Battle of the Ravine: The greatest small college football rivalry in the nation
January 01, 2020
For years, Paul Greenberg would write an annual ode to the Bradley County pink tomato.
It's a worthy subject, and I speak as a man who could eat his weight in Bradley County
pinks. I decided that I needed a similar column that would come around at the same
time each year, and what better subject than the Battle of the Ravine football game
between Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University at Arkadelphia?
It's the greatest small college football rivalry in the country, and it's right here
in Arkansas.
Those who know me know that it's my favorite day of the year. I grew up in Arkadelphia
with this small college version of Alabama-Auburn, a rivalry that divides families.
My father played football at Ouachita in the 1940s, and in our family it was Christmas,
New Year's, Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day all rolled into one. In the late 1940s,
the rivalry was promoted by the Arkansas Jaycees as the Biggest Little Football Game
in America, a moniker first used on the East Coast for the NCAA Division III rivalry
between Williams College and Amherst College, who first played in 1884. Ouachita and
Henderson first played on Thanksgiving Day 1895.
The Nov. 10, 2007, game between Williams and Amherst in Williamstown, Mass., was selected
as the location for ESPN's popular College GameDay program. One of these days, ESPN will bring that program to Arkadelphia and show
the only game in college football in which the visitors walk to a road game. Yes,
state troopers will stop traffic this Saturday on U.S. 67, and the Reddies of Henderson
will walk across to play at Ouachita's Cliff Harris Stadium after having put on their
uniforms in their own dressing room. The game kicks off at 1 p.m. About 4 p.m., the
troopers will stop traffic again, and the Reddies will trudge back across the highway.
Of the 90 battles between the two schools, the game has been decided by a touchdown
or less 41 times, with Ouachita holding a 20-15-6 advantage in those games. Tradition
runs deep when it comes to the Battle of the Ravine. Both schools, for instance, use
gospel tunes for their fight songs. One school has Baptist roots and one has Methodist
roots (the Baptists kept Ouachita, but the Methodists gave Henderson to the state).
The series was suspended from 1951-63 due to excessive vandalism. When they started
playing again in 1963, I was 4 years old. You can bet I was there.
The Battle of the Ravine (the actual ravine, filled with kudzu, is less than a mile
north of the stadiums) should be on every Arkansan's bucket list. I realize my hometown
bias, but those from elsewhere who have experienced these games tell me it's indeed
among the fiercest rivalries in college football. It might not receive the attention
of Texas-Oklahoma or Michigan-Ohio State, but the passion and intensity are no less
real. Those who have played in these games, coached in them, covered them as journalists,
or simply watched from the stands understand. They understand that there are few things
in sports that can compare to a contest between four-year schools that are within
walking distance of each other.
If you're a Tiger, you call it the Ouachita-Henderson game. If you're a Reddie, you
refer to it as the Henderson-Ouachita game. If your team wins, you crow about it for
the next year until it's time to play again. If your team loses, you feel the pain
for 12 months. The lights are on each night at both stadiums this week to discourage
pranks. Signs on the campuses have been covered. Ouachita students guard the Tiger
statue in the middle of the campus to keep it from being painted red. Henderson students
keep a close eye on campus landmarks such as the fountain and the bell to keep them
from turning purple.
Just how close are these two schools to each other? Consider the 1999 incident known
in Arkadelphia as "Trashcam." A Henderson graduate assistant coach took a video camera
into Arkadelphia's Central Park, which overlooks the Ouachita practice field. As he
was taping the Tiger practice, the assistant was spotted by a Ouachita player. The
graduate assistant, realizing he had been caught, sped away in his car, leaving the
camera in a nearby trash can. When the camera was found with a Henderson identification
tag on it, Ouachita athletic director David Sharp removed the video and then returned
the camera to Henderson. It was the proper thing to do. The rivalry might be intense,
but these folks have to live with each other all year.
One year, male Henderson students who were dressed in drag convinced a Ouachita librarian
that they were there to take a Tiger statue in the library away for its annual cleaning.
In the 1970s, the Henderson bonfire was ignited early by Ouachita students. One of
the students reportedly involved in that prank was a religion major from Hope named
Mike Huckabee. Also in the 1970s, students in Henderson's aviation program flew low
over the Ouachita campus and pelted OBU students with marshmallows. Yellville, you
see, isn't alone when it comes to dropping things out of airplanes.
Even though I'm in my 35th season of doing the play-by-play on radio of Ouachita football
games, I can assure you that there will be butterflies in my stomach when we sign
on the broadcast at noon Saturday. I hope that never changes – that sense of anticipation,
the realization of just how much this series has been a part of the life of my family.
There's nothing else in America quite like it. As usual, I'm counting the days, the
hours, the minutes.
Rex Nelson, a 1981 Ouachita graduate, is senior editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He also is in his 35th season as the radio voice of Ouachita football. This blog is reprinted with permission of Nelson and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
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