Mike Condren Memoir

It was natural for me to become a Hog Fan. At an early age my parents took me to high school football and basketball games in Van Buren. Sometime in the mid-50s we went to Little Rock to see Arkansas play Oklahoma A & M University, now known as Oklahoma State University. We drove to Dallas for the 1955 Cotton Bowl Game. In high school, my great aunts Margaret Adams and Lonnie "Bill" James took me to the Homecoming parades and games in Fayetteville. As a member of the Van Buren High School Band, we attended Band Day at Fayetteville during the fall of 1959.

As a UofA freshman, I tried out for the Razorback Marching Band and became a member of the percussion section, playing tenor drum and later cymbal. That fall we made a road trip to Austin, TX and beat the University of Texas at their home field. The band always made the trip to the Little Rock games and one game in Texas. After my freshman year we always made the trip to SMU or TCU, always staying in Dallas at a hotel down town.

In Oct. 1963, the band traveled to Heber Springs, AR to perform at the dedication of Greer's Ferry Dam. The keynote speaker that day in October was President John F. Kennedy. I hid my Argus C3 camera in my tall uniform hat and got some distant pictures of JFK a little more than a month before his assination.

During my 5 years at UofA, the Razorbacks made it to 4 bowl games, 2 Cotton Bowls and 2 Sugar Bowls. At the Jan. 1, 1965 Cotton Bowl, the Hogs beat the University of Nebraska 10 to 7. After the game several of us members of the band took up a collection among our members to send a telegram to the Texas football team who was scheduled to play Alabama in the Orange Bowl. If Texas beat Alabama, the only other undefeated football team, then the 1964 Hogs would be National Champs. Texas did beat Alabama that night! We actually cheered for Texas that night as we gathered around TVs to watch the game at our hotel near Love Field in Dallas.

As a member of the Razorback Marching Band, I performed with “Doc” Severinson from the “Tonight” show and New Orleans musicians Pete Fountain and Al Hirt.

While in grad school I did not make many games. However, I did go to the 1966 Cotton Bowl where Arkansas lost to LSU to break its 22 game winning streak.

After I started teaching at The College of the Ozarks, my folks and I had season tickets to all Little Rock and Fayetteville football games and Fayetteville basketball games.

My folks, Matt, and I attended the 1989 and 1990 Cotton Bowl games.

We saw the "Barn" get remodeled and the Budd Walton arena get constructed. My folks, Matt and I were at the first game in Budd Walton when it opened for an exhibition game. We followed the Hogs to their 1994 National Championship.

I joined my folks in their RV for the 1994 Danny Ford tour of northern AR. We picked up Virginia and Matt in West Memphis and they finished out the tour. Those on the tour when we stopped in Eureka Springs had our picture taken with the cheer leaders, men with the female cheerleaders, females with the male cheerleaders.

My folks, Matt and I continued to attend the Little Rock football games until Dad's death in 2002.