The crowd gathered in the courtyard while seniors, by tradition, fried bacon and served it up with biscuits to their fellow classmates. Music from the local radio station blared over the speakers. The annual bacon fry was underway.

“It was pretty good,” freshman Chandler Thomas said. “All I ate was bacon though. The seniors did pretty good.”

The seniors, decked out in orange, ran the show by cooking and serving, giving other students the opportunity to eat some hog before the rivalry game. While this was Thomas’ first bacon fry, it’s the seniors last.

“The bacon fry was really awesome,” senior Matt Cox said. “I got to be a part of it. I got to eat some bacon, cook some bacon, serve some bacon. I just thought it was really cool to be a part of a long senior tradition here.”

Senior Cameron Bailey didn’t think the bacon fry went well, though.

“I thought it could have been better,” Bailey said. “We’ve had a while to plan it.”

The bacon fry is a time to get students together before one of the biggest football games of the year. Arkansas High hasn’t beaten Texas High in fourteen years.

“I’m pretty excited,” senior Patience Beard said. “I hope we win. If we don’t I’m going to cry because it’s my senior year.”