’22 Straight!’ documents Razorback winning streak
by October 3, 2012 7:22 am 530 views
As the 2012 Arkansas Razorbacks are off to one of their worst starts in program history, the film 22 Straight! will have its statewide broadcast premier on Thursday, Oct. 4, at 6:30 p.m. on AETN.
Larry Foley, professor of journalism in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas, is the film’s producer.
According to a UA statement, 22 Straight! commemorates a time when the Arkansas Razorbacks dominated college football.
“The story celebrates a team that won a National Championship and held the longest winning streak in the 1960’s with 22 games,” noted the statement.
The story begins on Nov. 23, 1963, the day after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
Playing despite requests that the game be postponed, the Hogs beat Texas Tech University to begin the streak. Arkansas would remain undefeated until Jan. 1, 1966, when the Razorbacks lost to Louisiana State University in the Cotton Bowl.
Former NBC sports announcer Charlie Jones narrates as interviews with players and coaches and rare footage transport the audience back in time.
“While more than 40 years have passed since the Hogs won the Grantland Rice Award as the best team in college football, many of these stories have never been shared publicly,” according to the UA statement.
The 73-minute DVD was released in 2004 and is available for purchase from the University of Arkansas Press ($19.95).
AETN, the Arkansas Educational Television Network, is Arkansas’s statewide public television station. It is a simulcast network of educational public television stations, affiliated with PBS covering the state of Arkansas.
Link here for the AETN television schedule.