Jack Andersen
Missouri Head Coach Eliah Drinkwitz stands looking out into the crowd during Missouri’s game against Central Arkansas on Thursday, August 28, 2025 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Mo. With Drinkwitz as the head coach, he has led the Tigers to a 27-7 overall total record.
Nov. 26, 2011. 5,033 days ago.
“Hey, this is this is it for a while,” former Missouri quarterback James Franklin said. “So we better get a victory.”
Nearly 14 years ago, the Missouri Tigers squared off with the Kansas Jayhawks on the football field for the last time, ending one of the longest rivalries in sports history.
Scratch that. Yes, this rivalry is one of the biggest in sports history, but it runs far deeper than sports. The Missouri-Kansas feud can be traced back far before Franklin, his teammates or anyone walking the Earth today has lived.
“Bleeding Kansas, bleeding Missouri, that really predates the Civil War by a decade,” said Sean Rost, assistant director for research at the State Historical Society of Missouri.
“Bleeding Kansas” consisted of men from both Western Missouri and Eastern Kansas clashing over ideologies of slavery, creating a war on the border of the state lines.
In the events shortly after “Bleeding Kansas,” former Kansas U.S. Sen. Jim Lane led a band of roughly 2,000 people into a Missouri town by the name of Osceola with the intent to murder, loot and destroy –– each of which he did. His troops were then coined by the name of “jayhawkers,” one that the people of Missouri would soon grow familiar with, and never forget.
Real battles taking place before the Civil War led to hatred, rivalry and bloodshed between the people of Missouri and Kansas. Many people who fought in the “Bleeding Kansas” battles were alive during the debut of Missouri’s first football game against the Jayhawks on Oct. 31, 1891, where a 22-10 Jayhawk victory would become the first of a 120 game series., For the next 120 years, the teams would meet annually on the gridiron to write another chapter of the Border War. Decades upon decades of touchdowns, big hits and electric crowds fueled the rivalry for the programs and fans alike.
“If you look at the history of the University of Missouri, the relationship with Kansas has always kind of been there,” Rost said.
Tiger and Jayhawk football were tied at the hip. Both teams were founding members of the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1907, followed each other as original members of the Big Six Conference in 1928, then stuck together as members of the Big Seven, Big Eight and Big 12 all the way through 2011. As conference opponents, the teams would play each other every year.
Missouri ultimately made a decision that would separate the programs, bringing the series to a screeching halt.
On Nov. 6, 2011, Bernie Machen, former President of the SEC Presidents and Chancellors and President of the University of Florida. announced “The Presidents and Chancellors of the Southeastern Conference are pleased to welcome the University of Missouri to the SEC.”
The Tigers were leaving the Big 12, and subsequently their rivalry with the Jayhawks. Nobody knew when the two teams would face off again. While both sides shared a hatred for the other, the ending of the conference rivalry era meant a loss for fans of both universities.
“Because while people might say they dislike –– or you could use the word hate if you want –– their rival in a lot of ways, they still want to play their rival,” Rost said.
Missouri would finish out its final season in the Big 12, including the Nov. 26 matchup against Kansas. The stage was set for one final showdown, and Missouri didn’t want to fall short.
“Knowing that it probably was going to be the last one for a while, it definitely added to the pressure,” Franklin said.
Franklin was in the midst of a stellar season, entering the matchup with 31 total touchdowns and 3,347 total yards –– one of the nation’s top dual-threat quarterbacks. His strong individual play and Missouri’s well-rounded roster set the Tigers as heavy favorites over the Jayhawks.
But none of that mattered. When it comes to a rivalry as intense as the Border War, all prior stats and stories can be thrown out the window, resetting it back to two teams on the field.
“It didn’t matter what the record was,” Franklin said. “That rivalry game, it just brought something different.”
Franklin hadn’t thrown an interception in four consecutive games entering the matchup, but the Jayhawks brought something different. The score was knotted up 0-0 on Missouri’s fourth drive of the game, with the Tigers unable to create any offensive momentum.
Each of the next three Missouri drives resulted in a Kansas interception. Tyler Patmon, Greg Brown and Bradley McDougald each picked off Franklin, with McDougald taking it back for six. Entering halftime, the Jayhawks were up 10-3 in stunning fashion.
The Tigers knew what was at stake, the locker room at halftime discussed “not disappointing the fans,” Franklin said. “One of the coaches even brought up family.”
