Note: The opening clip is from the KATV archives, 1978.
[George, prospective recruit, 1978:]
I've been contacted by quite a few other schools. This is the first one I've visited. Whether I'm going to visit any other ones or not remains to be seen, but I think I like the atmosphere of everything I've heard about Arkansas. I like the weather. I also think that Coach Broyles has done a tremendous job here, and it would just be a tremendous opportunity to follow in the footsteps of an individual who's done a great job. But most important of all, I think it'd be a great place to raise a family.
Kellams: This is not Monday, but this is a Pryor Center profile. Randy Dixon with the Pryor Center is with me. Welcome back.
Dixon: Thanks, Kyle.
Kellams: We're doing a sort of special. We need to do a profile on Lou Holtz.
Dixon: We did one about five years ago, and we're going to revisit that. As I'm sure everyone knows, Lou Holtz, former Razorback coach, died last week at the age of 89. We're going to talk about his seven years here. The Holtz era ran from 1977 to 1983. He replaced Frank Broyles as head coach. Broyles became athletic director. Lou Holtz was the first new coach since Frank Broyles. He came from the New York Jets, where he had spent one year. Here's a clip from the KATV archives with Frank Broyles about his possible hiring of Holtz.
[Frank Broyles, KATV archives:]
I am in the process of trying to find who is available, and it's kind of like my wife when I take her shopping for a dress — head coaches and all that — in that she may pick the first one or she may go through five stores, and you never know when it's going to fall out of the sky. Yes, this one is available and might consider the job, or he might not. And this is similar to what happened in New York. I had known that Lou wanted to leave pro football and get back into college from last summer, and I asked him, was he available? And he said he did not know whether he could be released from his contract or whether he felt an obligation to stay there.
Dixon: And in 1976, he was hired. Here he is.
[Lou Holtz:]
I believe in God and believe in myself and believe in Arkansas. And I've made that same comment every job I've ever gone to. It was a great experience for me with New York. Whether I could have been successful there or not, you have to draw your own conclusions. The only question that you have to ask yourself all the time is: What price am I willing to pay?
Kellams: He was charismatic — quite a motivational speaker. And funny. At least in public.
Dixon: Yes. He did have a temper. But he could really motivate people. Here he is speaking to a group off campus.
[Lou Holtz:]
One thing I want you to understand is I'm not going to talk about the University of Arkansas. There isn't anything that bores me more than if I am from Texas A&M, and I'm sitting there with a good prospect, and have the head football coach of the University of Arkansas get up and talk about what a great school Arkansas is. I am not going to bother to talk about the University of Arkansas.
Kellams: Let's say you've moved to Arkansas in the last five or six years and haven't really experienced Arkansas football having great success in its heyday. Lou Holtz may have only been here for seven years and eventually was asked to leave, but there were some triumphant moments for Razorback football while he was here.
Dixon: Right from the start, and it started with his ability to recruit. Here's a clip from 1978 in which Holtz talks about his plans for student athletes. I like that he also talks about the university's obligations to the students.
[Lou Holtz, 1978:]
We have an awful lot to offer, and we're convinced that somewhere in this country there are 30 great athletes who want what we have to offer. If we're willing to knock on enough doors and not get discouraged with a few no's, and not try to entice a young man to come here or talk him into coming here to play — that's probably the most single important item. Once you get them here on campus, your athletes have to do a good job. He has to look to see whether he's going to fit into the system. And we want to make sure that he's going to fit into the system. It's sort of a two-way street. It's like a marriage. If a young man comes to the University of Arkansas and can do everything for us and we can't do anything for him, then he is going to be unhappy. If he comes here and we can do everything for him and he can do nothing for us, then we're going to be a little bit unhappy in the long run. So it's sort of a marriage: trying to find the young man who can achieve success academically and athletically, conduct himself the manner you want, achieve success in the classroom, and at the same time help us continue the tradition of Arkansas. Then you have a good marriage.
Kellams: Holtz was one of just three coaches to lead Arkansas to six consecutive bowl appearances, including one of the biggest upsets in school history — Arkansas beat No. 2 Oklahoma 31-6 in the 1978 Orange Bowl.
[Lou Holtz, post-game, 1978:]
It's a great thrill, naturally. I've never seen a reception like this. It just gives you a good, warm feeling inside. But the greatest feeling I had was watching our fans down in the Orange Bowl. I know we sold 50 tickets. There were maybe a thousand people who had called me or written me saying they weren't going to make the trip because we didn't have a chance to win. But those 14,000 who were down there made the front page of the Miami Herald. They started calling the hogs at about 4 o'clock, and they didn't stop until about 4 in the morning. It was just so much noise, so much enthusiasm. There's an electricity — we walked out on the field, and you just had the feeling that something good was going to happen.
Dixon: The next year, No. 8 Arkansas faced No. 15 UCLA in the Fiesta Bowl, and it ended in a 10-10 tie.
[Lou Holtz, post-game:]
I think it's ridiculous that we have fans who travel about 2,000 miles in order to watch a tie. I know UCLA feels the same way, and it's a shame the NCAA doesn't do something about it, because this is ridiculous.
Kellams: The NCAA eventually changed that rule — in 1996. Over seven years, the Hogs were ranked in the top 10 four times: in '77, '78, '79 and '82. In 1983, after a 6-5 season, Broyles fired Holtz.
[Lou Holtz, 1983:]
God tells us in Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, Verse 5, there's a time for everything: a time to kill, a time to heal; a time to weep, a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance. Now I feel the appropriate time for me to resign from the University of Arkansas. There are many different ways to resign, but none of them are very easy. But hopefully this one will be done and reported in a positive manner.
Kellams: Ken Hatfield came in as the new coach. Holtz went to Minnesota for one year, then Notre Dame — where they won the national championship in '88. Then South Carolina.
Dixon: Which I have to admit I had completely forgotten until I started reading the obituaries. After that career at Notre Dame, there's not a lot mentioned about him being at Arkansas, either.
Kellams: Yes, we know it because we were here.
Dixon: He did go on to do commentary and work on ESPN with Mark May for about 10 years. Some other highlights and awards: He was elected to the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1983, inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2008, the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame in 2012, and received the Medal of Freedom from President Trump in 2020.
[Lou Holtz, Medal of Freedom ceremony, 2020:]
But this award, as great as it is, does not define who Lou Holtz is. My beautiful family, my precious wife, my friends — you have determined who I am. And I just try to be a solid person. As I think it was said, the two most important days in your life: one, the day you're born; the other, the day you discover why you were born. When we discover we're born basically to help other people and overcome the problems and difficulties that are going to come our way — I just could not be prouder to be part of this country. I could not be prouder to receive this award from an individual I respect and admire as much as President Trump. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
Kellams: Sort of a special edition of the Pryor Center Profiles.
Dixon: That's right. We'll have our regular program Monday, and it is about Operation Iraqi Freedom. If you listened this past Monday, we talked about Operation Desert Storm and its launch and how it evolved. So this week we'll move up to the next war — the Gulf War, 12 years after Desert Storm.
Kellams: Randy Dixon is with the Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History. Thank you, Randy.
Dixon: See you Monday.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
