Friday, May 18, 2007
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
True Sons: The Arrival
Read about the birth of a Big Eight dynasty here.
The first call came from St. Louis, the second from Kansas City. By the time Norm Stewart put down the phone, he knew his program was about to take a giant leap forward, but he did his best to contain his joy. "We're very pleased with both Steve and Jon," he said in an act of staggering understatement. He had just received commitments that would change the course of Missouri basketball.
The first call came from St. Louis, the second from Kansas City. By the time Norm Stewart put down the phone, he knew his program was about to take a giant leap forward, but he did his best to contain his joy. "We're very pleased with both Steve and Jon," he said in an act of staggering understatement. He had just received commitments that would change the course of Missouri basketball.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
True Sons: The Legend of John Brown
Today's excerpt takes us back to the 1972-73 season when the Tigers moved into the Hearnes Center and big farewell to John Brown, the first superstar of the Norm Stewart era.
The new building featured a space-age Tartan floor, an exotic gray court that the players loathed. The rubbery surface prevented them from sliding, and it dampened sound such that they could not hear the ball bounce, a disorienting experience for players who grew up on hardwood. Despite the new environment and crowds often well below the 12,600 capacity, the Tigers maintained the home-court edge that had become a hallmark of the Stewart era and rode it to the best start in half a century. Against Ohio, before a packed house, John Brown christened the building with a midrange jumper, and he and five other Tigers—Al Eberhard, Mike Jeffries, Orv Salmon, Gary Link, and sophomore Felix Jerman—tallied double figures. Attendance dropped sharply after opening night. Only 7,714 fans saw Brown collect thirty-five points and fifteen rebounds in a win over Purdue that moved the Tigers to 4–0.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
True Sons: Breaking the Barrier
Today's excerpt takes us back a half century, to when Al Abram stepped on to the basketball court and and forever changed the University of Missouri.
It was the start of a long, slow fade for Sparky Stalcup. In his first ten years at Missouri, his teams finished second in the conference five times. But after Norm Stewart's graduation, they would never again place higher than fourth. Though his clubs were not devoid of talent, Stalcup could not match the enormous firepower that found its way to Lawrence and Manhattan. Part of that was due to his personal fabric. When it came to recruiting, Stalcup was ethical to a fault and even a bit naïve to the way the game was changing. He believed to his core that basketball should be just one piece of the university experience. He believed in students who played basketball, not basketball players who dabbled in education. "A school like Missouri will not relax its educational requirements for the sake of getting an exceptional athlete," he said. "The era of the dumb athlete is fast drawing to a close." He abhorred the corrupt recruiting practices that became more prevalent in the 1950s and railed against them. He believed that under-the-table payments were being made to the best big men, the kinds of players that were changing the game. He blamed alumni for brokering deals and blamed coaches for turning a blind eye. He feared for the integrity of the game.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
True Sons: Meanwell Arrives
Today's excerpt takes us back to the 1917-18 season, when a charter member of the Basketball Hall of Fame arrived in Columbia and laid a foundation that would help make the Tigers the nation's best team over the ensuing six-year span.
There are good reasons for this, not the least of which is basketball was a second-tier game in those days, far less popular than baseball, college football, or boxing. It also lacked a national stage, with the NIT and the NCAA Tournament coming into existence only in 1938 and 1939, respectively. Finally, and no less important, players from that era have been eradicated from the record books. Slower play, shorter seasons, and freshman ineligibility guaranteed this. Players simply could not score enough points during games, seasons, or careers to compete with more recent athletes, and statistics like rebounds and assists were not officially kept. This amnesia is unfortunate, especially for Missouri basketball loyalists, because the Tiger players of that era rank among the most accomplished in school history.Yet more anonymous than the players of that era are its coaches, even the great ones. As evidence, try asking Missouri fans to name a coach who took over the Tiger program in his early thirties. Some will pick Quin Snyder, who arrived in Columbia in 1999 after serving as an assistant at Duke. Others might choose Norm Stewart, who returned to his alma mater in 1967 after six years as head coach at the State College of Iowa. But few—probably none—will mention Walter Meanwell, who became Missouri's coach in 1917 at age thirty-three. That is more than a little ironic because while Snyder and Stewart came to Columbia looking to build legacies at a major program, Meanwell arrived already established as the finest coach in the brief history of college basketball.
Monday, May 07, 2007
True Sons Excerpt: The First Tigers
Beginning today and extending over the next two weeks, PowerMizzou.com will run ten excerpts from True Sons, A Century of Missouri Tigers Basketball. We start, appropriately enough, at the beginning, with the first team to don the black and gold. We continue tomorrow with the birth of a long-forgotten dynasty. Click on the intro below to go straight to the first excerpt.
