It was halftime in Fayetteville and the Arkansas football team was sitting on a 35-14 lead when history was made about 680 miles to the east in Lexington, Ky., and it had nothing to do with the Kentucky Wildcats.
American Pharoah became the first horse to win the 3-year-old Triple Crown and Breeders' Cup Classic, a feat some are calling the Grand Slam, and something that might not happen again.
American Pharoah is one of only 12 horses to win the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes, and the first to do so since the advent of the Breeders' Cup races 31 years ago.
He was the odds-on favorite last Saturday despite a late-August loss in the Travers Stakes and, in a way, it was fitting he finished his charge through racing history at Keeneland Racecourse.
Keeneland sits in the middle of horse racing country, surrounded by gorgeous horse farms and fueled by an attitude of can do.
Small, but elegant, the track is considered the home of blue-blooded horses and owners. The listed price for a ticket at a table last Saturday was $600 before it fell into hands of scalpers.
American Pharoah raced eight times in six states in just more than seven months as a 3-year-old.
The journey from unknown to household name began on a rainy March afternoon at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.
Trainer Bob Baffert likes Oaklawn. The fact that his horses come out of the races there in good shape is nice, but so is the purse money.
Baffert, who trains for local businessman Frank Fletcher, knows how to pick his spots. But no one but him knew if he was sending his best horse to Oaklawn or his second best.
Dortmund, who swept the three big Kentucky Derby prep races at Santa Anita in California, was also trained by Baffert.
But American Pharoah was so impressive in winning the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby -- Oaklawn was the only track he raced at twice this year -- he was the 3-1 favorite going into the Kentucky Derby with Dortmund the second choice at 4-1 in the field of 18.
Obviously, American Pharoah was the better horse, and after coming up short again in the Preakness two weeks after the Derby, Baffert never sent Dortmund to challenge his champion again.
Arguments about the best horse ever are subjective, but two of the names that always will be mentioned are American Pharoah, the first Triple Crown champion in 37 years, and the mare Zenyatta, who won 19 of 20 career races, including a victory over the boys in the 2009 Breeders' Cup Classic.
Both were undefeated in two races at Oaklawn.
American Pharoah and Zenyatta are among dozens of big-time stakes winners who have raced at Oaklawn, but American Pharoah's grand slam is another jewel in the park's crown.
Baffert told Fletcher before the Arkansas Derby in April that American Pharoah was the best horse he had ever trained, and the man who has trained 12 winners of assorted Triple Crown races and more than 200 graded stakes races knows horses.
American Pharoah's lone loss this year, second in the Travers at Saratoga in upstate New York, had more to do with a horse bumping him numerous times than it did ability, but that was avenged last Saturday.
Against a field that included four older, more experienced horses, American Pharoah took the lead out of the gate, relaxed down the backstretch, and he started pulling away from the field when asked for run. Jockey Victor Espinoza hit him twice, lightly, down the stretch. But it wasn't necessary.
No one was catching American Pharoah last Saturday when he became a legendary horse in the capital of horse racing country.
He retires to stud having won 9 of 11 starts (he ran fifth in his first race and was still the favorite a month later when he returned to the track) and banking $8,650,300.
Twice, he was easily the best at Oaklawn, and when his 3-year-old race across country ended last Saturday, there was nothing but believers and fans of American Pharoah.
Sports on 11/03/2015