By Seth Herrold
Prior to last year’s college football season I wrote a column on missing the Arch Rivalry, which was gearing up for its final go-round in St. Louis. If I thought I was going to miss the Arch Rivalry, I don’t know what I can say about the Border War. For the past five years now Arrowhead Stadium has been the destination for me on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. After tomorrow, that will just be a part of my past as it will be for the Missouri Tigers and Kansas Jayhawks.
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The Border War was home to perhaps my greatest college football memory. “Armageddon At Arrowhead,” as it was dubbed, was no doubt the highlight of my sports memories. I have never before been at a football stadium that had the atmosphere that there was at that game. I sat miserably in the cold and snow in 2008 and I wore a t-shirt and shorts in late November in 2009 as the Tigers, donning the “Beast Mode” uniforms, won at the end on a field goal. Then there was the most lopsided Border War game of them all last year as Kansas took the field in white from head to toe as if surrendering before the game even started.
The attendance for the game has dropped every year. My brother and I paid close to $90 each to sit in the upper deck in seats separated by two rows in 2007. This year… $15 will get you a ticket and there are plenty of seats left to chose from and there probably still will be on game day. With the considerable drop in attendance for the game each year, it’s likely the game would have eventually been reverted back to being played on the college campuses. As it turns out, however, we will never know how many years the game would have gone on in Kansas City.
Kansas City was a perfect spot for the game. Where else would you play the Border War but on the border? You go to a Royals game in the summer and you always end up seeing multiple Missouri and Kansas t-shirts. Kansas City is a hotbed for the rivalry and you just don’t get the feel of the rivalry anywhere else in either state.
I’m really going to miss this game and it saddens me Kansas won’t make an effort to keep it going. I have always said if the shoe was on the other foot and Kansas was leaving to join the ACC or Big East to get in a better basketball conference, I would still want to play them in football and men’s basketball. I’m sure there are a lot of Kansas fans out there who want to keep playing Missouri as well. Unfortunately, it is up to the powers that be in Lawrence to determine if the rivalry is continued or not and right now they are pretty adamant on ending things.
I will never forget this fun little five-year run in Kansas City. Missouri has said it hopes to keep playing a game in Kansas City and I will probably keep attending, but I just can’t see it being as big as Missouri-Kansas was.
College sports is losing a great rivalry, but I guess things change, for better or worse.