Updated
Updated · Yahoo Sports · Sep 11
Kansas Football Uses 122nd Border War to Invoke Civil War Imagery Against No. 23 Missouri
Updated
Updated · Yahoo Sports · Sep 11

Kansas Football Uses 122nd Border War to Invoke Civil War Imagery Against No. 23 Missouri

3 articles · Updated · Yahoo Sports · Sep 11

Summary

  • Kansas spent the week framing Friday’s 122nd Border War as a Civil War-era clash, using social posts and a game-day video to cast Missouri as the villain before the rivalry’s renewal.
  • The campaign featured John Steuart Curry’s “Tragic Prelude” mural of abolitionist John Brown and language saying the feud is “fueled by a hatred, passed down through generations.”
  • Kansas also invoked William Quantrill and the 1863 Lawrence Massacre, when Quantrill’s Raiders killed 150 men and boys, alongside references to anti-slavery Jay-Hawkers.
  • The buildup adds extra heat to a matchup between 1-0 Kansas and 1-0 Missouri, with the Tigers entering ranked No. 23 in the AP Top 25.

Insights

Will resurrecting the bloody ghosts of Bleeding Kansas give the underdog Jayhawks the edge needed to upset a ranked Missouri team?
How does a violent 19th-century massacre transform into the ultimate psychological hype tool for a modern college football showdown?