A look back at the last time Arkansas and Kansas played
It has been over 100 years, 116 to be exact, since the Arkansas and Kansas have met on a football field. Countless aspects of life and the game have changed since that time.
The year was 1906. President Theodore Roosevelt, who was in office from 1901 to 1909, had passed legislation to allow for the forward pass, and to change the down and distance from three downs to gain five yards to three downs to gain 10 yards.
Another interesting rule of that time was that there weren't end zones, there were end lines. The end zone would not be put into the game until 1912, so the game was played on a field 110 yards long, and touchdowns were scored by crossing the end line.
Standing on the sidelines in 1906 was Arkansas first-year head coach Frank Longman, who had played fullback at Michigan a year prior. He was hired in January 1906 after Ancil D Brown was let go following a 2-6 season in 1905, which included a 6-0 loss to Kansas.
Arkansas played home games on campus where the Fine Arts building stands now. Unlike Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, which opened in 1937, it faced east to west as opposed to north and south.
While some sportswriters of the time had nicknamed the team the Razorbacks, the official team name was still the Cardinals. It would be three more years, in 1909, until the name was officially adopted as the team name, following a 16-0 win over LSU in Memphis.
Interesting to note, though, the Topeka State Journal referenced Arkansas as the "Razorbacks" in this game, which took place on Oct. 13, 1906.
"In decidedly the most spectacular game of the season thus far the Jayhawkers defeated the University of Arkansas on McCook field Saturday afternoon by a score of 37 to 5," the newspaper wrote. "Outweighed ten pounds to the man the 'Razorbacks' played the pluckiest kind of football, and at the end of the first half the score was 9 to 5 in favor of the Kansans."
This particular game was played at McCook Field in Lawrence, Kansas. While the Jayhawks played there, they saw plenty of success, compiling a home record of 101-23-8.
In 1921, David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, where the Jayhawks play now, was opened at the site of McCook Field.
As the excerpt indicates, Arkansas held close in the first half, but the Jayhawks ran away with the game in the second half, scoring 28 points unanswered en route to a 37-5 victory.
The Jayhawks' Charles Ice, Julius Cohn, Prentiss Donald and Clyde Wallace all scored rushing touchdowns in the blowout.
Though the forward pass had been legalized in the game, Kansas head coach Burt Kennedy was not fond of it, and the Topeka State Journal said he did not practice the forward pass at all in the preseason, "as he considers the chance of losing the ball too great," according to the newspaper.
Neither team were a part of a conference, as Arkansas was still nine yeas out from joining the Southwest Conference in 1914, and Kansas was a year away from joining the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association, which was later named the Big 8 Conference.
Now members of the SEC and Big 12, Arkansas and Kansas are slated to face off in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis on Wednesday, Dec. 28. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. and it will be broadcast on ESPN.