With the revival of the Border War on the football field this fall, I wanted to take a look back through the summer and revist some of the key matchups in the series history.
I plan on doing this through the summer, with hopefully some references to game stories written about the matchup from newspapers that covered it.
So first up, let’s start with the first Tiger win in the series, 1893.
As it was for the first 16 matchups and 19 of the first 20, the game was played in Kansas City, this one at Exposition Park, which no longer exists as a park and is now a residential area.
After dropping the first two matchups, by somewhat ridiculous scores as many football games from the 1800s or early 1900s were (when touchdowns were worth four points, field goals were worth five and extra-point kicks were worth two), the Tigers claimed their first win against the rivals to the west by a score of 12-4.
Let me tell you, finding information about an athletic event from before 1900 is a challenge.
But after looking through old issues of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and almost giving up, I found a way to access the Kansas City Times’ edition from December 1, 1893 (there was no Missourian or Columbia Tribune for more than another decade).
There’s going to be some weird grammatical stuff here, I directly quoted, so it’s just the writing style from the 1890s.
The Star thankfully ran a story titled “CROWN OLD MISSOURI” with multiple sub-heads reading “Her Foot Ball Team Finally Downs the Haughty Kansans.” “IT WAS A GREAT GAME, TOO.” “The Jayhawkers Seemingly Out-played at Every Point.” “A TIE IN THE PENNANT RACE.” “Columbia’s Followers Go Wild Over the Team’s Victory” “ENTHUSIASM AT THE PARK.”
Man, old newspapers are a trip.
I also often miss old-style sportswriting when I go back and look at it. Everything was the best thing the writer had ever seen.
“The game was hard fought and the winning team played the finest foot ball ever seen in the city.”
It was apparently a pretty cordial game, being described as “reasonably free from slugging.”
At this point, I’ve hit the first break in the story with no score mentioned and only one player’s name involved, which was kansas’ center who broke his nose in the second half.
Out of the break, “Crown old Missouri with the historic wreath of laurel and lay all the other glittering gew-gaws at her feet! She is entitled to all honor, for she has administered a crushing defeat to the strongest aggregation of foot ball players that troubled Kansas can produce.”
This story runs across four-of-six columns of a full page of the paper, with some drawings in the middle that include people, who to me seem to be intentionally drawn as children. The first is of a boy kicking another’s head clean off, then another running through a tackle as a boy hangs onto his neck and flys behind him like a waving flag. The third are seemingly an offensive and defensive lineman hitting each other, I think there’s a kid being carted off the field by two others who are holding a pole that his legs are draped over to drag him off. There’s one of someone getting hit in the face by a ball, and finally some people standing under a far-away goal post.
This stuff is wild.
I’m midway through the second column, which has mostly been describing the crowd.
The game is finally beginning past the midpoint of the second column, “During all the noise and clatter the leading actors in this blending of farce and tragedy never cracked a smile or paid the slightest attention to what was going on in the stand. They ‘lined up’ for the struggle as calmly as though the glory of two States was not trembling in the balance. … The Jayhawkers had the ball, the ‘Tigers’ were ready. Then was a ‘flying wedge,’ a collision of the two groups of bone and muscle, and then a confused jumble of flesh and blood. A yell came from the stand, a thousand bits of colored cambric were waved, and the big Thanksgiving day game was on.”
Boy, I hope you guys are getting as much of a kick out of this as I am, this is incredible.
We’ve reached a score as Missouri jumped in front, but no names are mentioned of who scored or really what happened. Though there are plenty of mentions that there was a good-sized crowd contingent from Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
And I guess that’s it.
“When Missouri’s men realized that their team had really won they seem to take leave of their senses. With incoherent yells they rushed on the field, throwing their hats high in the air and embracing each other like so many brothers. Captain Young was carried from the field on the shoulders by his followers. The sight of Young’s bruising and battered form as it showed above the throng inspired groups of Missourians to pick up the other members of the team and carry them to the tally-ho.”
