The Little Rock Touchdown Club presented a special panel on Monday, Nov. 11, with three key players from the historic 1964 championship Razorback team, the first team in Arkansas history to win a national title. In the panel were 1964 starting quarterback Freddie Marshall, defensive back/kick returner Ken Hatfield and former player Barry Switzer, who was assistant coach during the season to the legendary Frank Broyles.
“Anyone who’s wore a Razorback helmet or logo for football stands on the shoulders of these three guys,” host David Bazzel said during opening remarks.
Switzer and Hatfield are both Arkansas natives, hailing from Crossett and Helena respectively, while Marshall came from Memphis. Both Switzer and Hatfield went on to coach professionally with Switzer leading Oklahoma and the Dallas Cowboys while Hatfield was head coach of the U of A, Clemson, Rice University and the United States Air Force Academy. The two coaches with the shared championship wound up coaching against each other over the course of their careers.
Marshall is responsible for a punt return play against Texas in 1964 that secured their spot in the championship game against Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl, regarded by some as one of the best plays in Razorback history.
Calling them “Razorback royalty,” Bazzel played during Hatfield’s tenure as head coach at Arkansas. The LRTDC’s Ken Hatfield Sportsmanship Award is named after Hatfield and honors high school players around the state who have been chosen by their coaches.
All three men, now in their 80s, reminisced on life, love and time under Frank Broyles, as well as a short military experience at Little Rock Touchdown Club on Veterans’ Day. The three shared a bit about the evolution of the game and the growth of Fayetteville and the U of A since the 1950s when the town’s population was only about 12,000 with only five or six thousand students.
“The great thing that we did, and Barry will tell you that too, that Coach Broyles emphasized, defense, the kicking game and offense, to be sure,” Hatfield said. “And the one thing you do if you’re going to be a punt returner, don’t let the ball hit the ground. That’s all he preached right there, and we probably spent more time than any other school in America on it and it paid dividends to us all the time because Broyles was there.”
When Switzer played, years before Marshall and Hatfield, every player played both ways, defensive and offensive. Something that Marshall said was undone for the historic 1964 season with a regulation change.
“1963 was an awful season,” said Marshall.
Marshall was one of three quarterbacks on rotation, starting only a few games during the ‘63 season as Broyles hoped to decide who would be his starter the following season. He shared the position with Billy Gray and Jon Brittenum. Like pitchers, if you threw too many interceptions, you’d be pulled out, and one of the other quarterbacks would be put in.
In 1963 and before, whenever the ball turned over, teams could only substitute one player at a time. Between the 1963-64 seasons, the rules changed to allow the entire team to be substituted at once.
“11 come off, 11 go on,” Marshall said.
He credits Broyles’ strategy of dividing practices by offense and defense for their successful 1964 season.
“Very few other coaches took that,” he said. “They continued to do what they’ve always done… We practiced twice as much as the other teams.”
That’s what put Arkansas on the map nationally, going from a 5-5 record the previous year to undefeated national champs with five shutouts in a row.
“He let his coaches coach,” Switzer said. “That’s the way he was when he first got there in ‘58. He let his coaches coach, and that’s the one thing I learned from him. And I do, I let my coaches coach.”
“He would not let you do anything but win,” Hatfield said, attesting to Broyles’ faith in his team.
Seeing a lifetime of change take place in the game that he loves, there still was no required facemasks on helmets during Switzer’s first year as a college player. The next year, they added a single bar across the front of the helmets.
“We played smart, we lined up right and then we gave people problems with our fronts and just done it quite a bit,” Switzer said.
The men were honored to be a part of the winning team, which is still celebrated to this day.
“I think the main thing, you felt about every person in the state of Arkansas,” Hatfield said. “Because once you’ve done something, you know it can be done forever.”
The trio look back fondly on those memories, but also look forward to another generation of champions to come through the Arkansas locker room.
“When you’ve got seven of your top tacklers in all-time history, you’re going to go undefeated, and we did,” Hatfield said.
He said, “It can still be done again.”
AY Media Group is a proud sponsor of the Little Rock Touchdown Club.
Photos by Ryan Parker
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