Border Rivalry Re-Writing History

All week long, sports radio has been buzzing about tonight's Border War football game between Kansas and Missouri. The rivalry, we were told, dates back to before the Civil War. College Gameday repeated the myth this morning.

Today's Los Angeles Times, repeated the myth headline and again in the article, "The game is called the "Border War," and dates to before the Civil War, when Missouri was a slave state and Kansas a free state." It must be in somebody's press notes and no one has bothered to jog their memories about simple American history.

If I recall correctly, the Civil War began in South Carolina in 1861 and ended when the CSA surrendered in 1865. The first college football game was between Rutgers and Princeton four years later, and in fact, it was Rugby. College Football as we know it wasn't invented until 1875, when Tufts played Harvard. Kansas first played Missouri in the "Border War" in 1891.

Certainly the animus between the two states goes back to the Civil War, but only in SEC country--where some may believe the war never ended--could you say that the football game dates to before the Civil War.