From modest beginnings came magical things. Inside a little gymnasium on the edge of campus, a few young men formed a team and founded a tradition that would provide a century's worth of thrills. The rich history of Missouri Tigers basketball
begins with them, players who toiled for little more than the pride of their
school and a love of the game, but whose efforts would come to mean more than
they could ever have imagined.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Cass County, Here I Come
I'll be the featured speaker at the Spring Banquet of the Cass County chapter of the Mizzou Alumni Association this Thursday, April 26, in Harrisonville. Details here.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
The Call From the Hall
This week, Norm Stewart was selected for enshrinement into the College Basketball Hall of Fame. I’d say that the honor is long overdue, but the College Hoops Hall hasn’t even been built yet, so it’s pretty much right on time.
The old coach is good at a lot of things, but none more than winning – 731 victories as a head coach, 634 at Missouri – and telling stories. Norm Stewart tells more stories than anyone else I’ve known. And if any part of a story is true, it counts as a true story. By that standard, what I write here is genuine, verifiable and factual, except the parts that are not.
The Missouri Tigers won a total of six games in the two years before Stewart became head coach. The Tigers lost a total of six games in Stewart’s fifth season.
Missouri borders eight other states, the most in the nation. Norm Stewart can defend all eight borders simultaneously.
Norm Stewart coached the Tigers to their first 20-win season. And their seventeenth.
Cancer tried to mess with Norm Stewart once. Cancer learned its lesson.
Before Norm Stewart took over, Missouri had won its last league championship in 1940, and its last conference tournament title in 1954. Stewart’s Tigers captured league crowns in 1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1990 and 1994. They won conference tournaments in 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1987, 1989, 1991 and 1993.
Long ago, a small tornado threatened central Missouri until Norm Stewart stood up and fought it off with his bare hands. Years later, a larger one came through, so he had Al Eberhard help him.
Once, in a hard-fought game against Kansas State, Stewart wanted to fire up the Hearnes Center crowd, but he didn’t want to pick up a technical foul, so he got in an official’s face, stomping, veins popping from his forehead, and screamed, “Do you see that tie Jack Hartman is wearing?!?! That’s got to be the ugliest tie in the whole %$#@&*% world!!! I can’t believe how ugly that thing is!!!” The crowd went bonkers. Missouri went on to win.
Sailors sometimes complain about Stewart’s language.
In 1989, while recuperating from cancer surgery, Norm Stewart heard that his players were rebelling against interim coach Rich Daly. So Stewart assembled the team and said “If Coach Daly asks you to stand on your head and crap through your nose, you stand on your head and blow.” A week later, the Tigers beat second-ranked Oklahoma to win the Big Eight tournament.
WWND? He’d kick your ass and make you like it, that’s WNWD.
Coach Stewart wrote the forward to this book and he wants you to buy a copy.
Phog Allen tried to recruit Norm Stewart to play basketball at Kansas. Phog didn’t know Norm very well.
Take 300 wins off of Norm Stewart’s record at Missouri and he’s still above .500.
As a sophomore at Mizzou, Norm Stewart went out for baseball on a bet with a fellow student. He made the team and helped the Tigers win the national championship. Stewart won the bet.
Before Norm Stewart became Missouri’s head coach, the Tigers had last appeared in the Associated Press poll in the 1954-55 season, when he was an all-conference basketball player, and they made it to number six, their highest ranking to that point. Stewart led the Tigers back into the poll in 1971-72, his fifth season. He had them at number five the next year. They reached number one for the first time in the 1981-82 season. They did it again – twice – in 1989-90.
Norm Stewart walks into a room and pride follows.
So here’s to Norm Stewart, a hall of famer – our hall of famer – and the truest Tiger of them all. Congratulations on an honor well-deserved.
The old coach is good at a lot of things, but none more than winning – 731 victories as a head coach, 634 at Missouri – and telling stories. Norm Stewart tells more stories than anyone else I’ve known. And if any part of a story is true, it counts as a true story. By that standard, what I write here is genuine, verifiable and factual, except the parts that are not.
The Missouri Tigers won a total of six games in the two years before Stewart became head coach. The Tigers lost a total of six games in Stewart’s fifth season.
Missouri borders eight other states, the most in the nation. Norm Stewart can defend all eight borders simultaneously.
Norm Stewart coached the Tigers to their first 20-win season. And their seventeenth.
