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.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
This Date in Mizzou History
November 23, 1988: Behind 21 points from swingman Byron Irvin, the Tigers top fifth-ranked North Carolina, 91-81, to advance to the finals of the Preseason NIT in New York.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
This Date in Mizzou History
Here are three stories from the Tigers' past, as November 22 shall henceforth be known as Kick the Crap Out of Kansas Day.
November 22, 1941: Missouri halfback Harry Ice ran for 240 yards on just eight carries as coach Don Faurot’s Tigers routed Kansas, 45-6.
November 22, 1969: In the final regular season game of the year, Dan Devine’s Missouri Tigers clinched a share of the Big Eight title and an Orange Bowl berth with a 69-21 demolition of Kansas. Jon Staggers and Mel Gray each scored three touchdowns (Terry McMillan threw for four), and Joe Moore rushed for 167 yards in the resounding victory. One legend has Kansas coach Pepper Rodgers saying “I gave Dan [Devine] the peace sign, and he gave half of it back to me.”
November 22, 1986: On the heels of a 77-0 humiliation at Oklahoma, a Missouri football team that had won just two games all year took out its frustrations on arch-rival Kansas, whipping the Jayhawks, 48-0.
November 22, 1941: Missouri halfback Harry Ice ran for 240 yards on just eight carries as coach Don Faurot’s Tigers routed Kansas, 45-6.
November 22, 1969: In the final regular season game of the year, Dan Devine’s Missouri Tigers clinched a share of the Big Eight title and an Orange Bowl berth with a 69-21 demolition of Kansas. Jon Staggers and Mel Gray each scored three touchdowns (Terry McMillan threw for four), and Joe Moore rushed for 167 yards in the resounding victory. One legend has Kansas coach Pepper Rodgers saying “I gave Dan [Devine] the peace sign, and he gave half of it back to me.”
November 22, 1986: On the heels of a 77-0 humiliation at Oklahoma, a Missouri football team that had won just two games all year took out its frustrations on arch-rival Kansas, whipping the Jayhawks, 48-0.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
On TV tonight in KC
I'll be on Metro Sports Talk (6:00 p.m., Time Warner Cable channel 30) tonight to talk about the book with Mick Shaffer.
This Date in Mizzou History
November 21, 2001: Down by eleven points with 2:15 minutes to play, the Tigers mounted a remarkable rally against Iowa in the finals of the Guardian’s Classic basketball tournament in Kansas City. Kareem Rush and Rickey Paulding sank three-pointers to close the gap, and Clarence Gilbert capped the comeback with a free throw in the game’s final second to give Missouri a 78-77 victory.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
This Date in Mizzou History
November 19, 1960: The most infamous football game in Missouri’s history happened in Columbia, as the undefeated, top-ranked Tigers played host to arch-rival Kansas, ranked thirteenth, in the regular season finale. The Jayhawk defense stifled Missouri’s running attack, and KU’s star running back Bert Coan scored two touchdowns in a 23-7 Kansas victory that cost Mizzou the national title. Two weeks later, the game’s result was reversed. The NCAA ruled that Coan had been ineligible to play, and forced Kansas to forfeit the game. But despite technically finishing with a perfect record, Missouri’s dreams of winning the mythical national championship were dashed on one bitter day at Faurot Field.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
This Date in Mizzou History
November 18, 1978: Tiger running back James Wilder ran for 181 yards and four touchdowns, and tight end Kellen Winslow accounted for 132 receiving yards and a touchdown of his own, as Mizzou upset second-ranked Nebraska, 35-31, in Lincoln.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Bond. George Bond.
George Bond’s name has popped up in the papers now that Mike Anderson is the first Missouri coach to start his tenure at 4-0 since Bond did it in 1922-23. And while Bond’s name won’t mean much to modern Mizzou fans, he was an important figure in what may have been the most successful era in Missouri basketball history.
In the period around World War I, the Tigers rose to prominence as perhaps the best program in the country, building a mini-dynasty on the philosophies of former Wisconsin coach Walter Meanwell, who led the team to 17-1 records and Missouri Valley championships in 1918 and 1920 (Meanwell was called to military duty through the 1918-19 season). After the second title, Meanwell returned to the University of Wisconsin, replaced by Craig Ruby, one of Mizzou’s finest players. During Ruby’s two-year run at coach, one of his best players was George Bond, who helped the Tigers to two more conference titles, and a cumulative 33-2 record. One prominent hoops historian ranks Missouri as the nation’s best team in both of those seasons.
