The good folks at Arkansas were so serious about this Calling the Hogs thing that they got the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office involved.

It wasn’t enough to practice and cherish their uniquely boisterous and rhythmic tradition, as if it were religion, which it is in Arkansas. According to Forbes, the university filed for the trademark in July 2013. And just to drive home how much it meant to the hearts and deep lungs of the entire state, Arkansas sent a video of school legend Frank Broyles leading Hogs fans in cheer.

In early July 2014, after a long year of waiting, the trademark was granted, a landmark victory probably worth a few Hog Calls by itself. So a cheer that began sometime in the 1920s by farmers trying to root on a losing Arkansas team was now all theirs, signed and sealed. It was believed at the time to be the first collegiate cheer to be registered.

“This registration speaks to the unique characteristics of the Hog Call and its connection with the University of Arkansas,” athletic director Jeff Long said in a statement in the NBCsports.com piece.

Then Long, after celebrating this off-the-field victory that will bring joy forever, made something clear to Hogs fans to carry forever. It was an order to live by, in Fayetteville and, well, wherever.

“To be very clear, these registrations do not apply and in no way prohibit all Razorbacks from Calling the Hogs as much as they can,” he said. “Instead, they mark a proactive step to ensure the Hog Call cheer made famous by Razorback fans remains properly affiliated with the University of Arkansas and our great state. We encourage Razorback fans everywhere to Call the Hogs early and often.”

And so they do. Nobody among the Saturday fanatics at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium would argue or challenge that. Arkansas has the 1964 national title to boast about under Broyles. It claims 19 conference championships (before joining the SEC) and a bevy of past All-Americans.

And it has the loud-and-proud tradition of Calling the Hogs. At onlyinyourstate.com, in a countdown titled “Only People from Arkansas Understand These 10 Crazy Traditions,” Calling the Hogs was at the top of the list, just edging out Holding Watermelon Eating Contests.

Go national and little Arkansas’ ritual is still big-time. In 2014, College Football Fan Index ranked Calling the Hogs seventh among the top 10 traditions in college football.

The trademark that same year was just the seal of approval. To be a part of it all though, you must execute the call the right way. Arkansasrazorbacks.com has the instructions, from the arms to the knees to the proper volume and pitch.

The headline simply reads: “A Proper Hog Call.” No messing around. And you better not mess it up.

The heartbeat of Saturday afternoon

Those written instructions are just the half of it. The school’s website has a section devoted to traditions, athletic and otherwise. But the sports traditions headline the page. And after the university boasts about the uniqueness of its Razorbacks nickname — it claims Arkansas is the only Razorbacks in all of college athletics — and the live Razorback mascot Tusk, it gives a proud, detailed eight-step tutorial on Calling the Hogs, with a cartoon-drawn male fan in a Razorbacks shirt proceeding through this serious tradition.

YouTube captures the ultra-vibrant, ultra-synchronized setting that takes place as a stadium full of fans are Calling the Hogs. You could say Arkansas’ tradition is a little like Sunday Mass. Each and every one has the same rituals, spirit and songs, but with a different audience in the church — or, in this case, the stadium.

Two years ago, Rick Schaeffer of Razorback Communications, who spent more than two decades as Arkansas sports information director, wrote a column that walked you through the wonderful traditions of an Arkansas football gameday in Fayetteville, from the Running Through the “A” to the singing of “It’s Hard to Be Humble” after Razorback victories.

At the heart of Schaeffer’s breakdown, though, was Calling the Hogs, no surprise with it being the true heartbeat of a Saturday cheering on the Razorbacks.

“First and foremost among Razorback traditions is Calling the Hogs,” wrote Schaeffer, claiming it began in the early 1920s, not the late 1920s as others have documented. “Word has been passed down that at an Arkansas game in the early 1920s, the Razorbacks were losing. No one seems to know who the opponent was but at some point a pig farmer in the crowd stood up and started imitating the way he would call his own hogs. Other fans picked it up. According to the legend, Arkansas came from behind for a victory and a tradition was born.”

That pig farmer probably deserves a statue outside the stadium in Fayetteville. His raw passion for the football Hogs and intense desire to see a victory that day, almost a century ago now, helped give life to a tradition embraced and enjoyed for generations. They turn the stadium into a Southern rock concert of sorts on fall Saturdays because of the pig farmer who wouldn’t stand for the Hogs losing.

“It is the most unique cheer in college athletics,” Schaeffer opined.

Hog heaven is … anywhere, everywhere

Other schools would argue that, of course, but it wouldn’t be that difficult to argue that he’s right. And Calling the Hogs took flight in the 1960s, when Arkansas football rose to national prominence. The Hogs took care of their singing fans quite often during the decade, winning more games than anyone except Alabama and Texas, which was a rival of the Hogs in the old Southwest Conference.

Fans started to wear what they called Hog Hats, headgear shaped like a Razorback. They were truly in Hog Heaven, a decade climaxed by that 1964 national championship and littered with successful seasons before and after.

Schaeffer, who released a book in 2005 called “Game of My Life: 25 Stories of Arkansas Razorbacks Football” with a foreward written by none other than Broyles, recalled the scene those Hog Hats started to create.

“It was almost eerie to see and hear those Hog-hatted UA supporters extending a long, ‘Whoooooooo, Piiiiiiiiiiig, Sooooooooey’ three times, then shouting ‘Razorbacks,'” wrote Schaeffer, who grew up in Oklahoma but has plenty of perspective, as he also grew up an Arkansas football fan and joined the school’s athletic department as assistant sports information director in 1976.

Schaeffer also was a color commentator for a decade on Arkansas football radio broadcasts. He’s been a witness to countless Calling of the Hogs, a delirious football symphony of the South, and he makes one lasting point: Razorback fans don’t have to be at the stadium to Call the Hogs.

“They do it in the darnedest places like restaurants, street corners, foreign countries and American beaches. It’s like a handshake when someone from Arkansas meets another Arkansan outside of the state’s borders. The natural thing is to Call the Hogs. No doubt it has startled many observers who have no idea what is going on.”

This ageless bond of brotherhood knows no boundaries. It also has no volume ceiling. It is absolute Arkansas.

Right down to the trademark.