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The 1969 Texas vs. Arkansas football game, sometimes referred to as the "Game of the Century", was a legendary college football game played on December 6, 1969 in which #1 Texas visited #2 Arkansas at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The Longhorns came back from a 14–0 deficit after three quarters to win 15–14.〔 〕 They went on to win the Cotton Bowl Classic and were selected as national champions.〔 〕 ==Buildup== The relative parity which had existed within the Southwest Conference ended with the arrival of Darrell Royal and Frank Broyles at their respective schools, with either Texas or Arkansas winning or sharing the SWC crown 8 out of the 10 years leading up to the game.〔http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/big12/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/historical-standings-prior.pdf〕 Both Texas and Arkansas had won one national championship in the 1960s, and the schools developed a rivalry after Arkansas defeated in consecutive years top-ranked Texas teams in 1964 and 1965. In 1968 Texas handed Arkansas their only loss of the year. The 1969 season marked the 100th anniversary of college football. This game would decide the Southwest Conference Championship, as well as its berth in the Cotton Bowl Classic, and ABC television executive Beano Cook arranged for Texas and Arkansas to play the final game of the regular season, moving their usual October date to the first weekend in December. ABC Sports executive Roone Arledge persuaded Arkansas coach Frank Broyles to move the game with a promise that President Richard Nixon would attend the game, and ABC would televise Arkansas' season opener in 1970 against Stanford (and its star quarterback, Jim Plunkett). Broyles even talked Arkansas officials into installing AstroTurf, then still a novelty, at Razorback Stadium. The game would kick off at Noon Central Standard Time since the stadium in Fayetteville did not have lights at the time. There were early discussions of moving the game to an evening start at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, where Arkansas played two or three home games per season, but ABC did not consider the lights at Little Rock to be sufficient. For a long while, it looked as though the game would be a meeting of also-rans. Ohio State was dominating the Big Ten and the chances of the game being anything other than just the last game of the season were pretty remote. However, as the Longhorns took a Saturday off to prepare for their upcoming game on Thanksgiving Day with Texas A&M, Michigan and its upstart coach Bo Schembechler upset the Buckeyes. Texas vaulted to No. 1 in the polls and Arkansas claimed the No. 2 spot. Ultimately, due to good fortune, it worked as the move made the game the focus of the entire sporting world gaining a television rating of a 52.1 share, meaning more than half the TV sets in use in the country were tuned to this game. That set the stage. Even the day took on an eerie feeling. Billy Graham attended to give the pregame prayer. The night before, a steady, cold rain fell in Fayetteville and an icy fog hovered over the stadium as the crowd awaited the arrival of President Nixon, who would award a plaque symbolic of the National Championship to the winner. Due to the lack of a suitable airport in northwest Arkansas (Fayetteville's Drake Field was far too small, and Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport would not open for another 30 years), Marine One landed on the practice fields just east of Razorback Stadium as the game was starting. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1969 Texas vs. Arkansas football game」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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