FOOTBALL GAME NOTES LINK
MAGNOLIA, Ark. - Saturday's game between Southern Arkansas and Harding serves as the fourth annual Boomtown Classic, sponsored by Murphy USA, in the host city of El Dorado.
The first two years of the classic, held in 2009 and 2010, featured the Muleriders and Arkansas-Monticello, with the Boll Weevils winning both those contests, 17-6 and 28-23, respectively. Last year's game involved UAM and Ouachita Baptist, with OBU claiming a 38-20 decision.
SAU is the designated “home” team in this year's game, which will be only the second meeting they and the Bisons have had at a neutral site, the other being a 21-0 victory for the Muleriders in 1926 in Morrillton.
This will be seventh time that Southern Arkansas has played in El Dorado, with Harding being the first opponent other than Arkansas-Monticello. SAU has a 3-2-1 mark playing in the city.
THE SERIES
Saturday's game between Southern Arkansas and Harding is the 49th meeting of the two teams. The Muleriders hold a 25-22-1 advantage in the series that began in 1925 with a 19-0 win by SAU. After shutting out the Bisons 21-0 in 1926, the two teams did not meet again until 1930 when Southern Arkansas pitched its third straight shutout in the series by a 19-0 score. It would be 29 years before the teams would play again, with HU resurrecting its football program in 1959 and the Muleriders winning 42-14, and then blanking Harding 13-0 in 1960 for their fifth win in the series, four by shutouts.
The Bisons upset SAU for the first time in 1961 with a come-from-behind 27-25 win. In 1972, a 14-9 setback to HU was Southern Arkansas' only Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference (AIC) loss, and forced the Muleriders to share the conference championship. The only tie in the series was a 21-21 deadlock in 1984 in Searcy.
The two teams did not play from 1996-2001 when SAU moved to the Gulf South Conference and Harding to the Lone Star Conference. The Bisons won in 2002 by a 33-13 margin, their first win over Southern Arkansas since 1994. The Muleriders came back for a hard-earned 24-19 decision in Searcy in 2003. After not playing in 2004 and 2005 because of schedule rotation, HU has now won the past six meetings between the two teams, 17-6 in 2006 in Searcy, a 31-24 overtime victory the next year in Magnolia, by a 39-33 margin in 2008 in Searcy, 26-16 the next year in Magnolia, recording only its second shutout of the series with a 20-0 game in 2010 in Searcy, and handing SAU its worst loss since 1958 and most lop-sided defeat at home since 1917 in a 63-14 gamee last year in the teams' season-openers.
Southern Arkansas' first five wins against Harding is its longest streak in the series, with the Bisons' current six-game streak (2006-11) their longest. The Muleriders hold a 13-10-1 advantage in the series in games played in Searcy and 1-0 at a neutral site, 1926 in Morrillton, while HU holds a 12-11 edge in Magnolia.
