FAYETTEVILLE — Jon Brittenum, the starting quarterback on dominant teams for the University of Arkansas in 1965 and 1966, passed away early Thursday at age 78.
Brittenum, a native of Brinkley, had been in ill health for several years and living in south Texas.
Brittenum lettered in 1963, when he split time at quarterback with Bill Gray, redshirted during the national championship season of 1964, then held the starting job as a junior and senior the following two years.
He earned All-Southwest Conference honors in both of those seasons. Brittenum passed for 1,103 yards with 8 touchdowns and 7 interceptions for the 1965 team, which won its first 10 games to extend the school’s winning streak to 22 consecutive games.
Brittenum was credited with calling the plays in a 27-24 win over No. 1 Texas that season, pushing the Razorbacks to the top spot in the Associated Press top 25.
The Razorbacks were ranked No. 2 going into the Cotton Bowl with a chance to win back-to-back national championships due to No. 1 Michigan State’s loss to UCLA in the Rose Bowl. However, Brittenum suffered a separated shoulder and LSU beat the Razorbacks 14-7 in Dallas.
He passed for another 1,103 yards in 1966 and added 168 rushing yards as the Razorbacks went 8-2 and stayed in the top 10 for eight regular-season AP polls.
Brittenum was selected for the UA Sports Hall of Honor in 2020 but was inducted with the 2021 class due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Coach Frank Broyles wrote in his autobiography that Brittenum was “the best passer on the move that I’ve ever seen. He could throw it like a frozen rope on the sprint-out series. He was the perfect passer-runner for the system that we played at the time.”
Brittenum was selected to the UA’s All-Decade team of the 1960s.
He was undrafted in 1967 but made the Miami Dolphins practice squad that year. He played one season for the San Diego Chargers in 1968.