Once in a Century

I am a Missouri kid. I was born there. I grew up there. I went to Mizzou. Numerous members of my family went to Mizzou. My dad worked for Mizzou via the Extension Service. My sister and brother-in-law work at Mizzou. My brother has worked at Mizzou. No university could be as close to my heart as Mizzou. That connection includes a love for Mizzou Tiger football. Like my love for the KC Chiefs, my love for the Mizzou Tigers exceeds my conscious memory.

As part of that love, comes an automatic hate. A hate for KU. As a loyal Mizzou gal I must tell you that KU is an arrogant, overrated place with a fake bird for a mascot and a nickname honoring people we would now call terrorists. You don't believe me? Via history.net:

"As a bird, the Jayhawk does not exist; it is as fabulous as the mythological roc. But Jayhawkers were very real, indeed, in the days leading up to the Civil War. A Jayhawker was one of a band of anti-slavery, pro-Union guerrillas coursing about Kansas and Missouri, impelled by substantially more malice than charity. Jayhawkers were undisciplined, unprincipled, occasionally murderous, and always thieving. Indeed, Jayhawking became a widely used synonym for stealing."


The equivalent would have been for Mizzou to choose the name "Bushwackers" and feature a picture of Bloody Bill Anderson or William Quantrill.

This hatred between the states that began with our little warm-up for the Civil War and extending throughout that conflict, moved to the playing field and the violent world of football in 1891. The universities call it the "border showdown" now but everyone knows it is a less deadly continuation of our border war. In my lifetime, beating KU has usually been a way to avoid embarassment. Mizzou has been no better than mediocre since 1969. KU has simply sucked except when Gayle Sayers was there in the early 1960s.

Until this year.

For the first time since 1909, the contest is between two contending teams. In 1909 it was for the title of Missouri Valley Conference Champion. This Saturday in Arrowhead it will be for the Big 12 North Championship and a shot at the Big 12 title the following week in San Antonio. If the winner takes the Big 12 championship, they will play for the closest thing Division 1-A football has to a national title -- the BCS championship.

It is almost unnatural.

This is a rivalry that is not supposed to matter to anyone but students and alumni. KU is supposed to suck. Mizzou is supposed to have managed to lose to someone besides a highly-ranked Oklahoma (who is blowing there BCS title hopes as I write this). Instead, the game is going to be nationally televised on ABC the Saturday night after Thanksgiving and will actually matter in the college football world.

I make no prediction here on the game. Both teams are about to face great offenses and it may be a shootout that goes down to the final minute. Neither team has been in a game this big in decades. In fact, for KU it has been since that 1909 game. The game may come down to which team can handle the exposure and pressure of a huge game.

This is the first year the game is being held at a neutral site. It should be in Lawrence, but money has driven it to Missouri in KC's Arrowhead Stadium. I have read that Lawrence merchants are not happy. KC area bar owners are thrilled. The game has been sold out for weeks with online scalpers asking for over $100 for the bad seats. That price just went up more today.

I assume the crowd will be pretty evenly split, but there will be commonalities among the fans. Both Mizzou and KU fans will wonder why in the year they are finally really good, their biggest rival is also and they can't just await a joyous massacre. Both Mizzou and KU fans will also be expecting their side to lose. Ignore the bluster heard on sports radio or posted on Internet message boards. Fans for these teams are too used to disappointment not to be expecting it once more. I fully expect the winners' fans to sober up on Sunday and immediately begin to worry about blowing the Big 12 title game due to a huge let down.

These fears will be forcibly dampened for the game because this time it will be for more than the opportunity to demean your enemy. This time, unbelievably, it will mean a chance for real football glory.

M-I-Z-Z-O-U

Go Tigers!