Friday, Nov. 22, 1957 University Daily Kansan Page
Upsets Dot Long Football Series
Homecoming Tradition Began In 1922
Missoo Delenda Est!...screamed the headline for the occasion of the first University of Kansas homecoming on November 23. 1912, exactly 35 years to the day before the game Saturday. The headline meant "Missouri must be defeated.
In 1921, George 'Potsy' Clark took over the reins as head football coach at the University and led the Jayhawkers to a 15-9 homecoming victory over the Tigers.
Four years later, one of the biggest upsets in homecoming history took place. A weak but determined Kansas edged the Missouri team, 10 to 7.
Another big upset was in the war year of 1943 when KU defeated Missouri for the first time in nine years. In one of the most thrilling games in the homecoming history, the Tigers, who were favored by five touchdowns, only managed to score six points while the Jayhawkers posted a big seven on the scoreboard for the victory.
A Nebraska lead of 6 to 0 at halftime seemed like a big margin to the 33,000 fans who crowded in for the 1946 homecoming event, but KU rallied for two touchdowns for a 14-6 lead going into the last quarter. It wasn't quite enough though as the Cornhuskers scored once and then kicked a field goal for a 16 to 14 victory.
KU fans saw the all-time thriller among Kansas University Homecoming games in 1947 when the Orange Bowl-bound team paced by all-American Ray Evans defeated the Tigers, 20-1. One of the biggest crowds ever, 40,000, saw the game in Memorial Stadium.
The Kansans won their second straight homecoming victory with a great passing attack that subdued NU, 27 to 7, in the 1948 classic.
It was a different story in 1949 as the Jayhawkers, even with a blistering second half attack, couldn't stop Missouri. The Tigers, with a new attendance record of 40,500 persons watching, out-played KU the entire game and wound up with a 34 to 28 victory.
The 1950 game was nothing less than a scoring circus. Bobby Reynolds and Fran Nagle provided the difference in the 33 to 26 victory for the Cornhuskers.
After losing two straight homecoming games, the team came into the 1951 contest looking for victory. After the first few minutes, it was evident that Missouri was no match for the Kansans who posted a fine 41-28 win. The victory left Kansas with an 8-2 record, their best since 1947.
Nebraska managed a narrow 14-13 victory in the 1952 game and Missouri won the 1953 game, 10-6.
In 1954, the Kansans lost their third straight homecoming game as Nebraska tonnled KU 41 to 20
The festive celebration got a shot in the arm in 1955 as Missouri fell. 13-7.
Last year, the Cornhuskers again put a blight on Kansas' homecoming celebration by edging the Jayhawkers, 26 to 20. It was Nebraska's eleventh victory out of the last thirteen homecoming games between the two schools.
MU-KU Rivalry One Of Longest
In the 65 games between the two teams, both have won 29 with seven ending in a tie. The rivalry was begun in 1891. KU won, 22-8. Since then it has been interrupted only once, in 1918 because of World War I.
The Jayhawkers and Missouri Tigers will battle Saturday in one of the longest and closest football rivalries in the country.
Scores have also been fairly close for the individual games. The largest spread was in 1941 when the Tigers won 45-6. The largest KU victory margin came in 1930, 32-0. In recent years Missouri has dominated the series, winning 7 of the last 10 games.
The teams are almost as close in scoring over the years as they are in wins and losses. Kansas has scored 756 points to Missouri's 748.
League Teams Have Won 6 Bowl Games
With sixteen tries to their record since 1939, Big Six and Big Seven football teams have won six and lost 10 playing in post-season bowl games.
Oklahoma leads with a record of five victories and two defeats.
Colorado played its first bowl game in 1957 against Clemson, winning 27-21.
Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska all have losing records with an 0-5, 0-1 and 0-2 respectively.
The breakdown:
1939—Tennessee, 17, Oklahoma,
0; Orange Bowl.
1940 - Georgia Tech, 21, Missouri,
7; Orange Bowl.
1941-Stanford, 21, Nebraska, 13; Rose Bowl.
1942—Fordham, 2, Missouri, 0:
Sugar Bowl.
1946—Texas, 40, Missouri, 27; Cotton Bowl.
1947 - Oklahoma, 34. North Carolina State, 13. Gator Bowl.
1948 - Georgia Tech, 20, Kansas, 14; Orange Bowl.
1949 - Oklahoma, 14, North Carolina 6; Sugar Bowl. Clemson, 24, Missouri, 23; Gator Bowl.
1950—Oklahoma, 35, LSU, 0; Sugar Bowl. Maryland, 20, Missouri, 7; Gator Bowl.
1951—Kentucky, 13, Oklahoma, 7; Sugar Bowl.
1954 Oklahoma, 7, Maryland, 0; Orange Bowl.
1955—Duke, 34, Nebraska, 7; Orange Bow!
1956 Oklahoma, 20, Maryland, 6; Orange Bowl.
1957—Colorado, 27, Clemson, 21;
Orange Bowl.
Publicity Staff Assists Writers
The KU football press box accommodates 65 persons and keeps sports publicity director Don Pierce busy from mid-summer to the end of the football season, when he jumps into the problem of the Allen Field House press section.
The men who are always in the box are the three who keep team statistics, the four who keep individual statistics, the two who keep track of the scores of other games as they come in over the Western Union wire, the four who work on top of the press box, helping the camera, radio and TV crews, the public address announcer and the two who receive the play-by-play action over phones from sideline spotters.
Coordinating the activity of a press box in the present day is a job that cultivates gray hair.
Sports writers and scouts write to Pierce beginning in the summer for press box reservations at the football games and he has the job of assigning them seats and preparing the areas for radio and TV personnel and game statisticians, announcers and spotters.
According to Pierce, the press box was entirely adequate and the "best in the league" in 1945. Since then, he says, the trend has been toward more complete coverage of sporting events, by newspapers, radio and TV, and the box has become outmoded.
There is space for 11 radio or TV
rews in the box. Few women are
admitted to the press box. This is a
general rule over the nation.
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