By Ronald Sitton

North Little Rock (Nov. 10) – My alma mater plays my life-long love this weekend.

As a graduate student at the University of Tennessee, I often faced too much work on the weekends to take time out to attend the football games at Neyland Stadium. Yet I never missed the Arkansas game.

I always dressed in my Razorback paraphernalia and sat in the UT student section. You can imagine the fuss: students shouting occasional obscenities and throwing ice, popcorn, etc., all in fun of course. I’d invite them to take my journalism course. We’d laugh; the Hogs would lose and all of my students were happy.

I saw “The Fumble” unfold right in front of me after my Tennessee friends left the game because it was too rainy and the Volunteers were losing in a battle of unbeatens in Houston Nutt’s first year as Head Hog. I sat in disbelief as Tennessee drove for the winning touchdown, 28-24. Two years later, I took my roommate to her first UA-UT game and watched the Vols thump the Hogs, 63-20. I refused to leave though my fellow Tennessee student body gave me plenty of good-hearted encouragement.

I quit going to UA-UT games; the Hogs play better when I’m stuck in front of a TV. I vividly remember Barry Lunney Jr. leading the Razorbacks to an upset of No. 3 Tennessee in Joe Kines’ season as interim head coach. I watched Clint Stoerner and Anthony Lucas hook up in Fayetteville to redeem the quarterback for “The Fumble,” 28-24. Of course, I also watched the last six-overtime game in Knoxville.

I’ve missed the rivalry.

OK, it’s hard to call anything a rivalry when one school’s on the losing side of a 12-2 run. But Arkansas usually plays Tennessee close. That and last week’s win over South Carolina convinced ESPN’s “College Game Day” to shoot live from Fayetteville for the first time in the show’s 13-year run. I imagine the Razorback Nation will give them a warm, perhaps record-setting, welcome.

If the Razorbacks win, they only need one more to wrap up a Western division championship and a trip to the Southeastern Conference championship. If the Hogs lose, they’re still looking at the Cotton Bowl at worst. The Volunteers can play for little more than pride and a second-tier bowl after losing to LSU last week. Tennessee’s only eighth against the rush in the SEC. This ain’t Rocky Top: Arkansas 35, Tennessee 28.

Now that I’m finished perseverating, I plan to get ready to go downtown tonight to catch up with old friends and head to the best seafood in town, The Flying Fish in The River Market. After that, we’re heading to The Art Scene in downtown North Little Rock. We went there a few weeks ago to see about the place I had only written about. We painted and enjoyed ourselves for more than five hours for only $30. I hope to do the same tonight. :)

Photo by Tanya Sitton

He Ain't No Tattau -- Ron Sitton sits with his first attempt at painting since his elementary days.