Today, the Arkansas Razorbacks take on the Missouri Tigers at War Memorial Stadium.  It marks the eighth time the Hogs have played in Little Rock on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

(The only time in the War Memorial Stadium era they played on Thanksgiving was 1969. In the late 19th and early 20th Century, they sometimes played in Little Rock on Thanksgiving at West End Park, now the site of Central High School and Quigley Stadium)

The first seven times they played on the Friday after Thanksgiving were against LSU.  While today’s game is also against a team of Tigers, this is the first time they’ve been the Mizzou Tigers.

From the 1940s through the 1980s, the Hogs would sometimes play on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  It was after joining the SEC that in 1996, they first faced off against LSU on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  That year, they lost to LSU by the score of 17 to 7. The Tigers had been ranked 19 going into the game.  The attendance that year was 22,329.  The game was Danny Ford’s penultimate season as the Hogs head coach.

Two years later, in Houston Nutt’s first season as head coach, the Hogs were ranked Number 13 on November 27, when they defeated LSU 41 to 14 in front of 55,831.  In 2000, the Hogs upset 24th ranked LSU in front of 43,982 by the score of 14 to 3.  The Hogs continued the Little Rock winning streak on the day after Thanksgiving in 2002 when they bested 18th ranked LSU by the score of 21 to 20 in front of 55,553.

The Razorbacks lost to 14th ranked LSU on November 26, 2004 by the score of 43 to 14 in front of 55,829.  In 2006, the Hogs and Tigers were both nationally ranked.  LSU (ranked 9th) upset the 5th ranked Razorbacks by a score of 31 to 26 on November 24 before 55,833 fans.  In Bobby Petrino’s first season as head coach, the Hogs returned to winning ways in 2008 when they defeated LSU on November 28 by a score of 31 to 30 before a crowd of 55,325. This was the first meeting of the two teams on the day after Thanksgiving in which neither team was nationally ranked.

Following that year, the LSU game against the Razorbacks was moved to Fayetteville.