What Might Have Been By Larry Carlson for https://texaslsn.org

The Setting:  Memorial Stadium, Oct. 17, 1964, 7:30 pm kickoff, Austin

Arkansas (4-0) came south ranked number 8, and defending national champ Texas, also 4-0, held the number one ranking.

At Stake:  The winner would have the inside track to the Southwest Conference title and a good shot at the national championship.

The Situation:  Arkansas had broken a scoreless tie late in the second quarter with an electrifying 81-yard punt return by future Hog head coach Ken Hatfield.

Texas evened the score at 7-7 just before the fourth quarter but the visitors answered with a 75-yard drive to reclaim the lead, 14-7.  Then it was the Horns’ turn and they responded with an impressive 16-play drive.  Workhorse tailback Ernie Koy, who had rushed for 120 yards, got the payoff TD from a yard out.  Under 90 seconds remained and UT boss Darrell Royal took a timeout to mull the options.  He decided that the champs would go for two points and the knockout.

The Pass That Failed:  Quarterback Marvin Kristynik was looking for Hix Green in the right flat. “That’s one memory I will always have,” Green told me this week, acknowledging the weight of what would unfold.   “What might have been…” Green said.  “It was a quick decision by Coach Royal to send me back in for the pass play.”

That call had succeeded just five plays earlier.  But the Razorbacks got instant heavy heat from up the middle, forcing a hurried throw.  The ball landed short of Green and behind him.  Films show that had he caught it, Green might have been nailed shy of the goal line.  “I still think I would have scored,” Hix says now.  “But it was not to be.”

Following the failed two-point try, Arkansas covered the kickoff and ran the clock out.

The Fallout:  Royal visited the jubilant Razorback locker room and congratulated the Hogs, reportedly urging the Hogs to help keep the national title in the SWC.  But Royal warned the visitors that his Longhorns would be there to pick up after any failures.

Neither team would lose again.  In fact, the Arkansas defense pitched five straight shutouts en route to a conference crown and a 10-0 record.  Then the Hogs beat Nebraska, 10-7 in the Cotton Bowl.  Alabama, however, was crowned national champs by the AP and the UPI a the conclusion of a similarly perfect regular season.

Perhaps Royal’s most famous saying was “Dance with the one that brung ya.”  Those who dared second-guess DKR wondered why he went with the pass, having doubled Arkansas in total yardage, the great majority of it on the ground.  Koy had 110 yards.

The Footnote:  Texas (9-1) traveled to Miami to face the national champs in the Orange Bowl and upset the Crimson Tide, 21-17, in spite of the heroics of Bama QB Joe Namath, the game’s MVP.  Alabama’s loss to UT resulted in the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) awarding its national title to college football’s lone unbeaten team,

Arkansas.  But for the failed two-point conversion on a hot October night in Austin, the Horns, based on the rest of their season, would have been back-to-back national champions in ’63 and ’64.   

It’s also worth noting that four Longhorn starters in the Orange Bowl (TE/LB Pete Lammons, QB/S Jim Hudson, WR George Sauer Jr, and DL John Elliott would join Namath as starters for the New York Jets and win Super Bowl III in January 1969.

Hix Green played his final football game that night in Miami.  He told me that in addition to the 21-17 defeat of number one, Texas beat Bama in a fishing tournament the next day.  “Great game, great goal-line stand, great season, great fun,” Green summed it up.