KU vs MU Rivalry

Last weekend I watched the Kansas Vs. Missouri basketball game with some friends. It usually turns out to be a great game when these two rivals meet. Their rivalry, known as the Border War, is one of the oldest in college sports dating back to 1891 when they met for the first time in a football game. But this is not the beginning of the Kansas-Missouri rivalry. These two states have been having conflict just before the Civil War. Differences in the their standings on slavery was the start of their conflicts.

Kansas University adopted the name Jayhawks for their sports teams in 1890 when they started their football program. Their team name is in remembrance of their local soldiers from the Civil War known as the Jayhawkers, not for the fictitious half blue jay half hawk. These Jayhawkers were not just local soldiers. They were more like terrorists. They stole cattle, burned houses and farms, and even murdered people throughout Missouri towns in their belief that this would help to free slaves. After several large attacks by the Jayhawkers in the early 1860's a group of border town Missourians called the Bushwhackers raided and burned the entire city of Lawrence to the ground in 1863. Two years later Kansas University was founded in Lawrence.

Missouri University also started their football program in 1890. MU adopted the Tigers as their team name. This name does not refer to the wild jungle cat. It actually represents the Missouri soldiers that stood guard in Columbia after the burning of Lawrence, KS. In the 1860's the Tigers from Missouri where known as the defenders and protectors of Columbia and Missouri University which was established in 1839.

I hope after reading this very brief history lesson you have a new respect for this great rivalry. If not respect, at least a new perspective about this almost 150 year old rivalry between the Jayhawks and Tigers and you know what and who you are representing when you cheer for your team.