A pair of colleges in Arkadelphia have maintained a rivalry since 1895 with an annual football game dubbed “The Battle of the Ravine.”
Ouachita Baptist and Henderson State University are located across Highway 67 from each other, making their annual meeting the only game in the country where the visiting team walks across the street for the competition. Some of the scores have been one-sided, with Ouachita winning 66 to zero in 1919 and Henderson taking the 1932 game 62 to nothing.
The rivalry has also yielded a tradition of pranks. At one point Henderson students dressed as women convinced a Ouachita librarian they needed to take a Tiger statue away for cleaning; in the 1970s Ouachita students lit the Henderson bonfire a day early. In 1975, a plane from Henderson’s aviation program bombed the Ouachita campus with marshmallows.
The series was suspended from 1951 to 1963 because of excessive vandalism; the only other break was taken for World War II.
To learn more, visit EncyclopediaofArkansas.net.
