Can Border War ever be better than 2007? Here’s what Gary Pinkel, Mark Mangino say
The renewal of the Border War football game between Missouri and Kansas cannot be fully appreciated without a nod to the coaches who elevated the rivalry to its greatest heights.
Gary Pinkel coached the Tigers from 2001 through 2015 and is the school’s career leader in victories.
Mark Mangino won more games at KU than any coach in a century when he guided the Jayhawks from 2002 until 2009.
They’re happy the series -- a 1891 start makes it the oldest west of the Mississippi River -- is back, if only intermittently.
After more than a decade of dormancy, the teams clash Saturday at Columbia for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff in their first meeting since 2011. The return game goes to Lawrence next season and teams are scheduled to play again in 2031 and 2032.
“It’s awesome,” Pinkel said. “I’m glad they’re playing again”
Perhaps a future meeting can approach what the programs presented nearly two decades ago, when a convergence of events brought them to center of the college football universe.
On Nov. 24, 2007, the Border War stakes were never higher. The winner would be the nation’s top ranked team and stand one more victory away from playing in the Bowl Championship Series national title game.
To turbocharge the pageantry, the schools had agreed earlier in the year to move the 2007 and 2008 meetings to Arrowhead Stadium. The deal would be extended to four more years after the first meeting.
The largest television audience of the season -- and then the most-watched ESPN GameDay -- tuned in to watch Mizzou defeat KU 36-28 before 80,537, the second largest crowd in Arrowhead history.
“We talked about it in the spring, that it would be a big game, and it became bigger than anybody could have thought,” Pinkel said.
Missouri entered 10-1 and ranked third in the AP poll. Kansas was No. 2 and 11-0 for the first time. Why would the winner be No. 1? The previous day, top-ranked LSU had lost to Arkansas.
The Border War survivor would still have to go through Oklahoma to win the Big 12 and play for the national championship. Kansas might have stood a better chance had the game been played in Lawrence, as originally scheduled.
The financial reward for moving off campus: A $1 million guarantee for the visiting team plus additional revenues from ticket sales. Mangino said all the right things about setting that week, but privately he wasn’t happy about losing a home game.
“When it was presented to me that we move the game to Arrowhead, I really didn’t have much of a choice,” Mangino said. “It came down from the top. There were a lot of pluses for playing (in KC). But we had been playing pretty well at home. Was it worth it to take the game off campus? I’m not sure it was, at least not on our part.”
You had to feel it to believe the atmosphere . GameDay set up its studio in the Arrowhead parking lot with a space dubbed State Line Road dividing MU and KU fans. Mizzou’s traveling party from the hotel was five busses strong, with Pinkel and the starting offense in the lead before hitting a snag.
“We get into the parking lot and stall because fans are pounding our bus,” Pinkel said. “I got so mad, not because they were doing it, but because I didn’t prepare for it.”
At least Missouri got to the parking lot. The Kansas traveling party crawled along the interstate and arrived 30 minutes late.
“We were really excited to play the game,” Mangino said. “We hadn’t been in a game with that much hype. And it was hyped through the roof.”
As for the game, the teams traded early empty possessions before Missouri started to take control behind quarterback Chase Daniel. The Tigers led 21-0 early in the third quarter and 31-14 early in the fourth.
Back came the Jayhawks with quarterback Todd Reesing. A touchdown with two minutes remaining cut the Tigers lead to 34-28. KU forced a punt and got the ball back, but with 12 seconds remaining Reesing was sacked in the end zone by Lorenzo Williams for a safety to seal the final score: 36-28.
A photo of Reesing with Arrowhead mud hanging is the Mizzou’s fans enduring image.
“I have that photo hanging in my house,” Pinkel said.
Missouri’s euphoria over perhaps the most significant triumph in school history -- and the favorite to many Mizzou fans -- lasted a week. The Tigers fell to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship Game, and the next day learned that Kansas would play in the more prestigious postseason game at the time, the Orange Bowl. Mizzou would head to the Cotton Bowl.
KU avenged its Border War loss the next year with a 40-37 thriller in the snow when Reesing connected with Kerry Meier on a 26-yard touchdown pass on fourth down with 27 seconds remaining. The stakes weren’t as high but both were bowl teams.
“That’s a nicer memory for me,” Mangino said. “But those games were knock down, drag out. The rivalry was really hitting its peak.”
The Tigers won the next three Border War games before hostilities on the field ceased while heating up in the board rooms. Realignment, with Missouri leaving the Big 12 after the 2011 game to join the Southeastern Conference, ended the series...as far as Kansas was concerned.
“Missouri divorced our family, and we’re loyal to our family,” then-Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger said.
The Border cold war finally thawed, and the schools renewed acquaintances in several sports, including men’s basketball. KU and MU have played four times in a six-year series on campus with the next two scheduled for Kansas City.
Now football is back.
“We had a great team and they had a great team, and all the sudden we had the national stage,” Mangino said. “Our rivalry really heated up, didn’t it?”