When Ruby left for the University of Illinois in 1922, Bond rose from team captain to head coach. His first team was stocked with talent, including three-time All-American Herb Bunker, two-time pick Arthur “Bun” Browning, and junior guard Don Faurot, who built something of a legacy at Mizzou himself. Bond’s Tigers opened the 1922-23 season with five straight lopsided wins before Phog Allen’s Kansas Jayhawks came to Columbia and escaped with a 21-19 victory. But the Missouri team regrouped and went on a tear, defeating all collegiate competition (they lost one game to Kansas City Athletic Club, an elite group of former collegians) over the next six weeks, and the Tigers pulled into Lawrence late in the season with a chance to earn at least a share of the conference title. But another close loss to KU – this one by a 23-20 score – ended their aspirations.
Bond’s Tigers finished the season with a 15-3 record and the nation’s number three ranking, but it was the end of an era. Bunker and Browning graduated, and the Tigers went into a tailspin. After the successful first season, Bond’s team went just 4-14 in year two. After two more losing seasons, Bond left coaching for a career with General Motors.
Media bits: The promotional onslaught for True Sons has begun, which means many media appearances for me. This Sunday, I’ll talk with Ron Jacober on mighty KMOX at 12:10 p.m., leading up to coverage of Mizzou’s game against Davidson. On Tuesday, November 21 at 6:00 p.m., I’ll be on Metro Sports Talk in Kansas City (Time Warner Cable, channel 30), and the next morning, at 8:25, I’ll visit with Tom Bradley on KFRU in Columbia. I will also speak to the Tiger Quarterback Club at their noon meeting in Columbia on Monday, November 27.
I’m also pleased to report that I’ll appear regularly on KTGR’s Tiger Warm-Up show before most Mizzou basketball games throughout the season. I’ll join Kyle Elfrink to talk Tiger history in the final ten minutes of each show.
Several more appearances are in the works, and I’ll report them as they get closer.
In the period around World War I, the Tigers rose to prominence as perhaps the best program in the country, building a mini-dynasty on the philosophies of former Wisconsin coach Walter Meanwell, who led the team to 17-1 records and Missouri Valley championships in 1918 and 1920 (Meanwell was called to military duty through the 1918-19 season). After the second title, Meanwell returned to the University of Wisconsin, replaced by Craig Ruby, one of Mizzou’s finest players. During Ruby’s two-year run at coach, one of his best players was George Bond, who helped the Tigers to two more conference titles, and a cumulative 33-2 record. One prominent hoops historian ranks Missouri as the nation’s best team in both of those seasons.
When Ruby left for the University of Illinois in 1922, Bond rose from team captain to head coach. His first team was stocked with talent, including three-time All-American Herb Bunker, two-time pick Arthur “Bun” Browning, and junior guard Don Faurot, who built something of a legacy at Mizzou himself. Bond’s Tigers opened the 1922-23 season with five straight lopsided wins before Phog Allen’s Kansas Jayhawks came to Columbia and escaped with a 21-19 victory. But the Missouri team regrouped and went on a tear, defeating all collegiate competition (they lost one game to Kansas City Athletic Club, an elite group of former collegians) over the next six weeks, and the Tigers pulled into Lawrence late in the season with a chance to earn at least a share of the conference title. But another close loss to KU – this one by a 23-20 score – ended their aspirations.
Bond’s Tigers finished the season with a 15-3 record and the nation’s number three ranking, but it was the end of an era. Bunker and Browning graduated, and the Tigers went into a tailspin. After the successful first season, Bond’s team went just 4-14 in year two. After two more losing seasons, Bond left coaching for a career with General Motors.
Media bits: The promotional onslaught for True Sons has begun, which means many media appearances for me. This Sunday, I’ll talk with Ron Jacober on mighty KMOX at 12:10 p.m., leading up to coverage of Mizzou’s game against Davidson. On Tuesday, November 21 at 6:00 p.m., I’ll be on Metro Sports Talk in Kansas City (Time Warner Cable, channel 30), and the next morning, at 8:25, I’ll visit with Tom Bradley on KFRU in Columbia. I will also speak to the Tiger Quarterback Club at their noon meeting in Columbia on Monday, November 27.
I’m also pleased to report that I’ll appear regularly on KTGR’s Tiger Warm-Up show before most Mizzou basketball games throughout the season. I’ll join Kyle Elfrink to talk Tiger history in the final ten minutes of each show.
Several more appearances are in the works, and I’ll report them as they get closer.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
On the Radio in Jefferson City
In addition to Thursday morning's appearance on Fox 4 in Kansas City, I'll be on KWOS (950 AM) in Jefferson City this Friday, November 17, at 8:35 a.m. to talk about True Sons. I believe they'll be giving away a copy of the book at the end of the interview, so tune in.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
