The kansas - missouri rivalry is a really nasty one. Just in case you guys didnt know about where it originated.
From Wikipedia.
The intense rivalry between the two universities can be traced to the open violence involving anti-slavery and pro-slavery elements that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of Missouri throughout the 1850s. These incidents were attempts by Missouri (a slave state) to influence whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state. The term
Bleeding Kansas is often used to refer to the pre-war conflict, which continued into the Civil War and culminated with the
Lawrence Massacre. SI.com supervising producer Dan George summed up the rivalry by stating "It's more than the schools -- it's a state thing going back to the Civil War, when
William Quantrill's Confederate guerillas burned Lawrence and murdered nearly 200 people. Neither Missouri nor Kansas folks have forgotten it."
[1] Those on the Missouri side are quick to point out that the Jayhawkers were guilty of the same things - crossing into Missouri, leading brutal raids and burning towns, and that Quantrill was part of a group that almost burnt down
Columbia due to it being a Union stronghold.
The early athletic matches between the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri helped to aid both states in the healing process following the civil war.
Over the years, the series has developed into one of the bitterest and most hateful rivalries in college sports. Even the coaches have gotten into the rivalry. Former Kansas football coach Don Fambrough, when urged by doctors to head across the state line to Kansas City, Missouri, for medical attention, exclaimed "I'll die first!"
[2]: not to be outdone, Missouri's former basketball coach
Norm Stewart would traditionally have his players stay in
Kansas City, Missouri, before playing at Kansas, going so far as to require the team bus to buy its gasoline at a Missouri filling station and reprimanding players who ate in Kansas, as he did not want to put any money into Kansas' economy.
The 2007 football season brought the origins of the rivalry between the two states back into the spotlight. A t-shirt created by a Missouri alumnus gained national attention with its reference to
Quantrill's Raid of 1863.
[3] The shirt depicted the burning of Lawrence in 1863 following the raid of
William Quantrill and his
Bushwhackers against the
Jayhawkers of Kansas. The image of Lawrence burning was paired with the word “Scoreboard†and a Mizzou logo. On the back of the shirts, William Quantrill was quoted, saying "Our cause is just, our enemies many." Some Kansas fans interpreted these shirts as supporting slavery. KU supporters returned fire with a shirt depicting abolitionist
John Brown with the words, “Kansas: Protecting America from Missouri since 1854
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_War_(Kansas–Missouri_rivalry)