Now the story is broken up by a drawing of a player standing crouched on another’s shoulders. The player on the bottom is running with the ball as someone has both his hands and feet on his shoulders/head.
OK, we’ve reached another break in the story, but this one has a sub-head titled “MISSOURI WITH A RUSH” and it looks like this is where we’ll get descriptions of the scores.
“Harrison Scores a Touch-Down Five Minutes After Play Is Called.”
Here we go, here we go.
Missouri chose to defer and forced a punt on the opening drive, but the punt was low and went into the line. “Quick as a flash Harrison, who had broken through the line, seized it and started for the Kansas goal. Before the Jayhawkers realized what had happened he was sprinting far down the field. Several red legs started after him, but Anderson and Latimer protected him and he ran to a touch-down between the goalposts, making the first score for Missouri in two minutes and thirty seconds. The play was so unexpected and it all happened so quickly that the crowd for a minute was silent, then the cheers and college yells of the Missourians burst forth and for five minutes pandemonium reigned. Anderson kicked the easy goal, and with the score 6 to 0, Missouri was ahead of Kansas for the first time since the formation of the Inter-Collegiate league.”
There’s also some diagrams of plays, breaking up this part of the story, that’s fun. I would show pictures, but I’m really not sure legally how much I’m allowed to use here. I’m getting this info from newspapers.com. You might be able to find it searching the site and looking up "Kansas City Times, Dec. 1, 1893."
Missouri recovered a fumble near the goal line to stop the scoring opportunity and ran the “Deland Interference play.”
I guess the Deland Interference involves pulling some offensive linemen 10-15 yards into the backfield and they start on a signal “at a sharp trot,” before the ball is snapped. It’s then snapped as they get to the line so they have all the momentum going forward.
The Tigers ran it successfully a couple of times, then did it a third time, but with an end around instead of a dive up the middle for a 20-yard gain.
Eventually a fumble ended the Tiger drive where Missouri ran the Deland Interference again and again.
The Tigers put together another goalline stand to maintain the lead, but Missouri turned it over on downs and gave up a short touchdown. The extra-point was missed.
The Tigers still led 6-4.
After a bunch of trading the ball back and forth, the Tigers started getting moving quickly.
“Then Anderson worked the right end for twelve yards, and from that on Missouri made rapid progress toward the Kansas goal. Every play netted a gain and Harrison and Anderson showed spirits of ten and twelve yards. Kansas fought bitterly every inch of the way, but nothing succeeds like success and Missouri’s winning game gave strength to their muscles, weight to their beef, speed to their feet, and indomitable courage to the whole team. Steadily the ball drew nearer the Kansas goal line until only five yards remained to be gained. The Jayhawkers made a desperate stand when the last line of whitewash passed, and the five yards to the goal line were fought for as bitterly as in any game played here. They could not stop the victorious onslaught of the Tigers, and Young, carrying half a dozen Kansans on his sturdy back, went across the coveted streak of frozen whitewash for a touch-down. Anderson kicked an easy goal, making the score 12 to 4 in favor of Missouri.”
And that’s it.
There’s another few paragraphs describing Missouri “Fighting as a tigress fights to protect its cubs” the rest of the way, but the Tigers held on to win 12-4 and claimed the first victory in the still-new rivalry.
“It was a great game and to Missouri is due honor for winning the best-played game ever seen in Kansas City.”
I know this was a long one, I have a feeling as we get to more recent games, there will be less direct quoting of the papers in play, but there was just so much fun stuff in this one I couldn’t resist.
There was no byline in this story and I can’t find info about who wrote for the Kansas City Times in 1893. So, I apologize to this man’s family. His writing is great.
Stay up to date on all the Mizzou news with your premium subscription.
Talk about this story in the story thread and discuss so much more in The Tiger Walk.
Make sure you're caught up on all the Tiger news and headlines.