Cancer tried to mess with Norm Stewart once. Cancer learned its lesson.
Before Norm Stewart took over, Missouri had won its last league championship in 1940, and its last conference tournament title in 1954. Stewart’s Tigers captured league crowns in 1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1990 and 1994. They won conference tournaments in 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1987, 1989, 1991 and 1993.
Long ago, a small tornado threatened central Missouri until Norm Stewart stood up and fought it off with his bare hands. Years later, a larger one came through, so he had Al Eberhard help him.
Once, in a hard-fought game against Kansas State, Stewart wanted to fire up the Hearnes Center crowd, but he didn’t want to pick up a technical foul, so he got in an official’s face, stomping, veins popping from his forehead, and screamed, “Do you see that tie Jack Hartman is wearing?!?! That’s got to be the ugliest tie in the whole %$#@&*% world!!! I can’t believe how ugly that thing is!!!” The crowd went bonkers. Missouri went on to win.
Sailors sometimes complain about Stewart’s language.
In 1989, while recuperating from cancer surgery, Norm Stewart heard that his players were rebelling against interim coach Rich Daly. So Stewart assembled the team and said “If Coach Daly asks you to stand on your head and crap through your nose, you stand on your head and blow.” A week later, the Tigers beat second-ranked Oklahoma to win the Big Eight tournament.
WWND? He’d kick your ass and make you like it, that’s WNWD.
Coach Stewart wrote the forward to this book and he wants you to buy a copy.
Phog Allen tried to recruit Norm Stewart to play basketball at Kansas. Phog didn’t know Norm very well.
Take 300 wins off of Norm Stewart’s record at Missouri and he’s still above .500.
As a sophomore at Mizzou, Norm Stewart went out for baseball on a bet with a fellow student. He made the team and helped the Tigers win the national championship. Stewart won the bet.
Before Norm Stewart became Missouri’s head coach, the Tigers had last appeared in the Associated Press poll in the 1954-55 season, when he was an all-conference basketball player, and they made it to number six, their highest ranking to that point. Stewart led the Tigers back into the poll in 1971-72, his fifth season. He had them at number five the next year. They reached number one for the first time in the 1981-82 season. They did it again – twice – in 1989-90.
Norm Stewart walks into a room and pride follows.
So here’s to Norm Stewart, a hall of famer – our hall of famer – and the truest Tiger of them all. Congratulations on an honor well-deserved.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Seems Like Old Times
OK, after a month or so off, I'm back with something to say, which you can find over at the new Mizzou Sanity group blog.
Friday, January 12, 2007
100 Years Ago Today
On January 12, 1907 – 100 years ago today – five young men donned Tiger uniforms and took to the court at state-of-the-art Rothwell Gymnasium to play the first intercollegiate men’s basketball game in the University of Missouri’s history. Hezekiah “Zeke” Henley, Carl “Curly” Ristine, William Driver and John Gardner had come to Mizzou from Joplin, and the fifth starter, Fred Bernet, came from St. Louis. With head coach Isadore “Izzy” Anderson watching from the sidelines, the Tiger five overwhelmed the Central College of Fayette team, 65-5, still one of the most lopsided victories in Missouri’s history.
Since that first day, Missouri Tigers fans have been thrilled, dismayed and enthralled by a century’s worth of moments and memories. There have been monumental wins and crushing defeats. There have been heroic players and coaches we remember well, and others who have faded from memory. But they’re all part of a continuum and a tradition that is Missouri Tigers basketball. While that first team may now seem like little more than a historical curiosity, they began a thread that winds through the program’s full history.
Carl Ristine, the first team’s best scorer, played with Herman Cohen, who played with Joe Parker, who played with George Taaffe, who played with Pip Palfreyman, who played with Fred Williams.
Williams played with Paul “Deerfoot” Vogt, who played with Craig Ruby, who played with George Williams, who played with Herb Bunker, who played with Frank Wheat.
Wheat played with Ted O’Sullivan, who played with Kenneth Yunker, who played with Wendell Baker, who played with Charlie Huhn, who played with Norman Wagner.
Wagner played with John Cooper, who played with Evans Powell, who played with Ralph Beer, who played with Kenny Brown, who played with John Lobsiger.
Lobsiger played with Herb Gregg, who played with Roy Storm, who played with Thornton Jenkins, who played with Dan Pippin, who played with Bud Heineman, who played with Bill Stauffer.
Stauffer played with Med Park, who played with Norm Stewart, who played with Lionel Smith, who played with Al Abram, who played with Charlie Henke.
