The first 115 meetings between bitter rivals Kansas and Missouri were mostly forgettable, but this Saturday's victor will be one win from playing for the national title

Jake Sharp (1) had 83 rushing yards against Iowa State. Damian Strohmeyer/SI

By Austin Murphy

The call comes early in the week of the Missouri game. Some years Kansas coach Mark Mangino invites Don Fambrough to say a few words to the Jayhawks players to help get them in the proper frame of mind to face the Tigers. To stoke their outrage, in other words.

Advancing age has not smoothed the rough edges on Fambrough, 85, who put in two stints as the Kansas coach from 1971 through '82. When a visitor remarked recently on the unseasonably mild weather in Lawrence, the old coach agreed, then warned, "You never know around here. In two days there could be snow up to your ass."

If Coach Fam's previous Missouri-week speeches are a guide, he will urge offensive linemen to stay on their blocks for an extra two seconds. He will implore running backs to pump their legs for an extra two yards. He will advise the Jayhawks to spend a little extra time looking at film. Then he'll get to the point. After reminding his audience that the name of the Kansas-Missouri game was changed a few years ago from Border War to Border Showdown, he will raise his voice and pass judgment on that exercise in political correctness:

"Showdown, my ass! When you're playin' other teams, it might be a 'showdown.' When you're playin' Missouri, it's a war! And they started the damn war."

This Saturday, for the 116th time, the Jayhawks will take the field against the Tigers. For once and at long last, the rest of the republic cares about the outcome. In a fitting climax to a surreal regular season Kansas enters the game ranked No. 2 in the BCS, Missouri No. 4. The victor will need only a win in the Big 12 championship game to play for the national title.

The rivalry has stood out down through the decades less for the quality of the football than for the two states' shared history, and the depth and provenance of the ill will. As The Kansas City Star recently pointed out, the Border War nickname was "not a product of the schools' publicity departments." It exists, instead, "because Missourians and Kansans who mostly lived close to the border once waged real war against each other."

1 of 3