The Arkansas Razorbacks’ first Aussie baseball player is now charming fans with big hits and a spirited chant connecting to his roots from the land down under.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — One Razorback baseball player has been feeling the love from hundreds of Diamond Hog fans this season.
Arkansas third baseman Brent Iredale can hit the ball a long way. He’s currently second on the team in home runs this season (nine) and ranks first on the team in longest homer this season (446 feet).
“Every game I’m trying to make the best swings I can and make good contact, so if I see a pitch I like, I’m just gonna try and hit as hard as I can,” Iredale said.
But as hard as he can hit, that’s not why he’s beloved by the fans. Iredale is the first Razorback in school history from Australia.
“I mean, it’s cool. Just being able to represent Australia in general and everything, it makes me honored to do so and I hope it makes everyone back home proud that there is an Australian doing it,” described Iredale.
Unique nationalities are something the Razorback fan base has historically embraced, and with Iredale, they’ve welcomed him with a special chant.
After every base hit at home this season, Baum-Walker Stadium plays a recording of a man yelling out “Aussie, aussie, aussie” to which the fans have quickly learned to respond “Oi, oi, oi”.
This chant is an iconic part of Australian sports culture, and one now adopted by the Razorback faithful, including diehard fan Jesse Fox, who has even gone as far as having t-shirt’s made with the famous chant — only he added a slight change.
Instead of “Oi, oi, oi” as the response, he put “Oink, oink, oink”.
“It was just something neat to conglomerate the two things, the Aussie chant and then us being Razorback fans and put them together,” Fox said.
After putting out a post on X and getting a friend to make the t-shirt, he presented it to Iredale after a game one day.
“‘Hey, I’ve got this shirt for you,’” Fox recalled. “And I gave it to him and he thought it was cool and then the next game he wore the shirt so I had my picture taken with him and then posted on Twitter.”
The shirt and slogan have quickly caught popularity among Hog fans, impressing the Aussie himself.
“I’ve never been with a team or an organization that has this much passionate fans,” Iredale said.
A passionate fan base that has been supporting a player as he’s nearly 9,000 miles from his home.
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