The 1946 Arkansas Razorbacks football team was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team that represented the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

in the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

(SWC) during the

1946 college football season The 1946 college football season was the 78th season of intercollegiate football in the United States. Competition included schools from the Big Ten Conference, the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC), the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the Big Six C ...

. In their first year under head coach John Barnhill, the Razorbacks compiled a 6–3–2 record (5–1 against SWC opponents), finished in a tie with Rice for first place in the SWC, and outscored their opponents by a total of 136 to 92. The Razorbacks advanced to the

1947 Cotton Bowl Classic The 1947 Cotton Bowl Classic was a post-season college football bowl game played on January 1, 1947 in the Cotton Bowl stadium at Dallas, Texas, between the Arkansas Razorbacks and the LSU Tigers. Due to adverse winter weather, neither team scored, ...

, playing

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

to a scoreless tie. After winning only five conference games all decade, the Razorbacks matched that total in one year. Six Arkansas players received honors from the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

(AP) or

United Press United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...

(UP) on the 1946 All-Southwest Conference football team: back

Clyde Scott Clyde Luther Scott (August 29, 1924 – January 30, 2018) was an American athlete who competed professionally in the National Football League and earned an Olympic medal in the 110 meter hurdles. He was born in Dixie, Louisiana. Biography ...

(AP-1, UP-1); end Alton Baldwin (AP-1, UP-1); tackle Charles Lively (AP-1, UP-2); back

Ken Holland Kenneth Mark Holland (born November 10, 1955) is a Canadian-American ice hockey executive and former goaltender. Holland is currently the president of hockey operations and general manager of the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League. H ...

(AP-2, UP-2); center Bill Thomas (AP-2, UP-2); and back

Aubrey Fowler Aubrey Fowler (June 12, 1920 – February 29, 1996) was an American football halfback. He played collegiately for the University of Arkansas in 1946 and 1947 and professionally for the Baltimore Colts in 1948. He was elected to the Arkansas Sp ...

(AP-2). Scott also won a silver medal in the 110 meter hurdles at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

and was later inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

. The team's statistical leaders included

with 397 rushing yards on 112 carries (3.5 yards per carry),

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Aubrey Fowler with 320 passing yards, and Clyde Scott with 183 receiving yards on 11 receptions.

Schedule

Cotton Bowl Classic

The

was a match-up of

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

who had not played since

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Fe ...

. The game sold out, but snow and twenty degree weather kept some fans at home from what would come to be known as the Ice Bowl. The Hogs defense kept Y.A. Tittle's Tiger offense out of the

end zone The end zone is the scoring area on the field, according to gridiron-based codes of football. It is the area between the end line and goal line bounded by the sidelines. There are two end zones, each being on an opposite side of the field. ...

from the Arkansas 1, 6, 7, and 8 yard lines, but Arkansas could not capitalize on any of the stops, and gained a lone

first down A down is a period in which a play transpires in gridiron football. The down is a distinguishing characteristic of the game compared to other codes of football, but is synonymous with a "tackle" in rugby league. The team in possession of the f ...

the entire game. The final two plays proved the cold did not stop the teams from having a flair for the dramatic, as Razorback

(a future

r) tackled LSU receiver Jeff Odom at the Razorback one, preserving the tie. The Tigers then attempted the go-ahead

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...

, but a bad snap ended the game on the final play.

After the season

The 1947 NFL Draft was held on December 16, 1946. The following Razorbacks players were selected.

References

{{Southwest Conference football champions

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

Arkansas Razorbacks football seasons Southwest Conference football champion seasons

Arkansas Razorbacks football The Arkansas Razorbacks football program represents the University of Arkansas in the sport of American football. The Razorbacks compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Weste ...