Why I Hate Missouri -- You Should Too

[sandycove]

I’ll chime in here with my KU-MU perspective as, like suzzer, a Kansas City ex-pat, and a Kansas alum whose family have been Jayhawks since a long-ago grand-relative drove herself alone in a buckboard through Indian territory on the Oregon Trail to attend university on the Hill in Lawrence.

The football rivalry is thought to be the longest uninterrupted matchup in organized American collegiate sports, west of the Mississippi -- since 1891.

The cultural rivalry is deep and ancient and rooted in brutal Free State/Slave State politics. The philosophical issues were more complex than simply pro- and anti-slavery positions; it was a broad debate on western expansion and visions of our emerging national identity. Civil War histories tend to overlook the Border Wars, but the Kansas-Missouri line is where the national debate came to life. And death.

Memories still linger. As history goes, it wasn’t all that long ago. Harry Truman’s mother, for example, is often cited as a profound influence on her son -- and she lived through those times as a Missouri-border farm girl. And she was a passionate, shrill, life-long Jayhawk hater.

As a schoolboy, my father offered to contribute to my university education at any institution that might accept me. Save one. Missouri.

As a schoolboy in Kansas City, the hallways held a special tension the week of the KU-MU game, especially at my school, located smack on State Line Road, the opposing state just across the street, the student body pretty evenly divided. Friends were not-quite-friends that week.

Only to a somewhat lesser degree than Michigan/Ohio State coaches, and Army/Navy coaches, Kansas/Missouri football coaches were always in jeopardy if they could not compete in the essential end-of-the-season affair.

The rivalry hit its zenith in 1960, when Kansas, led by John Hadl, Curtis McClinton and Bert Coan, defeated the favored Tigers, who were rated number one in the country, 23-7. But the Jayhawks were denied a trip to the Orange Bowl soon after, and forfeited the win, thanks to a recruiting infraction involving Coan and the owner of an NFL team with ties to Kansas. (Coan was an astoundingly talented prospect. His college and pro career were tragically modest, after a pal of mine broke Coan’s leg in a spring practice scrimmage.)

The series’ competitive fire started to wane after Kansas’ last great Orange Bowl team in 1969 (and the last-second, 12th-man loss to Penn State), featuring John Riggins, Bobby Douglass and John Zook. The football teams have been backing and forthing since, with reduced passion. Most of the energy has been focused on basketball, especially in the years when the delightfully provocative Norm Stewart had the horses to give Kansas a game. In Lawrence, in these more recent years, the student body would be more likely to get aroused by a Kansas State match.

That’s all changed this year, to everyone’s surprise and delight, except for Lawrence shopkeepers who are missing a pay day and Kansas students who can’t get decent seats at Arrowhead in Kansas City (or seats at all), where the game has been moved this year, frankly, to make money for the two athletic departments. But who knew students would want tickets? The KU football facility is the oldest west of the Mississippi and hasn’t been filled in decades (except when Nebraska comes to town).

I’ll try to refrain from (Muck Fizzou) and just say: Rock Chalk! This year’s edition of the great rivalry threatens to be one for the ages. With Oregon’s loss to my other alma mater (Arizona), and wins by KU, MU and Oklahoma this weekend, the prospects are tasty. These things are always more fun when more teams are competitive...