Henke played with Ken Doughty, who played with George Flamank, who played with Ron Coleman, who played with Gene Jones, who played with Don Tomlinson, who played with Henry Smith.
Smith played with John Brown, who played with Al Eberhard, who played with Kim Anderson, who played with Larry Drew, who played with Steve Stipanovich and Jon Sundvold, who played with Greg Cavener.
Cavener played with Derrick Chievous, who played with Doug Smith, who played with Melvin Booker, who played with Kelly Thames, who played with Brian Grawer.
Grawer played with Arthur Johnson, who played with Thomas Gardner, who played with Marshall Brown, Matt Lawrence and several other members of the current Tigers team.
And just as the players form a thread, so do the generations of fans who have lived and died a little on each hoop this past century. One of the great pleasures of my life has been the opportunity to document and share the history of Missouri Tigers basketball. And since you’re reading this, that history is probably important to you, too. So, tonight, raise a glass to a century of thrilling, maddening, captivating Missouri Tigers basketball history, and maybe one to its future, a toast to all the true sons.
Since that first day, Missouri Tigers fans have been thrilled, dismayed and enthralled by a century’s worth of moments and memories. There have been monumental wins and crushing defeats. There have been heroic players and coaches we remember well, and others who have faded from memory. But they’re all part of a continuum and a tradition that is Missouri Tigers basketball. While that first team may now seem like little more than a historical curiosity, they began a thread that winds through the program’s full history.
Carl Ristine, the first team’s best scorer, played with Herman Cohen, who played with Joe Parker, who played with George Taaffe, who played with Pip Palfreyman, who played with Fred Williams.
Williams played with Paul “Deerfoot” Vogt, who played with Craig Ruby, who played with George Williams, who played with Herb Bunker, who played with Frank Wheat.
Wheat played with Ted O’Sullivan, who played with Kenneth Yunker, who played with Wendell Baker, who played with Charlie Huhn, who played with Norman Wagner.
Wagner played with John Cooper, who played with Evans Powell, who played with Ralph Beer, who played with Kenny Brown, who played with John Lobsiger.
Lobsiger played with Herb Gregg, who played with Roy Storm, who played with Thornton Jenkins, who played with Dan Pippin, who played with Bud Heineman, who played with Bill Stauffer.
Stauffer played with Med Park, who played with Norm Stewart, who played with Lionel Smith, who played with Al Abram, who played with Charlie Henke.
Henke played with Ken Doughty, who played with George Flamank, who played with Ron Coleman, who played with Gene Jones, who played with Don Tomlinson, who played with Henry Smith.
Smith played with John Brown, who played with Al Eberhard, who played with Kim Anderson, who played with Larry Drew, who played with Steve Stipanovich and Jon Sundvold, who played with Greg Cavener.
Cavener played with Derrick Chievous, who played with Doug Smith, who played with Melvin Booker, who played with Kelly Thames, who played with Brian Grawer.
Grawer played with Arthur Johnson, who played with Thomas Gardner, who played with Marshall Brown, Matt Lawrence and several other members of the current Tigers team.
And just as the players form a thread, so do the generations of fans who have lived and died a little on each hoop this past century. One of the great pleasures of my life has been the opportunity to document and share the history of Missouri Tigers basketball. And since you’re reading this, that history is probably important to you, too. So, tonight, raise a glass to a century of thrilling, maddening, captivating Missouri Tigers basketball history, and maybe one to its future, a toast to all the true sons.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
On WHB in Kansas City on Wednesday
Sunday, January 07, 2007
That’ll Leave a Mark
Games like this wake me up at night. My eyes pop open at 3:00 a.m. and I think “we really lost that one, didn’t we?”
Yes, we did.
One unexpected loss won’t ruin a season, but the optimism that the Missouri Tigers basketball team brought into conference play hinged on winning every home game against the Iowa States and Nebraskas of the league, and stealing a couple on the road. One game into the slate, there’s already a dent in the plan, as the Cyclones won one that Mizzou never seemed in jeopardy of losing until the last sixty seconds. But as Iowa State crept closer and Missouri failed to make plays, I turned to my pal Bob Bailey, the Assistant Dean at the MU Law School, and said “this is starting to remind me of last year’s Colorado game.” The sense of déjà vu grew palpable as ISU tipped in the game-winner just before the buzzer, and the Tigers snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
If Mizzou is going to win tight games in Big 12 play, this much is clear: the frontcourt quartet of Leo Lyons, Kalen Grimes, Darryl Butterfield and Vaidotas Volkus will have to combine for better than the eight points and twelve rebounds they accumulated in fifty-three minutes on Saturday. The Tigers were abused on the inside by a group of interior players not nearly as talented as they’ll see down the road. Those four players don’t have to carry Missouri, but when they produce so little, they require the Tigers’ guards to be near-perfect, which they weren’t in the league opener.