The Tigers must have gotten the memo, because they returned to form in the second half, scoring 21 unanswered points. A Kendial Lawerence goal line rushing touchdown, a 25-yard touchdown pass to Wes Kemp and a 53-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Lucas would bring the score to 24-10, which would hold until the clock hit zero.
Franklin led his Tigers to a victory over the Jayhawks, claiming victory to the last chapter of the Border War rivalry.
“That was going to be the longest trash talking ability, a one up that we would have,” Franklin said.
And it was. For the next 14 years, Missouri could flaunt its 2011 victory with no real rebuttal. Whether it be debating football teams, wearing merchandise or singing Mr. Brightside, Tiger fans across the country were invincible in the gridiron rivalry.
After 14 long years, that invincibility can now be taken away.
The Jayhawks –– the same moniker that the people of Kansas stuck by during the “Bleeding Kansas” era, and the same that Franklin and his 2011 Tigers squad fended off –– have returned.
On Sept. 6, the Jayhawks will travel to Columbia to square off against the Tigers for the first time since Missouri’s departure to the SEC. One of the longest rivalries in sports history returns, with bragging rights and a new claim to the throne on the line.
With both teams coming off blowout victories –– Kansas taking down Wagner 46-7, and Missouri beating Central Arkansas 61-6 –– both seem prepared for a battle under the bright lights.
That old feeling of Border War week that Columbia hasn’t felt in nearly 14 years is returning, with all focus on the upcoming game.
“The kind of energy and the anticipation leading up to this game is going to be probably one of the biggest of their careers so far,” Franklin said.
The effects of the upcoming game on the field are important –– a win could potentially have the Tigers ranked, and Missouri would have continued momentum heading into Week 3.
But the importance of beating Kansas runs deeper than sports, it’s something for the people of Missouri to rally behind.
“[It meant a lot,] not only for wins and losses,” former Missouri basketball guard Rickey Paulding said of the rivalry, “but how much it meant to the fans and the university.”
The same pressure that Franklin felt ahead of his 2011 matchup is a staple of the Border War matchup. Paulding knew the importance of the matchup, and the weight it placed on Missouri athletes’ shoulders.
“[The fans] were just as excited as we were,” Paulding said. “You kind of felt like, ‘I need to go out and perform, because they’re, they’re just as invested as I am,’ and you don’t want to let people down.”
From the people of Osceola’s disdain for Kansas after the storm led by the Jayhawkers, to the glory felt by Missourians after Franklin’s 2011 win, it’s clear that however the Sept. 6 matchup shakes out, fans of the Tigers will flare emotions either way –– confirming that pressure.
“To get that win,” Paulding said. “I think it’d be something that people will talk about and be excited about for a long time”
While the goal is to get that win, there’s a healthy balance between recognizing the importance of the rivalry while focusing on the X’s and O’s.
“I think there’s a fine line between overhyping and getting so emotional that you don’t have poison control,” Head Football Coach Eliah Drinkwitz said at a Sept. 2 press conference. “You want to have the energy, you don’t want to be emotional.”
That being said, he’s aware of what’s at stake –– this isn’t just another early-season opponent.
“We know there’s a trophy board at the end of this game,” Drinkwitz said. “Sometimes you just get an ‘attaboy,’ no ‘attaboy’ after this one, there’s a war drum and several other stuff out there, and you win it.”
His team is ready to do so.
“You love playing big games,” starting quarterback Beau Pribula said. “That’s why you play.”
Pribula’s played in big games before –– a heroic 2024 effort to beat Wisconsin and the 2023 Peach Bowl to name a few –– but none match the stakes of a Border War game.
120 previous Missouri-Kansas matchups have culminated in Drinkwitz and Pribula leading the Tigers into matchup No. 121.
“This is our chance to write our part of the story,” Drinkwitz said.
He understands the importance of showing up for those fans, specifically on Sept. 6.
“It’s a privilege to wear the Mizzou on your chest,” Drinkwitz said. “And when you wear Mizzou, you represent 6 million people in this state.”
From the civilians of the “Bleeding Kansas” battles, to the 1891 Missouri football debut squad, to Franklin’s 2011 team and all the Missourians between and since –– it’s all led to Sept. 6.
Hundreds of thousands of hearts of current and former Tigers alike will be tied to the events soon to play out on Faurot Field, pulling for Missouri to get another victory in the newest chapter of the Border War.
“Once a Tiger, always a Tiger,” Franklin said.
Edited by Colin Simmons l [email protected]
Copy edited by Emma Harper l [email protected]
Edited by Chase Pray | [email protected]