BORDER WAR

The Kansas Jayhawks meet the Missouri Tigers at Arrowhead in Kansas City tomorrow. It is described as border warfare. Border warfare began on the issue of slavery under the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed voters of those territories to decide whether they would enter the Union as free or slave states. Pro-slavery and abolitionist forces descended on Kansas, with both sides forming guerrila groups to defend themselves and torment each other. The term "jayhawker" became vile to Missourians. The term was taken from a combination of blue jay and sparrow hawk. The name became sympbolic of patriots who worked to make the state slave-free. The term tiger was selected as the Missouri team's mascot--named in honor of an armed guard stationed in Columbia that protected the town against plundering guerrila bands. The biggest blow by the pro-slavery forces was struck by Quantrill, from Missouri and his Bushwhackers , sacking the town of Lawrence in 1863. The town was essentially burned down and some 183 citizens were pulled from their homes and shot like animals in the street. Two days later John Brown of Osawatomie, KS led an expedition to another area where his men brutally murdered five proslavery settlers. Although this was in Kansas, he also made raids in Missouri, a pro-slavery state, killing and freeing slaves. During the ensuing civil war, some of the most barbaric and merciless fighting in American history occurred in Eastern Kansas And Western Missouri. Although the fighting was not just Missourians fighting Kansans, the theme of violence along the border has persisted, resulting in this intense rivalry between the universities of Kansas and Missouri.