quote:
I just got really interested in it. And living here, every time a conversation starts, someone chimes in with a family story - they still live it to some degree.

semo, I'm same way although on this board I really had to bottle it (aside from in this thread). As much as we despise, loathe, detest the kansas side, one thing I will admit is they too, in their distorted, self aggrandizing, revisionist way, are also very attached to the history of it all. It's strange how so very many people in the MO-kan region are like that, people who are not what would be called "civil war buffs" generally but who have so much knowledge and family ties and stories about the old border war. I got the feeling SEC fans, and other fanbases around the nation, thought us a little weird in that regard at first - but the simple fact is in terms of rhetoric and the way people think of themselves, the Civil War just never really ended along the MO-kan border.

And as I think all us Mizzou fans on here have kind of echoed, the insistance by the kansas side on injecting all that into our sports rivalry with them - from their jayhawk mascot to the red leggings to the John Brown posters on down - has, yes, made for a very intense rivalry but also one so very steeped with hate and spite that it really did need to stop. It was an unhealthy extension of ancient violence and brutality that is still in our bloodlines. I'm glad to see that shite end. I didn't think I would be, but I am.

This post was edited on 6/24/12 at 9:25 pm