Underwood, 'Little Pig' and former SWC official, dies at 82

Ronnie Underwood scores one of his two touchdowns against Texas on Saturday, Oct. 15, 1955, in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks defeated the Longhorns 27-20.

— Harold Horton attended the University of Arkansas’ football game at Texas A&M on Nov. 24, 1989, but the Razorbacks’ 23-22 victory is mostly a blur.

“I don’t really remember but one thing about that game,” Horton said. “And that was the call.”

The memorable pass interference call was made by line judge Ronnie Underwood on a fourth-and-3 play for Arkansas from the Aggies’ 19-yard line with less than five minutes left and Texas A&M leading 20-17.

It’s a call many Texas A&M fans still complain about, especially because Underwood was an Arkansas graduate who played for the Razorbacks from 1954-56.

Replays showed that Aggies safety Larry Horton came over Arkansas tight end Billy Winston’s back while the pass from Quinn Grovey was still in the air.

But considering the game was in Kyle Field, the call didn’t go over well with most of the 57,875 in attendance.

Arkansas rallied to win 23-22 when Barry Foster scored on a 2-yard touchdown run with 2:52 to play to make it 23-20 — the Aggies pulled within a point after Razorbacks punter Allen Meacham intentionally took a safety with 29 seconds left — to cap a drive kept alive by the pass interference call.

“It was a great play [by Horton],” Texas A&M Coach R.C. Slocum said after the game. “Our young man broke on the ball and did just like we coached him. It was a critical play in the game.”

The game was critical to Arkansas winning the Southwest Conference title for the second consecutive year. The Razorbacks finished 7-1 by beating SMU 38-24 in the regular-season finale.

Texas A&M tied Houston for second in the SWC standings at 6-2.

“I was talking to somebody about that call one time and said, ‘My gosh, Ray Charles could have seen it was pass interference,’” Ken Hatfield, Arkansas’ coach from 1984-89, said referring to the blind singer. “The guy mugged Billy Winston before the ball was even across the line of scrimmage.

“So it didn’t take an Einstein to make the call. It just took somebody that called it the way it happened.”

Underwood died last Friday in his hometown of Little Rock. He was 82.

“Ronnie was a good man and he was honest,” Hatfield said. “He was an official you always knew was going to be fair and make the right call.

“I never felt like his Arkansas background entered into any call he made. He was a great official and always a professional.”

Harold Horton was the University of Central Arkansas coach at the time, but the Bears had an open date the weekend of the Arkansas-Texas A&M game so he traveled to College Station. His son, Tim, was a receiver and punt returner for the Razorbacks.

“The Texas A&M player was all over our guy, and at first no one threw a flag,” Horton said. “Then all of a sudden, here comes in a late flag, and it’s Ronnie. He called it, and he was right.

“It obviously was pass interference, but those other officials from Texas, they weren’t going to call it.

“It was a gutsy thing for Ronnie to do, but it was the right thing to do, because it was interference.”

Eddie Bradford, a senior lineman for the Razorbacks in 1954 when Underwood was a sophomore, attended the 1989 Arkansas-Texas A&M.

“We always used to go to the game with our friends who lived in Texas,” Bradford said. “When Ronnie made that call, the Texas A&M fans were just irate, because they said, ‘Oh, that’s an Arkansas official.’

“I was afraid somebody was going to hit Ronnie in the head with a Coke bottle or something. But it was an excellent call.

“Ronnie always called them the way he saw them, no matter who was playing. He was a very honest guy. If it had been the other way around, he would have made the same call [against Arkansas].”

Underwood, like Bradford, played for Coach Wilson Matthews at Little Rock Central High School and then went to Arkansas.

In three seasons with the Razorbacks as a wingback, Underwood had 106 carries for 432 yards and caught 12 passes for 247 yards. He had an 88-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against LSU in 1955.

Underwood, inducted into the UA Sports Hall of Honor in 2002, was one of the “25 Little Pigs" for Coach Bowden Wyatt’s 1954 SWC championship team. He played for Arkansas teams that combined for a 19-11-2 record, including 3-0 against Texas.

In Arkansas’ 27-12 victory over Rice in 1956, Underwood shared the Crip Hall Award — presented to the senior who had the best homecoming game — with lineman Billy Ray Smith Sr.

“Ronnie was a fine athlete,” Bradford said. “He had good speed and he had good strength and he was tough, because you had to do a lot of blocking as a wingback. He played his position well.”

Underwood, a sales representative for May Supply and Pella Windows, began his officiating career working junior high and high school games and moved up to the college ranks in the SWC and Big 12.

After retiring as an official in 2000, Underwood briefly scouted officials for the NFL.

“I had known Ronnie since junior high and I always had a lot of respect for him,” Bradford said. “It just broke my heart when I heard he had passed away.”