Family Picture: If you weren’t at the game, you missed a sight that was, in its own way, as remarkable as the introduction of the Tigers’ All-Century team a year ago. Sixty former players, spanning seventy years of history, took to the court as part of a hoops family reunion. The senior member of the group was John Cooper, ninety-four years old and the 1932 Big Six scoring champ. He was joined by his baby brother Clay (a standout on the 1939 and 1940 league championship teams) and a host of players who represented the full spectrum of Missouri basketball. There were plenty of stars, including Thornton Jenkins (perhaps the finest Tiger player of the 1940s), Charlie Henke (who held Mizzou’s career scoring mark from 1961 to 1973), John Brown (who eclipsed Henke’s standard), Joe Scott (whose 46 points against Nebraska in 1961 still stands as a Tiger record), Curtis Berry and Jon Sundvold. But there were also dozens of former players who filled key roles to far less glory, guys like Gary Filbert, Howard Garrett, Greg Flaker, Scott Sims and Greg Church. As a whole, the group represented toughness, dedication, loyalty and excellence, traits that are at the heart of True Sons.
Lawrence of Columbia: Matt Lawrence’s transformation from end-of-the-bench reserve to game-changing sharpshooter is complete, and the crowd at Mizzou Arena knows it. I love how now, when Lawrence lets fly from behind the arc, everyone in the house leans forward and yells “three!”
Yes, we did.
One unexpected loss won’t ruin a season, but the optimism that the Missouri Tigers basketball team brought into conference play hinged on winning every home game against the Iowa States and Nebraskas of the league, and stealing a couple on the road. One game into the slate, there’s already a dent in the plan, as the Cyclones won one that Mizzou never seemed in jeopardy of losing until the last sixty seconds. But as Iowa State crept closer and Missouri failed to make plays, I turned to my pal Bob Bailey, the Assistant Dean at the MU Law School, and said “this is starting to remind me of last year’s Colorado game.” The sense of déjà vu grew palpable as ISU tipped in the game-winner just before the buzzer, and the Tigers snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
If Mizzou is going to win tight games in Big 12 play, this much is clear: the frontcourt quartet of Leo Lyons, Kalen Grimes, Darryl Butterfield and Vaidotas Volkus will have to combine for better than the eight points and twelve rebounds they accumulated in fifty-three minutes on Saturday. The Tigers were abused on the inside by a group of interior players not nearly as talented as they’ll see down the road. Those four players don’t have to carry Missouri, but when they produce so little, they require the Tigers’ guards to be near-perfect, which they weren’t in the league opener.
Family Picture: If you weren’t at the game, you missed a sight that was, in its own way, as remarkable as the introduction of the Tigers’ All-Century team a year ago. Sixty former players, spanning seventy years of history, took to the court as part of a hoops family reunion. The senior member of the group was John Cooper, ninety-four years old and the 1932 Big Six scoring champ. He was joined by his baby brother Clay (a standout on the 1939 and 1940 league championship teams) and a host of players who represented the full spectrum of Missouri basketball. There were plenty of stars, including Thornton Jenkins (perhaps the finest Tiger player of the 1940s), Charlie Henke (who held Mizzou’s career scoring mark from 1961 to 1973), John Brown (who eclipsed Henke’s standard), Joe Scott (whose 46 points against Nebraska in 1961 still stands as a Tiger record), Curtis Berry and Jon Sundvold. But there were also dozens of former players who filled key roles to far less glory, guys like Gary Filbert, Howard Garrett, Greg Flaker, Scott Sims and Greg Church. As a whole, the group represented toughness, dedication, loyalty and excellence, traits that are at the heart of True Sons.
Lawrence of Columbia: Matt Lawrence’s transformation from end-of-the-bench reserve to game-changing sharpshooter is complete, and the crowd at Mizzou Arena knows it. I love how now, when Lawrence lets fly from behind the arc, everyone in the house leans forward and yells “three!”
Monday, December 18, 2006
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Silver bells. Twinkling lights. Children singing. There’s a feeling in the air. It’s Braggin’ Rights time.
With the Missouri and Illinois hoops teams set for their annual meeting in St. Louis on Tuesday, I’m in a reflective mood. It’s time to relive the history of the Braggin’ Rights series, or at least one side of it, remembering Mizzou’s greatest moments while completely ignoring the Illini’s. Who’s with me?
