RSSA “Promising” football game
Mar 03
Uncategorized Boomtown Classic, El Dorado, El Dorado Promise, Football, Randy Rainwater, Southern Arkansas University, University of Arkansas at Monticello No Comments
A big announcement was made in El Dorado yesterday. It was so big that Randy Rainwater himself broadcasted “Drive Time Sports” from Arkansas’s oil capital.
In a nutshell, here’s the scoop: Southern Arkansas University and the University of Arkansas at Monticello have entered into an agreement with the City of El Dorado to play the inaugural “Boomtown Classic” football game in the city’s Memorial Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 7. This is a project that has been in the works for a number of years, but due to circumstances beyond our control, it was put off until now. This is the perfect opportunity for me to plug our Centennial Celebration. UAM is celebrating 100 years in 2009 as well.
I’m excited about this opportunity. While the Mulerider fans in Magnolia might not be thrilled with the decision, it is an excellent opportunity for the University to showcase itself before one of the most important high school student bodies in the state. Of course I’m speaking of those in El Dorado that receive the El Dorado Promise scholarship (note my headline on this post). I think this is a great opportunity for SAU (and UAM) to make a play for those students and that scholarship money. It also gives us a LOT of “free advertising” in one of the regions most populated areas.
It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. The El Dorado A&P Commission has pledged their full support. They are working to secure other entertainment for our students and fans that make the trip to El Dorado for the ballgame.
On an interesting note, the two schools have played in El Dorado before. They were each others’ main rivals beginning in 1914 and usually played on Thanksgiving day in El Dorado. What was the trophy? Here’s a sneak peek at a passage from the soon-to-be-released centennial history of SAU by Dr. James Willis:
Monticello added to the festivities by bringing a white female Angora goat to be awarded to the winning side. Each season for the next seven years this goat—named for the Monticello president, “Frankie Horsfall“, when won by Magnolia and “Charlie Overstreet” by Monticello–became the prize of the Turkey Day game. Knowing that a mule and a goat were featured mascots of the famous Army-Navy football rivalry, the Arkansas Democrat opined that “from the frothing and foaming and sputtering which goes on” the “Mulerider-Boll Weevil game bids to become the Army-Navy battle of Arkansas football.
I’ll keep you updated as we get closer to time.
