To steal a quote The Office‘s Andy Bernard: I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you actually left them. Perhaps no proverb more properly sums up my feelings about the Missouri/Kansas “Border War.”
Growing up as a Mizzou fan, many of my greatest memories included Missouri basketball. For me, Anthony Peeler, Melvin Booker and Jason Sutherland were equal to Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Karl Malone. I remember Missouri going to Allen Fieldhouse in 1990 and beating the hated Jayhawks in a rare occasion where the teams were ranked 1 and 2 respectively.
The Pinnacle of the Rivalry
I vividly remember the Tigers sweeping Kansas in 1994 in route to an undefeated Big 8 season and I damn sure remember Corey Tate hitting a 15-footer to upset one of the best Kansas teams I’d ever seen.
I cried at a Columbia Taco Bell when David Padgett hit the game winner to close the Hearnes Center in 2004 and I rushed the floor when Zaire Taylor hit “the shot” in 2009.
We had Norm Stewart who famously claimed he would never spend a dollar in the state of Kansas and “aw shucks” Roy Williams, whom Kansas borrowed for 15 years.
Former Mizzou forward Derek Grimm (1993-1997)recalls Stewart not being the biggest fan of his neighbors to the west.
“Drive into Lawrence and drive right out.” Grimm stated when asked earlier this week about Stewart’s feelings about playing at Kansas. “As I fondly recall, coach Stewart was not a big fan of the state of Kansas! My best memories while playing KU were the wins. We won there my freshman there and beat them a couple times in COMO. EPIC OT win in Hearnes on Big Monday (back in 1997).
Who could forget 2012, the last times both teams were elite? The Denmon game followed by the Robinson/Pressey foul/no foul? at the buzzer game.
Despite these moments, which will always remain frozen in time, I was pretty realistic about the rivalry.
Kansas was the dominant program in the old Big 8 (later the Big 12) and I knew it. That’s what made beating them so tantalizing. As one-sided as the basketball games were many years, Tiger fans took solace in the fact that NO ONE won more games against KU. To this day, the Tigers have more wins against Kansas than any other program (96) which includes Kansas State, a once proud program in their own right.
On Saturday Missouri is going to play Kansas again for the first time in a real game in very nearly a decade. Mizzou left the Big 12 back in 2012 to pursue greener pastures which left feelings hurt and a rivalry dead. Since that time Missouri basketball has slipped further into irrelevancy than even the harshest skeptic would have thought possible.
Border War Return Feels Like a Bad Nostalgia Reboot
Let’s look at this game for what it is: a nostalgia reboot that will never live up to the magic of the original. Kansas is (still) really good and this year’s incarnation of the Missouri Tigers is incompetent in every measurable way. Sure, Allen Fieldhouse will be packed and their fans will get to boo when Mizzou gets introduced and they will revel in the inevitable beatdown, but it won’t be the same. Like Zack, Lisa, Slater and Jesse sitting at the Max during the recent “Saved by the Bell” Peacock reboot, you enjoy the moment but realize it’s not 1993 anymore.
You see, since that final game back in March of 2012, an entire generation of kids have grown up watching Kansas pretend Kansas State is its biggest rival or (not) watched Missouri basketball toil in obscurity in the SEC. Many fans have moved on or wish the game would remain quietly buried in the college athletics graveyard somewhere.
“I think it’s great to rekindle the MU vs. KU rivalry. With that being said, I also believe it’s poor timing if you’re a Mizzou fan.”
– Derek Grimm (Former Mizzou forward)
I love your replay of the Border War. I have so many of these same memories. Hopefully Mizzou can return to relavance soon.