KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz and Kansas counterpart Lance Leipold spent some time this week not as football coaches teaching the X's and O's but as history professors delivering to their teams the story of free states and slave states.
After all, therein lies the foundation of the Border War.
One of the most bitter rivalries in college sports, the once-annual showdown between Tigers and Jayhawks has been on hiatus since 2011, when Missouri jumped from the Big 12 Conference to
the Southeastern Conference. But it will be renewed on Saturday, when Kansas makes the short trip across the state line to face Missouri in a nonconference matchup that can trace its roots to literal warfare.
In the 1850s and '60s, guerilla fighting in western Missouri and eastern Kansas erupted over whether slavery would be legal in the proposed state of Kansas. The anti-slavery “Jayhawkers” would pillage pro-slavery communities in Missouri, which led in part to the formation of the “Tigers,” a militia unit whose responsibility it became to protect Columbia from attacks.
For the last 134 years, the Tigers and Jayhawks have waged their own sort of battle on the football field.
“We gave them a little background history,” Leipold said of his team this week, “all the way back to the border, and what the border stood for, and free states and slave states, and kind of went through the whole history of where these two states have been competitive, and not always agreed. And then we went through when the first game was played, and all the things that have gone on from there, and where the series is. Touched on why it hasn't been played in a while.”
That decision by Missouri to bolt from its longtime conference home to the SEC only added to the animosity.
As if there wasn't enough already.
Longtime Missouri basketball coach Norm Stewart famously refused to let his team stay in Kansas hotels, or even refuel the bus across the state line, lest he inject a single dollar into its economy. Kansas football coach Don Fambrough once said he'd rather die than seek medical attention from a physician in Missouri. And over the years, the notorious Mizzou student section, known as the Antlers, would spend the night before games calling up Kansas coaches and players at all hours.
Pretty innocent stuff, really, compared with William Quantrill's band of vigilantes ransacking Lawrence way back in 1863.
Then again, folks haven't forgotten about that, either.
“My wife and I were at church and somebody wanted to talk about it," Leipold said of the rivalry. "I didn't know that was the right time to, really. Somebody said, you know, ‘Kick their butt.’ But they didn't say butt. And it was in church.
"I didn't really think that was appropriate.”
When the game was put on hold, it was the second most-played rivalry in the Football Bowl Subdivision, with 120 matchups. At one point, they played for 93 consecutive seasons. But in true Missouri-Kansas fashion, they can't even agree on the record: The outcome of the 1960 game is disputed. Missouri claims to have an a 57-54-9 advantage. Kansas believes it is 55-56-9.
There have been some doozies, too.
In the early years, old Civil War soldiers would stand on the sidelines and stare across the field at each other. The 1911 game is recognized by the NCAA as the birth of “homecoming." And in 2007, Kansas was ranked No. 2 and Missouri was No. 3 for an epic showdown at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, which the Tigers won 36-28 to reach the Big 12 title game.
“Two big games were ‘07 and ’08, and I remember watching those games on TV, to be honest,” Drinkwitz said. “I wasn't in college coaching at that point. I was a high school school. ... Taking the job, I understood the importance of this.”
Two decades of conference realignment have rendered many longtime rivalries a rarity. But as more financial pressure is placed on athletic departments, the argument can be made that the importance of winning them has never been greater.
“Anything that stirs the passion of your fanbase is important,” Drinkwitz said, “especially when you're asking fans to do so much. We ask our fans to do so much from a financial contribution, a time contribution, an engagement contribution. So any time you get a chance to stir their passion for bragging rights and whatever other rights might be on the line with this game, it's important that your team is ready to play.”
To that point, Drinkwitz and Leipold have had to walk a fine line. They may have brought in former players to talk to their teams about the rivalry this week, and the history lessons have been important. But none of that matters at kickoff on Saturday.
“Coach showed us a video about the rivalry and how it goes back hundreds of years,” Kansas safety Taylor Davis said. “There's obviously a lot of emotions for both sides. We're just going to try to keep it neutral and play football.”
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