Who'd a thunk it?

[zenda2]

Dad went to the Missouri school of Mines, so he's an MU fan by proxy. Sis graduated from KU, I went to KU for a year before moving out to K State (for more bird hunting, less protest marches back in my day), so there's always a lot of interstate rivalry in our family. But we don't carry it to extremes. The KU-MU rivalry is always a keen one, going back to the border wars before/during/after the civil war. In fact here are a couple of local tee-shirts making the rounds:

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/111707/spo_218369811.shtml

Rivalry, with a historical aspect

It's getting nasty for the Missouri-Kansas game next week at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.

And as much as Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Michigan and Ohio State fans believe their rivalries are the most heated in the country, the roots certainly didn't begin in 1854, and it certainly doesn't evoke memories of an entire town getting massacred.

Missouri students have begun sporting T-shirts this week with an image depicting the infamous 1856 raid on Lawrence, Kan., (the home of Kansas University) by "Quantrill's Raiders," a band of Missourians. The raid and subsequent massacre of almost every male in Lawrence was another bloody incident in the border war between Kansas (a free state) and Missouri (a slave state that did not secede from the Union) that lasted roughly between 1854-1858.

Under the picture of the raid on the T-shirts is one word: "Scoreboard." On the back is William Quantrill's slogan: "Raise the black flag and ride hard, boys. Our cause is just and our enemies many."

Naturally, there are those in Kansas (and elsewhere) who believe that harkening back to a massacre of Americans by other Americans in the context of a college football game is, well, not in the best of taste - even by fan standards. And they point out that Quantrill's "cause" was slavery.

"So I take it Missouri [and quarterback Chase Daniel, right] wants to bring back slavery and kill anyone who gets in their way," posted a Kansas fan on a Jayhawk Web site.

"This is low, even by Missouri standards," wrote another fan. "This shirt should not be allowed in the stadium."

Kansas, naturally has a response. Since the legendary abolitionist John Brown led raids from Kansas against Missouri, there are T-shirts around Lawrence with a picture of John Brown, rifle aloft, and the words: "Kansas - protecting America from Missouri since 1854."