The Back Alley Archives

Game time is 12:00 noon. The game will be on ESPN2 and ESPN3D. That's right - 3D. It's like you can almost feel the suck.


[TABLE="class: cms_table_cms_table_grid, width: 800, align: center"]
[TR]
[TD]Name:[/TD]
[TD]University of Missouri[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Location:[/TD]
[TD]Columbia, Missouri[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Mascot:[/TD]
[TD]

Tigers, as represented by Truman the Tiger, above.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Colors:[/TD]
[TD]Crimson and Gold[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Founded:[/TD]
[TD]1839[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Enrollment:[/TD]
[TD]34,000[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Notable Alumni:[/TD]
[TD]Kate Capshaw, Sheryl Crow, Jon Hamm, Jim Lehrer, Brad Pitt, Sam Walton[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Division and Conference:[/TD]
[TD]Div. I-FBS, Southeastern Conference[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Head Coach:[/TD]
[TD]
Gary Pinkel
12th year, 84–54 (.609)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]All-Time Record vs. UF:[/TD]
[TD]1-0, a 20-18 victory in the 1966 Sugar bowl. Leading 20-0 at the end of the third quarter, Florida quarterback Steve Spurrier led the Gators on a three-touchdown comeback attempt during the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, the Gators attempted two-point conversions after each touchdown and didn't make any of them. Nonetheless, Spurrier was named Sugar Bowl MVP.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2011 vs. UF:[/TD]
[TD]N/A[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2011 Record:[/TD]
[TD]8-5[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Most Stunning Victory of 2011:[/TD]
[TD]A 24-10 victory over arch-rival Kansas.

The Missouri-Kansas rivalry is known as the "Border War" and actually has its roots in the debate over slavery prior to the Civil War. According to Wikipedia:

The historical roots of the rivalry begin with 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,[4][5][6] though the conflict predates the founding of the University of Kansas. These incidents were attempts by some Missourians (then a slave state) to influence whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state. The era of political turbulence and violence has been termed Bleeding Kansas. When the Civil War began, the animosity that developed during the Kansas territorial period erupted in particularly vicious fighting. In the opening year of the war, six Missouri towns (the largest being Osceola) and large swaths of western Missouri were plundered and burned by various forces from Kansas. These attacks led to a retaliatory raid on Lawrence, Kansas two years later (Lawrence Massacre), which led to General Order No. 11 (1863), the forced depopulation of several western Missouri counties. The raid on Lawrence was led by William Quantrill, a Confederate guerrilla born in Ohio who had formed his bushwhacker group at the end of 1861. When the Civil War began, Quantrill was a resident of Lawrence, Kansas teaching school.

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Most Devastating Loss of 2011:[/TD]
[TD]A 42-39 loss to Baylor.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Notable Traditions:[/TD]
[TD]Racism and slavery.

In 2007, Missouri fans started wearing T-shirts featuring a depiction of Lawrence, Kansas burning at the hands of Confederate guerrilla leader William Quantrill, with the caption, "Scoreboard." They're apparently pretty proud of their Confederate forbears, which makes them fairly welcome in the SEC.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Player with the Silliest Name:[/TD]
[TD]Eh, most of 'em are pretty normal. Even the black kids in Missouri have white-boy names.[/TD]
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