Calling All HOGS! Arkansas Razorback Football Origins

Can I get a big old SOOIE!!! to call in all of the fans of Arkansas Razorback football history?

The Hogs have a great history in their football programs with proud traditions, but how and when did they start? We hope to answer some of those questions in this post as our tour of the beginnings of major college football programs and their origins continues with Arkansas.

Beginning thoughts

The University of Arkansas football program traces its roots to the autumn of 1894, when the school was still known as Arkansas Industrial University. A newly hired 21-year-old professor of Latin and Greek, John Clinton Futrall, took the initiative to organize, manage, and coach the school’s first squad of student-athletes. Futrall, who later served as university president from 1914 until he died in 1939, cobbled together a team with makeshift gear and basic tactical knowledge imported from the Northeast. The school adopted cardinal red as its primary color, leading the local press and student body to dub the inaugural team the Arkansas Cardinals.

In this podcast interview, we cover some early history with Rod Lovin of Sierling Roastery.

The First Game and Season

Arkansas played its first official game on October 13, 1894, in Fayetteville against a squad from nearby Fort Smith High School. The collegiate novices dominated the prep schoolers, rolling to a 42–0 victory. Two weeks later, the Cardinals traveled to Fort Smith for a rematch and secured another shutout in a 38–0 contest.

The inaugural three-game season concluded with a harsh introduction to established collegiate competition. Arkansas traveled by train to Austin on Thanksgiving Day to face the University of Texas. The Longhorns defeated the upstart Cardinals 54–0, sparking a fierce regional rivalry and ending Arkansas’s first campaign with a 2–1 record. Futrall coached for three seasons through 1896, tallying a 5–2 overall record before stepping aside to focus on academics and administration.

Early Stars and the Bezdek Era

Over the following decade, the Cardinals rotated through short-tenured coaches and patchy schedules before finding stability in 1908 with the arrival of Hugo Bezdek. A former fullback at the University of Chicago under the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg, Bezdek brought modern tactical discipline and physical conditioning to Fayetteville.

Bezdek built his offense around Steve Creekmore, an elusive quarterback from Van Buren who became the program’s first true star. While running Bezdek’s ahead-of-its-time, no-huddle “hurry-up” scheme, Creekmore excelled as a dual-threat playmaker, passer, punt returner, and open-field tackler. Operating behind an aggressive front line anchored by standout tackle and team captain Herman Lever, the 1909 Cardinals steamrolled through their schedule. Arkansas finished the year undefeated at 7–0, toppling regional powers Oklahoma, Washington University in St. Louis, and LSU.

Becoming the Razorbacks

The moniker that defines Arkansas athletics was born directly from that 1909 championship run. On November 13, 1909, Arkansas faced LSU in Memphis, Tennessee. Entering the contest as heavy underdogs, the Cardinals staged a defensive stand to win 7–0.

When the team returned to Fayetteville the next day, thousands of students, faculty, and townspeople gathered at the Dickson Street train depot to celebrate the victory. Stepping off the train to address the roaring crowd, Coach Bezdek praised his players’ relentless grit, declaring that the team had fought not like Cardinals, but “like a wild band of Razorback hogs”.

The fiery imagery of the native feral hog—ferocious, untamed, and hard to put down—resonated across the campus. In 1910, the student body officially voted to abandon the cardinal bird and adopt the Razorbacks as the university’s permanent mascot and athletic identity, cementing one of American sports’ most distinctive brands.

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