Arkansas defends the belt, 55–20, at home over North Texas.
AP poll, week 7: North Texas unranked at Arkansas No. 2 · No. 1 that week: Arkansas. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
Arkansas came in 7 days into reign #128, which began with a win over Texas, with no defenses yet; this was its first defense. Arkansas went on to defend it 4 more times before LSU took it on January 1, 1966, 77 days after the reign began.
For North Texas this was its first shot at the belt; it had never held the belt. It still hasn’t: 2 attempts in all, every one of them a loss or a tie.
This is the only time Arkansas and North Texas have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
Arkansas, defending the belt, hosted North Texas on October 23, 1965, in week 7 of the regular season. Arkansas won 55-20 and retained the belt.
Written by Claude, strictly from this site’s own record of the game — the score and what it meant for the belt. CFBD doesn’t have a box score for games this old, so nothing here is invented beyond what’s verifiably on file.
Sources Game record: College Football Data (id 38905) · This game in the downloadable dataset