Booneville Hosts Rival Ozark on Friday

Note to Our Readers: The following story was contributed in its entirety by Mr. Glenn Parrish, Director of Communications, Booneville School District. Mr. Parrish is an RNN Sports contributor, and we thank him for bringing Booneville Bearcats coverage to our readers. At deadline time for this story, the Bearcats were on the road to Pine Bluff to play their opening game at Dollarway.

Exactly when Booneville and Ozark became the rivals they are today is probably, but predictably, debatable.

For decades the primary rival for the Bearcat program was within the borders of Logan County, as in Paris, but that changed in the 1980s.

In 1980 Booneville had a wildly uncharacteristic 3-7 season, but did beat the Hillbillies. In 1981 Ozark won a double overtime game, 19-12. Following that game there would be an O burned into the Bearcat Stadium turf, presumably with diesel.

Booneville won the next four years, including a 1984 game in which Ozark thought to be a statement making game. It would be as Booneville scored 41 first quarter points and won 49-0. It was a 19-14 game in 1985.

In 1986, Ozark’s coach promised his team if they would pull off a win over Booneville, they could shave the score into the side of his head. He honored his pledge and was photographed with a 28 on one side and a 6 on the other.

Booneville got the last laugh that season, winning the school’s first state title.

In 1987 a first-round playoff pairing had the teams meeting in north Franklin County for week 11 and Ozark won for the second time that season.

The rivalry had more than arrived.

Since then there have been plenty of both one-sided – 41-0 Bearcats in 1991 and 49-11 in 2001 – as well as narrow games – the classic 56-48 1999 game and an equally classic 20-19 2020 affair – and the rivalry has ascended to the top spot in the minds of the Gen Xers and passed down to their offspring, although the so-called Boomers may still disagree.

Like any good rivalry, if not the records, logic is sometimes thrown out the window.

In 2001 Ozark won a game at Bearcat Stadium, but for the second time in school history, it was the Bearcats who hoisted a state title trophy in December.

In 2006 Ozark had clinched a conference title going into week 10. The Bearcats beat them anyway, giving that class of seniors a perfect record against the Hillbillies.

Between 2012 and 2020 the visiting team was 9-1 in the series. The Bearcats, however, won 42-12 at Bearcat Stadium in 2021 with sophomore Dax Goff recording his first 100-yard game.

Overall, Booneville leads the series by a lopsided margin.