You’ll see it in the last few seconds of the Goodyear commercials that air ceaselessly during football season: one last shot in a busy montage, displaying a jubilant crowd flowing freely onto Faurot Field after some important, late-season Mizzou win, blotting out the midfield tiger logo with their feet.
It’s only a two-second clip, but it evokes memories of the past of Mizzou sports — not a distant past, but a recent one. It’s been a couple of years since those bigger moments in Mizzou athletics. As the football and men’s basketball teams have struggled, the same sort of special moments like the football team’s back-to-back Southeastern Conference East titles, have come along far more seldom. As a result, the morale around Mizzou’s top team has dipped.
That’s projected to change this year, as Drew Lock and Damarea Crockett enter the season with another year of experience and team chemistry under their belts as they look to improve on last season’s 4-8 record.
As long as the opponent isn’t Delaware State, “The Zou” is loud and rowdy and filled with black and gold. The pure adrenaline rush simultaneously felt by tens of thousands during a big play is unparalleled by any other sport. In the last two years, those moments have been few and far between. It’s been too many Maty Mauk scrambles and suspensions, too many Drew Lock inconsistencies and interceptions and too many defensive bobbles and breakdowns to return the Mizzou program to the SEC Championship Game.
Mizzou basketball has been positively transformed, adding two homegrown stars in Michael Porter Jr. and Jontay Porter as new head coach Cuonzo Martin has built a talented squad in just a matter o f months. Mizzou basketball is primed for a big year behind both Porters, who after an eventful recruiting process will be playing their home games just under six miles from their Columbia high school, Fr. Tolton Catholic.
In the past two years under the disappointing tenure of ex-head coach Kim Anderson, Mizzou Arena was rarely full. With the influx of talent, it should be packed again. And when Mizzou Arena is packed, as Tiger fans saw during the emotional Rally for Rhyan win over Arkansas last spring, it’s rocking. The Porters figure to bring the energy back to the building, leading a team that may very well be returning to the big dance come March.
The two big-revenue sports teams at the university virtually print money for a reason: they are (at least, in theory) marquee programs competing with the SEC’s best in sports that are widely popular and always nationally televised. But even when Mizzou football is mired in mediocrity and Mizzou basketball is losing to teams like North Carolina Central — which happened during last year’s 8-24 campaign — there are plenty of enjoyable non-revenue sporting events to be found all over campus.
The Porters will share Mizzou Arena with the Tiger women, a team led by standout junior guard Sophie Cunningham. Mizzou’s women’s basketball team managed to do what the men’s squad couldn’t in 2017, making the NCAA tournament field and winning their first game before a second-round loss to Florida State. Last season, Mizzou women’s basketball games merited more attention than the men’s games did, and Cunningham is certain to put on a show during her junior season.
Next door at Hearnes Center, one of Mizzou’s most under-appreciated teams plays its home matches. In the fall, Mizzou volleyball takes the court at Hearnes, a place where it has built one of the strongest volleyball programs in the nation. The Tigers took the SEC title and made it to the Sweet 16 of the 2016 NCAA tournament behind senior Carly Kan. Alyssa Munlyn and Melanie Crow are some of the top returning players for this year’s Tigers. Mizzou volleyball matches are fun experiences made better by the raucous VolleyZou student section, a group that can’t always be counted on to keep their shirts on during times of success.
Mizzou baseball at Taylor Stadium is a program that appears to be on the upswing under new leadership. After a disappointing 2016 season, the Tigers replaced head coach Tim Jamieson with Southeast Missouri State’s Steve Bieser. Bieser’s first season included a 20-game winning streak and saw the team improve its record by 10 wins. Starting pitcher Tanner Houck was a first-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox in 2017 after three productive years at Mizzou. The Tigers will look to make some noise inside Taylor Stadium in the spring.
The Tigers’ wrestling team, which competes inside Hearnes Center, lost Missouri legend J’den Cox to graduation at the end of last season. Cox, a Columbia native and a graduate of local Hickman High School, won three national championships and a bronze medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics during his time at Mizzou. Even without Cox, the team returns most of its starters and looks poised for another top-10 national finish in the upcoming season.
These teams are far from all that Mizzou Athletics has to offer. Track and field, swim and dive, golf and cross-country each have both men’s and women’s teams at Mizzou. In addition, gymnastics and women’s tennis teams compete for the school as well.
No matter if you’re just being introduced to a new sport or a new team, or if you’re taking in Mizzou’s edition of your favorite sport, the Tigers and their fans will make it fun for you. Any game or match or meet featuring Mizzou is sure to be jam-packed with black and gold-clad faithful.
While Mizzou football and basketball are the clear highlights, they don’t comprise all of Mizzou’s sporting events. In fact, any other sport is free to attend with an MU student ID. So, look at the schedules, find a home game and head on out. There’s always something going on.
_Edited by Eli Lederman | elederman@themaneater.com_
