Date and Location: November 29 2025, Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, Fayetteville, AR.

Reflections: Given I had attended my first ever American football game a mere year before this one and didn’t have the fanatical love of the Razorbacks required for Arkansas permenance residency, it came as a shock to me just how emotional I felt attending my final game.

Pushing my now tried-and-tested “buy the tickets for cents after the match actually starts” theory to the limit, I rolled up so late to this match I was briefly concerned they might not let me in. It was approaching half time by the time I wrenched myself away from the NFL quilt I was sewing, and given that I’d turned up with half a pizza box covered in cryptic lettering – in hindsight, that may have been the reason they nearly turned me away. A kind stadium worker allowed me to leave my enormous bag of fabric scraps, however, and I made it in to my final Razorback game at the start of the third quarter.

Although I arrived late and shivered the most of the way through the match thanks to the wretched 30F Arkansas weather, the realisation this was likely the last Razorbacks match I would see in person made me far more attentive than normal. I chatted with the screeching amateur defensive coordinators in the stands. I made sure to get my photograph taken with all four Razorback mascots – it came as a complete surprise that Pork Chop was one of my old students, but it was great to catch up Sarah Beth! – and Tusk VI, the live mascot’s most recent appointee. Staring down at a trophy from 1964, I realised just how long the team has shaped the lives of Arkansas’ inhabitants and really understood the weight of the tradition I briefly got to partake in.

I also got jumpscared by the sight of young Razorback player Jerry Jones.
It’s surprising how often that happens in my current job as an Arkansas oral historian.

Final Score: 31 – 17. What a predictably utilitarian final curtain!

Best Food or Drink: A surprisingly great margarita pizza slice teamed with a final Razorback-branded Bud Light. I’ll miss them both painfully.