Rumor has it, the first-ever football game between Arkansas and Arkansas State could not be played in Fayetteville because Frank Broyles would rise from the dead. That’s my rumor, anyway. Halloween is nigh, so, why not.
Broyles’ fervently believed the Razorbacks should never touch fellow in-state schools while keeping multiple touchpoints in the state. In five days, Arkansas and Arkansas State will meet in one of the most historically important of those touchpoints in the state capital: War Memorial Stadium.
That location remains as a vestige from pre-Broyles days, even if it shouldn’t.
After World War II, Arkansas’ head coaches and athletic directors (including Broyles, who arrived in the late 1950s) dictated the state’s flagship schools shouldn’t play so-called lesser in-state schools.