Ever since it was announced that Ole Miss and Arkansas would be playing at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock in the fall of 2018, I knew I had to be there.
Here's just a tad backstory for those who don't know me personally: I am originally from Mississippi, but I lived right outside of Little Rock for five years and graduated high school from there before coming back to Mississippi to attend Ole Miss. During those five years, I became friends with many Razorback fans.
Let's just say that during my time of living in Arkansas, the games between Ole Miss and Arkansas did not go in our favor. Even if Ole Miss was having a halfway decent season, we somehow managed to forget how to play football when we played Arkansas. (or Arkansas just somehow managed to pull off a miraculous play to win the game)
Due to our past luck (or bad luck I guess you'd call it), I remained humble in the days leading up to the game; I did not want to jinx anything. (The only thing I did during the week was post a picture of my "Beat Arkansas" button on my backpack because how could I not post that??) However, my Razorback friends were not afraid to let me know how they felt about the game...this is what awaited me when I arrived at my friend's house on Friday night...
Gameday rolled around, and I honestly did not know what to expect, besides awful traffic and having to listen to the annoying sound of "wooooo pig sooie" all night. The game was not until 6:30 and it had been raining all day and would continue to rain throughout the duration of the game.
I'm not going to lie: it was pretty miserable up until halftime. It was raining non-stop, we were down by more than I had hoped for, and I was freezing. Despite the negatives of the situation, I didn't want to give up on the Rebs. Thankfully, we decided to stick it out and stay because (as the Rebs normally do) they decided to show up more in the second half (not to say we didn't have some mistakes like missing a field goal in the 4th quarter...)
My attitude went from "yeah, well at least I'm here to support" to "oh my gosh, I can't believe this is happening" and hearing my boyfriend tell me not to fall because I'm jumping up and down with excitement on wet bleachers all in the last couple of minutes on the game clock. I couldn't believe that we managed to get a touchdown so close to the end of the game!! But I didn't want to get my hopes up yet... there was still forty-two seconds on the clock, giving Arkansas plenty of time to work their way down the field. BUT the win was set and Arkansas fans started to file out when we intercepted the ball. The Ole Miss band, students, and fans were singing "na na na na, hey hey, goodbye." Game over. Ole Miss has won.
Considering I haven't been to an away game as a student until this game (aka being a Road Reb), I didn't realize just how exciting it could be to win in that situation. But let me tell you, it was such a nice feeling. Sitting in the rain was so beyond worth it. Through it all, I am so proud to be an Ole Miss Rebel.
Props to our Rebels for winning this game!! Y'all so deserved it!! Hotty Toddy!! And to my Razorback friends: you're welcome for not texting you and blowing up your phone about our win like you always did to me... I just wrote an article about it instead(:
