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It was Monday, January 1,1934, when Coach Fred "Tommy" Thomsen brought his 7-3-1 Razorbacks into Fair Park in Dallas to meet the 8-0-4 Gentlemen of Centenary College coached by Homer Norton in what would be the last Dixie Classic Bowl. Although Thomsen was at Arkansas from 1929 through 1941, this would be his only bowl appearance. It was the Hogs' first bowl game and it would be played before an estimated crowd of 12,000 spectators. The Dixie Classic had only been held in Dallas on two other sporatic occasions which were in 1922, and 1925. However, the demise of the Dixie Classic would bring about what would become the long standing Cotton Bowl Classic and future home of the Southwest Conference champions.
Arkansas had the best record for 1933 with their 4 wins and 1 loss in conference play and was selected by invitation to move on to Dallas for New Year's Day. The only conference loss had come at the hands of a Rice team by a score of 7-6. However, they had to give up the Southwest Conference championship because Thomsen had unknownly played an ineligible player, Ulysses S. “Heinie” Schleuter, in a minor role during three previous games. He was spotted from a photo by an SMU player that had previously played against him in the 1932 Nebraska - SMU game. The mistake was made when Schleuter, having been a previous Nebraska Cornhusker, was allowed to play although Thomsen was unaware that he had no remaining eligibility. As a result, it was not until 1936 before the Hogs would win their first Southwest Conference championship. For the new year, Arkansas would find itself at home as it would be TCU and two time All-American quarterback Sammy Baugh that would get the nod to join the five other bowl games and play in the inaugural Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas on January 1, 1937.
But back to that Monday in 1934, the Dixie Classic Bowl would finally begin. The first quarter found both teams scoreless as neither could mount an advantage. However in the secound quarter, Hog quarterback Tom Murphy (the SWC most valuable football player of 1933) spearheaded a drive that ended with a 24 yard pass to halfback Elvin Geiser giving the Hogs the lead at 6-0. Geiser then kicked the extra point making the score 7-0 Hogs.
Not to be outdone, Centenary made a run of their own. It started on the Centenary 41 with Harold Olsin breaking for a 34 yard "catch me if you can" run down to the Arkansas 25. This was capped off by a touchdown pass to Olsin from Centenary quarterback Manning Smith. It was now Arkansas 7, Centenary 6. Chester Weidman came on to attempt the extra point. Ball snapped, kick wide. What's that on the field? Oh no! Yellow flag, Hogs offside. On the retry, Weidman split the uprights, once again knotting the score at 7 all.
The score stayed at this for the remainder of the game. However, Arkansas was able to engineer a drive that took the Hogs down to the Centenary seven yard line, where on a 14 yard field goal attempt to win the game, the kick would drift wide for Geiser.
When it had all ended and the lights on the scoreboard were fading away, they showed a final score of 7-7. Not much to write home about, but It would go down in history as the Hogs' first of many bowl games.
Arkansas ended the game with 12 first downs compared to six by Centenary. For the game the Hogs had accumulated 148 yards rushing and 97 yards passing. Centenary ended with 167 yards rushing and 36 passing. The field advantage was won by the Hogs as they averaged 44.0 yards on 13 punts from quarterback Tom Murphy compared to 12 punts for an average of 25.0 yards by Centenary. In the loose ball category Arkansas had the larger number while fumbling 4 times to only once by Centenary.
The second bowl game for Arkansas would again end in a tie while finding the Razorbacks lining up in Dallas against LSU for what would become known as The Ice Bowl. See the 05/06/2012 Hawg-tales for the blog about The Ice Bowl.
Arkansas' history of bowl games has ended only three times as tie games while participating in a total of 39 bowl appearances. The Hogs' first two ties were in 1934, and 1947 with only the third being against UCLA in the 1978 Fiesta Bowl played on Christmas day of that year.
Join us next month, as we once again recall games and players from the past.
Arkansas had the best record for 1933 with their 4 wins and 1 loss in conference play and was selected by invitation to move on to Dallas for New Year's Day. The only conference loss had come at the hands of a Rice team by a score of 7-6. However, they had to give up the Southwest Conference championship because Thomsen had unknownly played an ineligible player, Ulysses S. “Heinie” Schleuter, in a minor role during three previous games. He was spotted from a photo by an SMU player that had previously played against him in the 1932 Nebraska - SMU game. The mistake was made when Schleuter, having been a previous Nebraska Cornhusker, was allowed to play although Thomsen was unaware that he had no remaining eligibility. As a result, it was not until 1936 before the Hogs would win their first Southwest Conference championship. For the new year, Arkansas would find itself at home as it would be TCU and two time All-American quarterback Sammy Baugh that would get the nod to join the five other bowl games and play in the inaugural Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas on January 1, 1937.
But back to that Monday in 1934, the Dixie Classic Bowl would finally begin. The first quarter found both teams scoreless as neither could mount an advantage. However in the secound quarter, Hog quarterback Tom Murphy (the SWC most valuable football player of 1933) spearheaded a drive that ended with a 24 yard pass to halfback Elvin Geiser giving the Hogs the lead at 6-0. Geiser then kicked the extra point making the score 7-0 Hogs.
Not to be outdone, Centenary made a run of their own. It started on the Centenary 41 with Harold Olsin breaking for a 34 yard "catch me if you can" run down to the Arkansas 25. This was capped off by a touchdown pass to Olsin from Centenary quarterback Manning Smith. It was now Arkansas 7, Centenary 6. Chester Weidman came on to attempt the extra point. Ball snapped, kick wide. What's that on the field? Oh no! Yellow flag, Hogs offside. On the retry, Weidman split the uprights, once again knotting the score at 7 all.
The score stayed at this for the remainder of the game. However, Arkansas was able to engineer a drive that took the Hogs down to the Centenary seven yard line, where on a 14 yard field goal attempt to win the game, the kick would drift wide for Geiser.
When it had all ended and the lights on the scoreboard were fading away, they showed a final score of 7-7. Not much to write home about, but It would go down in history as the Hogs' first of many bowl games.
Arkansas ended the game with 12 first downs compared to six by Centenary. For the game the Hogs had accumulated 148 yards rushing and 97 yards passing. Centenary ended with 167 yards rushing and 36 passing. The field advantage was won by the Hogs as they averaged 44.0 yards on 13 punts from quarterback Tom Murphy compared to 12 punts for an average of 25.0 yards by Centenary. In the loose ball category Arkansas had the larger number while fumbling 4 times to only once by Centenary.
The second bowl game for Arkansas would again end in a tie while finding the Razorbacks lining up in Dallas against LSU for what would become known as The Ice Bowl. See the 05/06/2012 Hawg-tales for the blog about The Ice Bowl.
Arkansas' history of bowl games has ended only three times as tie games while participating in a total of 39 bowl appearances. The Hogs' first two ties were in 1934, and 1947 with only the third being against UCLA in the 1978 Fiesta Bowl played on Christmas day of that year.
Join us next month, as we once again recall games and players from the past.
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