The Battle of the Ravine is the oldest NCAA Division II rivalry in America. Since 1895, Battle of the Ravine week has been filled with extreme emotion, harsh pranks, school spirit and timeless traditions.
One of these pranks was a friendly kidnapping of the 1952 Ouachita Homecoming queen, Ann Strickland, who was at the time the girlfriend of Bill Vining, the future Ouachita head basketball coach and athletic director.
Some of Ann’s friends at Henderson decided to kidnap and hold her hostage 35 miles away in Hot Springs.
In response, a group of football players went to rescue the girl. Among them was Vining and Ike Sharp, father of Ouachita Director of Athletics David Sharp. Sharp and Vining went searching for Ann, ready for a confrontation.
Acting on an erroneous tip, they even went door-to-door in Arkadelphia’s Caddo Hotel. They didn’t find her, but Ann returned unharmed in a few days.
Soon after this, Vining would propose to Strickland. (Bill and Ann would go on to have six children, including nurse Molly Vining Wallace, director of health services at Ouachita.)
Large fights between Reddies and Tigers were not uncommon in the 1940s and 1950s, with memorable fisticuffs on the street in front of Cone-Bottoms and around the Tiger.
The culmination of these events alarmed those in charge of the Battle of the Ravine and it was put on an 11-year hiatus.
The rivalry was renewed in the 1960s and has continued since then with the exception of a few years in the 1990s when Henderson had joined the NCAA and Ouachita was still a member of the NAIA.
One of the most well-known traditions during Battle of the Ravine week is the guarding of the Tiger. Rho Sigma has guarded the Tiger for over 70 years.
“Ever since… the Tiger was put up, we’ve always been ones for Tiger spirit,” said Jake Hannon, a junior business management major and vice president of Rho Sigma. “This is a great way to get people excited. People walk through campus, see us out here guarding the Tiger and we know they’re going to get excited for that game on Saturday.”
During the week, Rho Sigma has a large tent set up near the Tiger. Their headquarters is surrounded by different activities that students can participate in throughout the week.
“We all plan it,” Hannon said. “We all get together and think about what will be fun and what the other people on campus will enjoy.”
Hein Hillmer, a junior mass communications major and social chair of Rho Sigma said that the “whole point of having people come out and setting up a tent is to create unity between students and social clubs.”
“It’s definitely something that’s going to be one of those memory makers,” he said. “Something that, after you graduate, you’ll be able to share with people out of school and with kids that come to school. It’s important to all of us.”
The first six games of Battle of the Ravine were won by the Henderson Reddies. The games would traditionally be played on Thanksgiving Day and both teams made it their Homecoming game.
Of all the football games played between Henderson and Ouachita, Henderson has won 40 and Ouachita has won 39. There were six ties in 1914, 1927, 1947, 1964, 1986 and 1988. If Ouachita wins this year, there will be a tie for the overall games.
For over a century, Battle of the Ravine has continued to be a highlight event of the fall semester.
Noah Hutchinson, Kathryn Coffey, Mattie Bogoslovsky and Sam Cushman contributed to this article.