Pre-history of the rivalry
Before the Tigers and Illini ever played a game, they shared a coach. Craig Ruby, a Kansas City native who twice earned All-America honors as a player for the Tigers, coached Missouri to a cumulative record of 33-2 in the 1920-21 and 1921-22 seasons. Then, just two years into his coaching career, Ruby left for the University of Illinois, where he guided the basketball program for fourteen years, a span that included the first two meetings between the schools, both won by the Illini. (As detailed in True Sons, Ruby also had a hand in the rise of Kentucky basketball. John Mauer, one of Ruby’s earliest players at Illinois, went on to become the first successful coach in Lexington, where he installed the system that Ruby had learned from coach Walter Meanwell at Missouri. When Mauer left UK, he was replaced by a young high school coach named Adolph Rupp, who got the job largely on Ruby’s recommendation. Rather than employ the system he had learned as a player at the University of Kansas, Rupp adopted Ruby’s system, and the rest, as they say, is history).
Missouri and Illinois played only a few times before the 1970s, but their meeting in 1946 provided one of the greatest upsets in the Tigers’ history. Sparky Stalcup had just begun his long career as Mizzou’s coach in December 1946 when the Tigers traveled to Kansas City for the first-ever Big Six basketball tournament (trivia time: Southern Methodist, which along with Arkansas had been invited to round out the eight-team field, won the event, despite not being a member of the conference). After winning just one of three games in the tourney, Missouri stayed in Kansas City to face a formidable, storied Illinois team. In the 1942-43 season, the Illini had the nation’s best team, a group led by All-American Andy Phillip and known as the Whiz Kids. Toward the end of the year, though, a higher calling beckoned, and all five starters were pressed into military duty at the height of the Second World War With war over, Phillip and three of the remaining starters returned to school, where they were joined in the lineup by Walt Kirk, who himself had earned All-America honors in 1945. Undefeated and favored by as many as twenty-four points, the Illini appeared invincible when they rolled into Municipal Auditorium.
But war’s end had also brought good news to the Tigers, as Dan Pippin and Thornton Jenkins – two of the best players of their day – returned to campus and teamed up for the first time. And while each of them would give fine efforts against Illinois, the heroes were Darrel Lorrance, a transfer from Kentucky who scored 18 points, and center John Rudolph who hit the crucial shot late in a 55-50 Mizzou triumph that inspired many of the 4,500 fans on hand to spill onto the floor to celebrate the Tigers’ victory.
Long before he ever coached a game, Norm Stewart made his mark on the rivalry in another tremendous upset. With stars Bob Reiter and Med Park having graduated, Stewart, then a senior, led the Tigers to a 2-1 mark early in the 1955-56 season. Illinois came to Columbia ranked eighth nationally, and built a fifteen-point lead against the Tigers. But Stewart led a remarkable comeback, scoring 27 points in the second half as Mizzou prevailed 74-73. The teams would not meet again for two decades.
Braggin’ Rights
The seeds for what has come to be known as the Braggin’ Rights game were sown on December 3, 1976, when the Tigers and Illini met for the first time in twenty-one years. Missouri won 76-75 in Columbia, and the teams played an annual home-and-home series through 1979. Tiger Larry Drew starred in the final game to be played on-campus, scoring 25 points as Mizzou beat Illinois 67-66 in overtime in Champaign.
The game moved to St. Louis for good in December 1980, and has been played there annually ever since, save for a one-year break in 1982. Illinois took the first meeting at the old St. Louis Arena, but the Tigers got revenge the next year with a 78-68 overtime victory as Ricky Frazier scored 28 points.
Let’s, ahem, pretend the next several years never happened. In 1991, Jevon Crudup, Anthony Peeler, Melvin Booker and Jeff Warren each scored in double figures as the surprising 16th-ranked Tigers moved their record to 8-0 with a 61-44 triumph over the Illini. Mizzou made it two straight the next season, as Melvin Booker recorded 16 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists in a 66-65 victory.
Missouri’s third consecutive win in the series is a story unto itself and the best basketball game I’ve ever seen. The Tigers’ epic, heroic (even lucky) 108-107 three-overtime triumph set the stage for one of the greatest seasons in Mizzou history, and marked the indisputable high point of the rivalry series. And Melvin Booker, with 21 points and 13 assists, solidified his spot as the top Tiger player in Braggin’ Rights lore.
