no doubt that going to Arkadelphia was the right thing to do.
OBU football alum Cotton Cothren of Dierks was there to watch the team start the trek to HSU.
Chris Babb, well known to many folks around Nashville, was working with his Ouachita Sports Digital Network students to livestream the walk before they left for the game. We visited a while.
Dr. Casey Motl, the “voice of Cliff Harris Stadium” (the OBU counterpart to Johnny Wilson), was there enjoying lunch, along with the other fans.
It was a great chance to visit long-time friends and get ready for the game.
From there, it was time for the 10-minute walk to HSU. One of the first people I saw at Carpenter-Haygood was new Chancellor Dr. Trey Berry, another long-time friend, former OBU history professor and former president of Southern Arkansas University. Trey and his staff are doing a wonderful job of rescuing Henderson from the financial woes brought on by previous mismanagement.
We had a lot to catch up on before the game.
For those wondering when we’ll actually get to the battle, we’re almost there.
After the pre-game festivities, both teams took the field ready for the 97th edition of BOTR. Ouachita led the series 46-44 going into the game. There have been six ties.
The game is always close, usually going down to the proverbial wire. This one was no exception.
A few notes about the game:
Fans on both sides of the stadium supported their team all the way. OBU’s student section stood from the time the band played “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” as the team took the field until they stormed the field at the end. HSU fans did the same thing from “That Old Reddie Spirit” through the entire contest.
These were true fans, almost 10,000 of them, more than the population of Arkadelphia. They know the players, band members and cheerleaders. Many are friends.
They know how much work goes into college football in general and BOTR in particular.
No way would they demean their own players or coaches. As noted, they stood, yelled, clapped, did what true fans do.
No berating, insulting or spitting.
They graciously tried to help the officials from time to time, quickly pointing out perceived mistakes. There were even a few smatterings of boos about particularly bad calls, in their opinion.
Notice, however, that the boos were not directed at the players and coaches on either side.
And the officials know that it’s part of the game.
There might have been an occasional bit of profanity after an interception or a missed tackle, perhaps even from the visitors side. But there weren’t verbal assaults aimed at players or coaches.
When the game was over, OBU fans stormed the field in the wake of the Tigers’ 27-20 win that secured a share of the Great American Conference championship and a berth in the NCAA D-II Playoffs.
They stayed around and congratulated Coach Todd Knight for tying legendary Coach Buddy Bob Benson for most wins at OBU with 162.
HSU fans consoled their players and showed their support.
It was a great afternoon on both sides of the stadium, in many ways a throwback to days when people went to the game, visited friends, cheered if they won, maybe cried if they lost.
But when the game was over, OBU fans went back across Highway 67. HSU fans returned to their homes.
The next day, they went back to church together, ate together, shopped together.
Monday, many HSU and OBU students were in classes together on both campuses.
Each side wanted to beat the other for three hours. Afterward, they went back to getting along with each other.
This was something that we don’t need to lose.
It was football at its best, the way it was meant to be played.
The way it used to be at Nashville.
The way we hope it will be again.
