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Alumna attends every home football game for more than 50 years

A home football game at the University of Central Arkansas has several 
 constants: the Bears, Bruce Street tailgating, the Bear Marching Band, the Stripes and Susan Hoggard ’67 cheering in the stands.

“I say, ‘I’m not just a fan. I’m a fanatic,’” Hoggard said.

For 56 seasons, Hoggard has attended every BT����home football game. That accounts for nearly 300 consecutive games, considered a university record.

“I feel blessed to have been able to have done it, and I’m so appreciative of BT����and their program. I’m grateful for the opportunity to go watch them,” she said.

Hoggard never intended to set any records. She left Stuttgart and came to Conway as a freshman band member at Arkansas State Teachers College, now UCA.

Her years in the Bear Marching Band account for the first years of her football game attendance. The remaining seasons “just happened,” she said.

Her late husband, Jim ’66, was also an avid sports fan. After the two were married, they attended football games both at home and on the road.

Hoggard recalls attending all but one away game when the university was in the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference (AIC). The Bears were playing Harding University in Searcy.

“It was snowy and icy, and I was eight months pregnant, and I decided that I didn’t need to slip and slide,” she said.

When BT����left the AIC to join the Gulf South Conference, the family continued to attend all the games.

“We had a motor home, and we drove to Grand Junction, Colorado, and we flew on the plane with the team to Elon, North Carolina,” Hoggard said. “We went to all of them.”

Since her husband’s passing in 2003 and UCA’s move to Division I in 2010, Hoggard travels to very few away games. As for the home games, nothing keeps her away.

In 2017, she underwent two knee replacement surgeries; the second one was within a few days of the first home football game of the season. So, what did she do?

“I went in a wheelchair,” she said.

Hoggard also attends tailgates at Buffalo Alumni Hall to visit with other alums and friends, but once that first whistle blows, she’s only focused on the game.

She usually watches from the Bear Hall skyboxes with other fans while simultaneously listening to play-by-play radio coverage.

“We don’t even visit when the ballgame’s going on,” Hoggard said. “We’ll make a touchdown or get a first down or interception or something, and we’ll get excited. They’ll go, ‘Oh, did we score?’”

Hoggard was recognized at Homecoming 2018 as one of two recipients of the Alumni Service Award because of her sustained support of UCA, as well as her record Bears game attendance.

“I feel special because of the recognition that people have given me and the praise for doing it. I feel blessed to have been able to have done it, and I’m so appreciative of BT����and their program,” she said.

And as impressive as this record-setting achievement may be, Hoggard said UCA’s student-athletes and coaching staff are even more so.

“It’s just amazing to me the grade point averages that these teams carry. It says a lot for the recruiting. And that’s what I appreciate so much about our coaching staff in all those sports is they’re not just after the best athlete,” Hoggard said. “They’re after the good student and the good person.”