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Denny Medley - USA TODAY Sports
Usually, I focus on wins in the series, so a tie will probably be a one-off.
But when talking about the history of the Border War, how could I not include the first Homecoming game?
If you’re reading this story, I’m fairly confident you know the history for this game. But let’s run through it anyway.
The Border War began in 1891 and for 19 of the first 20 games, both sides travelled to Kansas City to match up. The lone game not in Kansas City to this point was played in St. Joseph in 1907.
But the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association declared that conference games would have to be played on college campuses, no more neutral-sites.
And in a thought process that seems insane now, Missouri football coach Chester Brewer was concerned that fans wouldn’t want to travel to campus for the game, so he put out a call for alumni to “come home” for the game.
Since it was a tie, there’s not going to be as much talk about the game specifically, but I’m finally able to use the Missourian as a source for this and I want to run through what the college kids were saying about the game.
So let’s take a look at the Missouri’s edition from Saturday, Nov. 25, 1911, two days after the game.
The initial headline reads:
“WEATHER IS FINE
CROWD IS LARGE
COLUMBIA HAPPY”
What a headline.
The three sub headlines are “The annual Missouri-Kansas Crowd Walks Streets Here Today,” “SLEEPING ROOMS WERE CROWDED LAST NIGHT,” “Special Trains This Morning Brought Thousands to See Big Game.”
So, as expected, the focus is placed on the fact that massive crowds flooded Columbia for the first time.
There’s also a lot of talk about the weather and how proud Columbia should be that it was a sunny day.
“All the hopes and fears of weeks and months were answered when the sun peeped over the state farm to the east of the city and proclaimed a glorious, sunshiny day. The weather is a big factor in a football game and Clumbia can proudly say that Kansas City ‘never furnished any better.’”
There’s an estimation of 1,500 visitors spending the night in Columbia as hotels all up and down Broadway were crowded “to the limit - and then some.”
There’s also an estimation that 800 more people showed up on the road, with trains regularly carrying two or three extra coaches worth of fans coming in.
“MK&T officials would not place an estimate on the crows that arrived over their trains yesterday, but it is believed that 400 or 500 persons arrived yesterday afternoon and last night over the Katy.”
Supposedly, many visitors had friends to stay with, which the writer says thankfully because hotels in town “would have been woefully inadequate.”
The Tiger football team arrived at about noon from the George Evans farm, coming in cars. The rivals had stayed in Moberly for a week and were expected to arrive at 11:45 a.m. then there’s a list of train expectations.
We break into the second part of the story with a new headline, “FIELD IS MUDDY”
Man, I love old papers, we’re two columns in and haven’t gotten close to the game yet.
OK, now that I’ve gotten past that part, I’m confused. This edition came out two days after the game, but the first half of the story also includes facts about that game from before the matchup.
“This will be the 21st matchup.” “Play will start at 2 o’clock. Gates will open at 11:30 o’clcok.”
Then we have to go to the “SECOND EXTRA” to talk about the game itself in the final two columns of the page.
The game was delayed because trains got in late, but now we’re into it.
And it’s basically a play-by-play description.
“Missouri kicks off to the 15 yard line out of bounds. Brought back to the 20 yard line. Kansas through right tackle five yards. Kansas punts to the center of the field out of bounds.”
What? Describing midfield that way is very confusing when you follow up with out of bounds. Oh well.
Alright, I’m going to jump to the Missourian’s Sunday edition for the rest of this because that type of description is all that’s left from Saturday.
So let’s jump to “The Game and Afterword” from Sunday.
“The game was a fine exhibition of football–clean, hard fought. No spectator will forget the superb defense of the Tigers, fighting on their own one yard line. Three times the Kansans hurlded themselves against our line, and they lost two yards in those three downs.”
Oops, I guess the Missourian hadn’t learned not to use “Our” yet, but I guess I can forgive students.
And now the first analysis of the change of venue.
“The game has been transformed from a spectacular contest in a hospitable city into a contest not less spectacular, but charged with that intangible something which binds college men of America into an united whole. More than that it is the great home-coming for two states. The games in Kansas City reunited spirits once close akin. But they were as different from going back to alma mater as is the meeting of brothers around an alien board to gathering again around the old hearth stone.
“To the University it means more than appropriations, to the alumnus it means more than all of his learning to stand once more within the shadow of the columns and feel his pulse quicken as he bears his head to the strains of Old Missouri.”
There we go! That’s what I was looking for!
That was inserted in the middle of another play-by-play rundown. The setup of the paper is fascinating to me, but that’s the sentiment and analysis that I was hoping for with this one.
So I’m going to end with it.
Like I said, it was a 3-3 tie, both teams kicked a field goal, Missouri made a goal-line stop. The series sat at 4-13-3 with two consecutive ties.
But for the first time, it was a home game and the tradition of Homecoming began. Missouri ended the season 2-4-2 with wins against William Jewell and Missouri School of Mines. The Tigers lost to Iowa State, Nebraska and Oklahoma, tied Washington (Mo.) and lost to Saint Louis. Then came the season-ending tie and the start of a tradition that remains incredibly important 115 years later.
“It was a great day for the University of Missouri.”
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