The most heated rivalry you’ve never heard of: The Battle of the Ravine

As a Pittsburgh resident, I take honor in knowing (and being kind to) my neighbors. The same cannot be said during college football's Rivalry Week. Across the country, players, coaches, fans and alumni take pleasure in hate-watching their enemies, and wanting nothing more but to get a year's-worth of bragging rights over those with whom they break bread.

Nowhere is that rivalry energy more intense than in Arkadelphia, Arkansas — yes, it does sound like someone mashed “Arkansas” and “Philadelphia” together. It’s home to the Battle of the Ravine, a matchup dating back to the late 19th century and built on kidnappings, political stunts and two rival schools separated by a single street. They may be Division II programs, but there’s a reason Rece Davis pushed for College Gameday to come here. The greatest rivalry you’ve never heard of has shaped generations.

Want more rivalries? Explore FanSided’s Rivalry Week Hub, our interactive deep dive into the traditions, history and moments that define college football’s fiercest matchups.

A rivalry separated by one road and a century of history

The two teams are just a one-minute drive apart, and within walking distance if you're willing to cross a highway. Here's a photo via google maps, if anyone needed a visual.

That's not far! The schools are about a minute apart by car if we're talking about the campus periphery. If you're the golfing type, you could probably reach the fairway — just avoid the highway, please. For us walkers, it'll take about 3,696 feet. As USA Today notes, when games are scheduled at the same time, either media relations crew can probably scout the other from the press box.

This rivalry has been played 98 times overall, and Ouachita Baptist has an overall record of 47-45-6 against Henderson State. Ouchita Baptist had won seven of the past eight matchups until this past Saturday, when Henderson State got their revenge.

While recent history is on Ouchita Baptist's side, this rivalry tends to bounce back and forth. Henderson State has won two of the past three outings, and the Reddies are 8-3 on the season after beating their crosstown rivals.

However, this rivalry goes far deeper than just the past 10 years. In fact, it's best summed up by the actions of its students on game week, not just the play on the field.

The 1950 kidnapping that defined the rivalry

Every rivalry needs its pranks, and in 1950, the Henderson State cheerleaders went a bit too far. Ouachita’s homecoming queen, Arkadelphia native Ann Strickland, was led to a lake house on nearby Lake Hamilton. There, she was kept for several days before The Battle of the Ravine, while her boyfriend and OBU star defensive back Bill Vinning, who was a Ouachita student, led a search party to find her.

Strickland was kept near Lake Hamilton against her will, and was eventually brought back to campus when it was learned Ouachita officials reported the case as a kidnapping. It turns out that every rivalry has its breaking point. That, err, let's call it an illegal distraction, did not stop OBU from winning The Battle of the Ravine in 1950.

Years later, Vinning became the basketball coach at OBU, and he and Ann's son, the star quarterback. In 1975, it was Bill Vinning Jr. who threw the game-winning touchdown pass to end Henderson State's undefeated season. Talk about revenge a quarter-century in the making.

A tiger heist, bonfire sabotage and marshmallow pranks

There were, of course, some far more innocent pranks in this rivalry. In the 1960's, Henderson students dressed as members of the opposite sex and convinced the Ouachita librarian that they needed to steal the Tiger statue for 'a cleaning'.

In the 1970's, a group of Ouachita students, headlined by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, ruined the annual Henderson State bonfire by lighting it a night earlier than students and alumni were expecting. Needless to say, there were some Henderson State students glad that Huckabee's political career never reached presidential prominence.

And, perhaps my favorite prank of all occurred in 1975, when an airplane belonging to the Henderson State aviation department flew over the Ouachita campus and dropped — I kid you not — thousands of marshmallows. Personally, I don't view this as a bad thing.

Trashcam: Arkadelphia’s own spygate scandal

Arkadelphia natives will never forget Trashcam. Much like scandals seen in the NFL and Division 1, the Battle of the Ravine is not immune to cheating. In 1999, a Henderson State graduate assistant coach took a video camera to Arkadelphia’s Central Park, which overlooks the Ouachita practice field. The Henderson assistant recorded Ouachita's practice and their signals in hopes of giving the Reddies an advantage they wouldn't relinquish.

Unfortunately for that assistant, he was spotted at the Tigers' practice and had to bail on the project. He threw his camera into a nearby trash can, and it was found and returned to Henderson State by then-Ouachita athletic director David Sharp. It should come as no surprise, then, that Ouachita won four out the next five games between these two teams. Henderson State provided them with ample motivation.

What the Battle of the Ravine means to Arkadelphia

For the people of Arkadelphia, this rivalry is their claim to fame. The two schools are separated by a two-lane road. Students from Henderson often take classes at Ouachita Baptist, and vice versa. Each year, the two teams have a joint tailgate, a tradition that started in the late 1940's. Tickets are hard to come by.

All of this is why, when College Gameday opted to skip one of college football's most historic rivalries in favor of Pitt vs. Notre Dame this past Saturday, no one in Arkansas really minded. This is their day — and their game — and no one in Arkadelphia minds if they're the only ones who really know about it.

“If you go to restaurants and other places in town, you do have a little bragging rights,” Henderson State fan Henry Arnold said proudly after a victory, per NBC affiliate KARK. “You can wear your colors a little more proudly.”

Heck, some fans were even upset the game itself wasn't closer. After all, there have been so many great matchups in this rivalry. A 41-14 drubbing by the Reddies didn't quite do the game justice.

“I’ve grown up coming to these games, and all those one-point, one-score games and all that,” OBU fan Keith Bolton said. “It’s kinda sad.” Nonetheless, Henderson State celebrated the game by storming the field anyways.

The result on the field wasn't remotely close, but as for the prank war this rivalry is built around, that'll be tougher to come by moving forward. These schools know their students and alumni, and have guarded against mischief heavily the past few years. No Tiger statues or homecoming queens were harmed in the time it took to write this article.

It's a new era for this rivalry, much like it is for college football as a whole. As two programs fighting for Great American Conference supremacy, and hoping to hold onto their own in the modern NIL era, a great football culture really can do the trick in keeping great talent home. It's impossible to argue against 100-plus years of pure, unadulterated hatred of your neighbors. That's what both representatives in The Battle of the Ravine do best.