Arkansas not good on birthday weekend...I'm a man...I'm 40...

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In the parlance of Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy, today I am a man, I’m 40.

Cliche' at this point? -Yes, but at the same time you only get one chance in your life to do that. Happy birthday to me, but historically on this date it has not been a happy day for Razorback fans.

Unfortunately for Arkansas, they have been downright terrible on my birthday or the weekend following when I would have celebrated it since joining the Southeastern Conference. While this is my 40th year on this earth, it is the 25th year for the Razorbacks playing football in the SEC.

Prior to moving conferences, they weren’t doing much of anything special on this weekend, either, but at least they were .500 with a 7-7 while in the old Southwest Conference since my birth in 1977.

The last year Arkansas was in the SWC, I was in the eighth grade and the Hogs beat Texas on my birthday in Little Rock, 14-13. I had been playing football for over a year at that time (starting in the 7th grade), so this was the era when I was starting to fully appreciate the nuances of the game and what each game meant in the scope of the season.

That is the last game Arkansas won on my actual birthday. They are 0-3 since that one on Oct. 19. All-time, they are 1-4 on that date with the ’91 game being the lone victory witnessed by that 14-year old birthday boy who thought it would always be like that…

In 1992 when the Razorbacks joined the conference, I was 14 years old and in the 9th grade. Arkansas did not play on my 15th birthday weekend, nor did they play a single time that weekend throughout my high school years with four-straight bye weeks.

My first year in college at the University of Arkansas, 1996, the game fell on my actual birthday for the first time since that win over Texas in 1991. The Razorbacks fell to South Carolina in Columbia, 23-17.

This would begin a streak the streak of awful losses on my actual birthday. These losses include the South Carolina game, a 29-17 loss to Kentucky in Fayetteville on a rainy day and a 52-0 blowout loss to Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Nobody wants to celebrate after a 52-point loss.

The Razorbacks never won a game on my birthday weekend during my college years, either. In fact, from 1992 to 2005 they didn’t win a single game on that weekend, with eight bye weeks and six losses.

It took that magical team with Darren McFadden, Felix Jones and Peyton Hillis in 2006 to break the curse. That bunch whipped Ole Miss 38-3 on 10/21/2006 on their way to a 7-1 conference mark. That decade from 2006 to 2015 was comprised of the ‘glory years’ for Arkansas on my birthday weekend as the Razorbacks went 6-3 with one bye week…that does include a win over rent-a-win UAB, however.

Last year, the Hogs lost at Auburn 56-3 on 10/22/2016, adding to the terrible losses on my birthday weekend. This year, the game is on 10/21 in Fayetteville and the Hogs have lost six-straight games against Power 5 opponents.

Will this decade be any better than my teens, 20s or 30s?