The Border War and KC’s March Madness

No other sports rivalry has such real and intense roots. Oklahoma-Nebraska? Indiana-Purdue? Florida-Florida State? Child’s play, all. To put the rivalry in perspective, imagine if Army actually fought Navy on a real battlefield and not just in a Honolulu bar. Then, the Army-Navy game would carry some weight.

While Mizzou may be recovering from a discouraging season, particularly on the road, one thing’s for certain—all odds, rankings and bets are off when they play Kansas.

The longest-standing football rivalry west of the Mississippi River is Kansas vs. Missouri. The first game was played in 1891, and after 113 games, the series is tied at 52-52-9 all-time.

Sixteen years after that, the round ball began to settle disputes. Ironically, Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of the game of basketball and the first coach at Kansas, lost the only two games he coached against Missouri, 34-31 and 34-12 both in Lawrence in 1907.

Given the relative ineptitude of both football programs, the basketball rivalry looms larger to this day, and it—sad for me to say—tilts toward the Kansas side (161-92). Regardless of the numbers or the odds, however, there is no question that a Kansas vs. Missouri basketball game will always be fierce.

More than a few games have ended in fisticuffs. In Columbia in 1961, players from both teams fought on the court, surrounded by more than 100 fans. In Lawrence in 1977, Missouri lost all-conference forward Jim Kennedy and Kansas lost back-up center Donnie Von Moore when they threw punches and started a bench-clearing brawl.

There were no punches thrown during the game at the end of the 2005 regular season, but it was fierce nonetheless. Coming off the mat of a disappointing season, the Tigers played well and knocked Kansas out of the top spot in the Big XII tournament with a 72-68 victory. Someone at the game compared the victory rather crudely to “whip cream on a turd.” Still, as we “wait until next year,” those of us starved for a winner would prefer to think—given the options—of the whip cream.

To be sure, the rivalry goes back further than even that first football game in 1891. As is well enough known, bloody battles between the states preceded the Civil War and continued through it. And no whipping that the b-ball Jayhawks lay on the Tigers will ever compensate for the big hurt one William Quantrill laid on the original Jayhawkers on their home court in 1863.

KC’s March Madness

The basketball rivalry traces its Kansas City roots to 1928, when the teams met for an exhibition game that marked the beginning of the Big 6 Conference, the predecessor to the Big 7, Big 8 and today’s Big XII. Between 1943 and 1978, the conference played a holiday tournament at Municipal Auditorium.

One of the most memorable was the title game in December 1951, when KU’s Clyde Lovellette knocked MU’s Win Wilfong to the floor and stepped on him. It still is disputed whether it was intentional or not, but if big Clyde’s foot were on your head, it would not matter much to you if it was intentional or not.

There have been many other tournament battles between the Tigers and the Jayhawks. The first Big XII championship was won by Kansas over an upstart Missouri team. Playing its fourth game in four days, the Tigers fell short, 87-60.

It’s great to have the Big XII tournament back in Kansas City, after being in Dallas the last two years. I hope that when the Sprint Center is completed, the Big XII makes its regular March home here.

To assure that Kansas City reestablishes its role as capital city of the Big XII, we need to put aside the one bi-state rivalry that is no fun to watch—that is the ongoing economic development battle between Kansas and Missouri.

Texas may be bigger than we are, but if Kansas and Missouri play together, we have twice the number of senators as they do and as much or more political clout. Quantrill died a long time ago. It’s time to put our petty differences aside and focus on claiming the permanent home of the Big XII here in KC.

Regards,

Editor-In-Chief & Publisher

Editorial@IngramsOnLine.com