One Shining Moment, Missouri Style..

..or as viewed through the lens of a Kansas fan.

I couldn't help but get a kick of this latest example of America's most underrated rivalry: Kansas vs. Missouri. The rivalry doesn't get a lot of pub outside of the heartland, but these schools really, really don't like each other. As documented earlier, these states fought a war against each other.

An enterprising KU fan put together this video montage to the tune of CBS's signature, "One Shining Moment". It documents a quarter century of Mizzou miscues and lowlights.

Among the infamous events:
* The Nebraska 1998 comeback in football, climaxed by the touchdown reception on the tipped pass. This helped preserve a national championship for the Huskers.
* The Colorado fifth-down touchdown in 1990, allowing the Buffs to beat Missouri and to go on to win a share of a national championship.
* Tyus Edney's coast-to-coast drive for the buzzer-beating bucket, giving UCLA a comeback win over the Tigers in the second round of the 1995 NCAA tournament. UCLA went on to win the national championship.
* Ex-basketball coach Quin Snyder exiting the court to a shower of popcorn.
* QB Chase Daniel picking and eating boogers on the sideline.
* The time in 1983 when Missouri All-American center Steve Stipanovich accidentally shot himself in the arm.
* Missouri removing the name of Wal-Mart heiress Paige Laurie from their new arena, after it was discovered she paid someone to attend classes and take tests for her at USC. The arena was named after her when her father gave a significant sum to Mizzou for naming rights. What was once called the Paige Sports Arena is now simply Mizzou Arena.

I can't wait to see a Mizzou response...

Sometimes, The War Never Ends

Next Saturday in Kansas City, the Kansas Jayhawks and Missouri Tigers will play the biggest football game in their history, providing both teams take care of business this week. Both teams happen to be in the midst of the best starts in the history of both schools. This game is normally a home-and-home affair, but has been moved to Kansas City for the next two years. Arrowhead Stadium will be a zoo.

These two states once fought a war against each other. For over ten years before the Civil War, abolitionists in Kansas fought with slaveholders in Missouri over the issue of slavery. The Missourians wished to settle in Kansas with slaves, while the settlers of Kansas wished to not have the scourge of slavery in their territory. Groups of settlers went back and forth between the two states in guerrilla warfare over the issue of slavery.

The above shirt celebrates the destruction of Lawrence, Kansas. In 1856, Missourian William Quantrill led a band of raiders known as "Bushwhackers" into Lawrence, where they went on a four-hour rampage and burned the city to the ground. On the back of this shirt is Quantrill's slogan: "Raise the Black Flag and Ride Hard Boys. Our Cause is Just and Our Enemies Many".


Kansas fans have responded with a shirt featuring radical abolitionist John Brown, who led the Pottawatomie Massacre, a retaliation for Quantrill's Lawrence Massacre. Brown's group killed five pro-slavery settlers north of a place called Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas. Brown advocated violence in favor of the cause of abolition of slavery, and was hanged after attempting to start a slave rebellion in Harper's Ferry, Virginia in 1859.

These shirts are kinda funny, but they are really sick. And people think the South is still fighting the Civil War? The South has nothing on these Kansas and Missouri fans. They act as if they still want to fight the war. I've been reading Kansas message boards where fans refer to Missouri as the "slavers". Like people in Missouri would want to bring slavery back. Puhleeze.

Therefore, KU and Mizzou are mortal enemies. Up until this year, both schools have mostly stunk in football. The football game hasn't mattered nearly as much as their annual basketball games, where they have the biggest hoops rivalry in the Big 8/Big 12.

I really don't have a dog in this hunt. My mother was born in Missouri, but moved to Oklahoma as a child. I've watched both schools all my life. As a Sooner fan, it benefits my team for KU to win this game and to be undefeated going into the Big 12 championship game. This game will be fun to watch. I've been geeked up about it for a month.

These shirts, however, are insane.

Special thanks to AOL's Fanhouse for the tip.