Missouri won its fourth straight against the Illini (the Tigers’ longest winning streak in the series) in 1994, a 76-58 win paced by Paul O’Liney (19 points), Derek Grimm (18) and Julian Winfield (15). Then, after losses the next two seasons, the Tigers resumed their winning ways in 1997. New Tiger Albert White posted 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Norm Stewart got his 700th career coaching victory in a 75-69 win. John Woods led MU with 15 points in a 67-62 victory in 1998, and then Clarence Gilbert, a sophomore guard theretofore known primarily for his defense, made a statement in the 1999 contest. Though they trailed by fourteen points in the first half, the Tigers clawed back into the game, and Gilbert scored twelve straight points for Mizzou in the second half to carry the Tigers to a 78-72 triumph. With 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting (five of seven from the arc), Gilbert gave the first of many memorable performances in a Tiger uniform.
The game has been less memorable for Missouri fans in subsequent years (really, have they played it since 1999?), but Braggin’ Rights remains one of the great non-conference match-ups in college basketball. Now, Mike Anderson gets to make his mark on the rivalry. The last (and only) Mizzou coach to lose his first game against Illinois was George Edwards in 1932. Here’s hoping that Coach Edwards keeps that distinction to himself.
With the Missouri and Illinois hoops teams set for their annual meeting in St. Louis on Tuesday, I’m in a reflective mood. It’s time to relive the history of the Braggin’ Rights series, or at least one side of it, remembering Mizzou’s greatest moments while completely ignoring the Illini’s. Who’s with me?
Pre-history of the rivalry
Before the Tigers and Illini ever played a game, they shared a coach. Craig Ruby, a Kansas City native who twice earned All-America honors as a player for the Tigers, coached Missouri to a cumulative record of 33-2 in the 1920-21 and 1921-22 seasons. Then, just two years into his coaching career, Ruby left for the University of Illinois, where he guided the basketball program for fourteen years, a span that included the first two meetings between the schools, both won by the Illini. (As detailed in True Sons, Ruby also had a hand in the rise of Kentucky basketball. John Mauer, one of Ruby’s earliest players at Illinois, went on to become the first successful coach in Lexington, where he installed the system that Ruby had learned from coach Walter Meanwell at Missouri. When Mauer left UK, he was replaced by a young high school coach named Adolph Rupp, who got the job largely on Ruby’s recommendation. Rather than employ the system he had learned as a player at the University of Kansas, Rupp adopted Ruby’s system, and the rest, as they say, is history).
Missouri and Illinois played only a few times before the 1970s, but their meeting in 1946 provided one of the greatest upsets in the Tigers’ history. Sparky Stalcup had just begun his long career as Mizzou’s coach in December 1946 when the Tigers traveled to Kansas City for the first-ever Big Six basketball tournament (trivia time: Southern Methodist, which along with Arkansas had been invited to round out the eight-team field, won the event, despite not being a member of the conference). After winning just one of three games in the tourney, Missouri stayed in Kansas City to face a formidable, storied Illinois team. In the 1942-43 season, the Illini had the nation’s best team, a group led by All-American Andy Phillip and known as the Whiz Kids. Toward the end of the year, though, a higher calling beckoned, and all five starters were pressed into military duty at the height of the Second World War With war over, Phillip and three of the remaining starters returned to school, where they were joined in the lineup by Walt Kirk, who himself had earned All-America honors in 1945. Undefeated and favored by as many as twenty-four points, the Illini appeared invincible when they rolled into Municipal Auditorium.
But war’s end had also brought good news to the Tigers, as Dan Pippin and Thornton Jenkins – two of the best players of their day – returned to campus and teamed up for the first time. And while each of them would give fine efforts against Illinois, the heroes were Darrel Lorrance, a transfer from Kentucky who scored 18 points, and center John Rudolph who hit the crucial shot late in a 55-50 Mizzou triumph that inspired many of the 4,500 fans on hand to spill onto the floor to celebrate the Tigers’ victory.
Long before he ever coached a game, Norm Stewart made his mark on the rivalry in another tremendous upset. With stars Bob Reiter and Med Park having graduated, Stewart, then a senior, led the Tigers to a 2-1 mark early in the 1955-56 season. Illinois came to Columbia ranked eighth nationally, and built a fifteen-point lead against the Tigers. But Stewart led a remarkable comeback, scoring 27 points in the second half as Mizzou prevailed 74-73. The teams would not meet again for two decades.
