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This is a weekly feature at Hawgs247. We will take a step back in time and look back at something that happened in Razorbacks history. We will use old editions of the "Arkansas Recruiting Report" compiled by Otis Kirk during the 1990s, as well as newspaper reports accessed via microfilm, oral stories and other sources.

This week, we travel back to 1914 for Arkansas' third ever meeting with Ole Miss.

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I originally decided to look in to the 1914 Arkansas-Ole Miss matchup because of the disputed nature of the game.

A few fellow sports writers and I noticed that Arkansas and Ole Miss list a different series record in their media guides. The difference is the 1914 game. The Rebels won the game 13-7, but the Razorbacks claim it as a forfeit victory.

According to the Ole Miss website, Arkansas accused the Rebels of using an ineligible player, which they deny. With the NCAA in its infancy and mainly concerned about making the sport safer, the dispute was never resolved.

My plan was to look in to this dispute, so I hit the microfilm to do the research. The first newspaper I looked at was the Southwest American, one of three papers that eventually became the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith.

Football was not nearly as popular in 1914 as it eventually became, plus World War I was raging in Europe, so the report of the game in the Southwest American was just a brief Associated Press dispatch.

The University of Mississippi won from the University of Arkansas, 13 to 7, in their annual football game here this afternoon. The Mississippians won through their superiority in the open style of play. Time after time, they used the forward pass for long gains and both their touchdowns were directly due to this play. Arkansas’ efforts at forward passes were dismal failures, although one of their two successful passes put them in a position to score their only touchdown.

The fifth and final sentence, however, completely changed my plans for this week's Throwback Thursday.

Coach Pickering of Arkansas and a newspaper man engaged in a fist fight on the side lines which ended in the arrest of the Arkansas coach.

Yes, you read that correctly. The head coach of the Razorbacks, E.T. Pickering, was arrested for getting into a fight with a journalist. I couldn't believe it. I sifted through the following weeks and found reports of the final two games of the season, but no more mention of Pickering's arrest.

It was time to switch newspapers, so I started looking at the Arkansas Democrat, one of two papers that eventually became the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Based in Little Rock, it had a longer story about the game played at West End Park, the home of the Little Rock Travelers minor league baseball team that was converted into Quigley Stadium for Little Rock Central High School's football team in the 1930s. (War Memorial Stadium was still three decades away from being built.)

C.E. Collins, who covered the game for the Arkansas Democrat, was very critical of Pickering's ability as a coach in his game story.

Pickering’s failure to drill his men in breaking up forward passing was very evident. Ole Miss gained time after time with the pass. They ranged from a few yards to 35 yards. The few attempts that Arkansas made were miserably ineffective.

The poor performance put Pickering in a visibly grouchy mood, leading to the incident mentioned briefly in the Southwest American. Luckily for us, Collins went into more glorious detail.

The bulldozing reached a climax when A.W. Parke of the Parke-Harper News Service attempted to take a photograph of a play 40 or 50 feet distant. He was at the edge of the field.

Pickering had been herding the photographers back with his customary rough style. It was evident that the former Minnesota man had ideas of his own about photographers, although there is not a gridiron in the country from which they are barred, particularly newspaper photographers. When Parke, who had just reached the grounds, stepped to the side line and leveled his machine, Pickering was on him. Parke did not catch the significance of the Arkansas U. man’s actions at first, but when he was given a rough shove without explanations he began to take notice. Pickering tried to put him off the field.

To the entire satisfaction of bystanders, who had been watching the actions of Pickering, Parke brought his $200 machine down on the coach’s bean with a resounding whack. The machine was shattered. The fight was stopped. Parke got a smash in the face.

Once again, I searched the paper for more details, such as possible repercussions for the coach, but I was unsuccessful.

There was, however, more criticism of Pickering. Collins bashed the coach for scheduling the Little Rock game at 2 p.m. on a Friday and then not advertising it at all.

Despite reports that Little Rock's future as a host of Arkansas football games depended on a solid crowd, the game didn't get a good turnout. From the Arkansas Democrat:

As result of the small attendance at the annual football game between Arkansas and Mississippi Friday, it is probable Little Rock has had her last taste of the major league sort of game, at least for a time. Yesterday’s gate did not show more than $500.

That gate was not enough to cover the expenses of the game, which included train fare to the city for both teams, hotel costs and officials' pay. Part of the reason was Pickering's poor scheduling, but the Arkansas Democrat didn't lay all of the blame on him.

True, many said that had it been Saturday instead of Friday, the gate would have been much bigger. But Little Rock has never been a good supporter of football. The local high school has played to as large an audience as the two varsity crews attracted yesterday.

Reports said that the Arkansas-Ole Miss game would likely be moved to Memphis, but the dispute over the ineligible player - which I did not find anything about in either paper - led to the cancellation of the series. The Razorbacks and Rebels resumed playing in 1924 and met 35 times between then and 1991, Arkansas' last season in the Southwest Conference. They have been division rivals in the SEC West since 1992.

Arkansas had played one game in Little Rock for nine straight seasons until the 1914 Ole Miss game's poor attendance. The Razorbacks didn't return to the state's capital until 1921. They have played at least one game there every year since 1932.

It is unclear if Pickering's arrest led to his dismissal, but fans were definitely not happy with the results during his two seasons as the head coach. A Thanksgiving Day loss to Drury caused some alumni to write letters to former head coach Hugo Bezdek.

Bezdek compiled a 29-13-1 record in five seasons with the Razorbacks from 1908-1912. His .686 winning percentage is surpassed only by Ken Hatfield, Lou Holtz and Frank Broyles. However, he is best remembered saying his team played "like a wild band of razorback hogs" during the 1909 season, leading to Arkansas' current nickname. Bezdek left Arkansas for the head coaching job at Oregon, but there was hope that he'd return to Fayetteville.

From the Arkansas Democrat:

Bezdek has acknowledged receipt of letters from Little Rock football fans who have been interested in the Razorbacks for many years, and it is said that there is a possibility that he can be retained next season. The breveted coach put Arkansas University on the map a few years ago when the school was not so large as it is now. The slump in the last two seasons has been discouraging, and the fact that the State institution has been dropping games to college teams from schools much smaller is developing daily a more concerted demand that some action be taken, the retaining of Bezdek preferred.

Although Arkansas didn't rehire Bezdek, it did decide to replace Pickering. The Razorbacks hired T.T. McConnell, ending what was surely one of the more colorful careers in UA history.

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To read last week's Throwback Thursday on the 1981 Texas game, click here.

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