Braggin’ Rights
The seeds for what has come to be known as the Braggin’ Rights game were sown on December 3, 1976, when the Tigers and Illini met for the first time in twenty-one years. Missouri won 76-75 in Columbia, and the teams played an annual home-and-home series through 1979. Tiger Larry Drew starred in the final game to be played on-campus, scoring 25 points as Mizzou beat Illinois 67-66 in overtime in Champaign.
The game moved to St. Louis for good in December 1980, and has been played there annually ever since, save for a one-year break in 1982. Illinois took the first meeting at the old St. Louis Arena, but the Tigers got revenge the next year with a 78-68 overtime victory as Ricky Frazier scored 28 points.
Let’s, ahem, pretend the next several years never happened. In 1991, Jevon Crudup, Anthony Peeler, Melvin Booker and Jeff Warren each scored in double figures as the surprising 16th-ranked Tigers moved their record to 8-0 with a 61-44 triumph over the Illini. Mizzou made it two straight the next season, as Melvin Booker recorded 16 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists in a 66-65 victory.
Missouri’s third consecutive win in the series is a story unto itself and the best basketball game I’ve ever seen. The Tigers’ epic, heroic (even lucky) 108-107 three-overtime triumph set the stage for one of the greatest seasons in Mizzou history, and marked the indisputable high point of the rivalry series. And Melvin Booker, with 21 points and 13 assists, solidified his spot as the top Tiger player in Braggin’ Rights lore.
Missouri won its fourth straight against the Illini (the Tigers’ longest winning streak in the series) in 1994, a 76-58 win paced by Paul O’Liney (19 points), Derek Grimm (18) and Julian Winfield (15). Then, after losses the next two seasons, the Tigers resumed their winning ways in 1997. New Tiger Albert White posted 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Norm Stewart got his 700th career coaching victory in a 75-69 win. John Woods led MU with 15 points in a 67-62 victory in 1998, and then Clarence Gilbert, a sophomore guard theretofore known primarily for his defense, made a statement in the 1999 contest. Though they trailed by fourteen points in the first half, the Tigers clawed back into the game, and Gilbert scored twelve straight points for Mizzou in the second half to carry the Tigers to a 78-72 triumph. With 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting (five of seven from the arc), Gilbert gave the first of many memorable performances in a Tiger uniform.
The game has been less memorable for Missouri fans in subsequent years (really, have they played it since 1999?), but Braggin’ Rights remains one of the great non-conference match-ups in college basketball. Now, Mike Anderson gets to make his mark on the rivalry. The last (and only) Mizzou coach to lose his first game against Illinois was George Edwards in 1932. Here’s hoping that Coach Edwards keeps that distinction to himself.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
My Chat with Chris Gervino
Saturday, December 09, 2006
On TV in Springfield on Monday
Finally a chance to venture into southwest Missouri. I'll be on the KY3 morning show on Monday (December 11) some time in the 6:00 hour to talk about the history of Tiger hoops.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
The Glamorous Life
Sorry for the recent inactivity, but the past ten days have been a whirlwind of book promotion, with TV and radio appearances across the state, and a long, unintentional layover in Columbia thanks to the mother of all snowstorms.
The big promotional push is winding down, but there are a few stops left. I’ll be on The Spot on channel 38 in Kansas City on Thursday evening at 7:00, and I should show up on Chris Gervino’s Sunday night sports show on KOMU in Columbia this weekend. It also looks like I’ll be on KY3’s morning show in Springfield some day next week. I’ll post more info when I know it.
And I’ll share more thoughts on this when time allows, but doesn’t this basketball team make you proud? Their intensity, selflessness and sense of purpose are a joy to watch. As long as they continue to play like this, I’ll be happy regardless of results (but make no mistake, I’ll be even happier if they win). Obviously, we’ll need the perspective of more time to make any real judgments, but a mere four weeks into the season, it seems like the hiring of Mike Anderson was the best thing to happen to Mizzou athletics in ages.
The big promotional push is winding down, but there are a few stops left. I’ll be on The Spot on channel 38 in Kansas City on Thursday evening at 7:00, and I should show up on Chris Gervino’s Sunday night sports show on KOMU in Columbia this weekend. It also looks like I’ll be on KY3’s morning show in Springfield some day next week. I’ll post more info when I know it.
And I’ll share more thoughts on this when time allows, but doesn’t this basketball team make you proud? Their intensity, selflessness and sense of purpose are a joy to watch. As long as they continue to play like this, I’ll be happy regardless of results (but make no mistake, I’ll be even happier if they win). Obviously, we’ll need the perspective of more time to make any real judgments, but a mere four weeks into the season, it seems like the hiring of Mike Anderson was the best thing to happen to Mizzou athletics in ages.
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