Historically festooned fanatics heckle Jayhawk faithful

Elliott Jaros and Danny “D-Ray” Rafiner are prepared for war, just not a modern one.

Rafiner wore a gray Civil War uniform with gold trim, a black hat and a gold, plastic sword, while Jaros had a metal military helmet on and “Burn KU” painted on his chest in red. The Missouri-Kansas rivalry used to be called the Border War but was changed to Border Showdown a few years ago to be more politically correct.

“I actually dressed up like this for Halloween, so we were like ‘Lets go crazy for senior day because it’s our senior year,’” Rafiner said.

Rafiner’s outfit is from Gotcha, a costume store in downtown Columbia, and the military helmet is from an Army surplus store.

The two MU students stood on the hill just north of the tunnel that runs under Stadium Boulevard yelling “Quantrill rides again” and “Burn Kansas,” among other things, at Kansas fans walking toward Memorial Stadium.

William Quantrill led a group of 450 guerilla raiders from Missouri into Lawerence, Kan., and killed 183 people and torched much of the city on Aug. 21, 1863. It is now called the Lawrence Massacre.

On a lighter note, the annual football game between the two schools started in 1891.

Though Rafiner and Jaros are from the Kansas side of Kansas City, both are proud Missouri fans.

“We are from Kansas, and we hate Kansas (University),” Rafiner, from Overland Park, Kan., said.

Jaros, who is from Westwood Hills, Kan., has personal reasons for hating the Jayhawks. When he was about 7, Jaros and his dad went to the Border Showdown football game in Kansas and had trouble crossing the street.

“The cop directing traffic was waving people across and me and my dad were in Mizzou colors, obviously, and the cop let the cars go all of a sudden,” Jaros said. “My dad goes ‘Hey,’ and the cop goes, ‘I don’t hold traffic for Mizzou fans.’”

Jaros said that was his first memory of the rivalry, and he has hated Kansas ever since.

OH CANADA: A giant red and white Canadian flag flew above an RV in the southwest parking lot before the game. The green and white monster still had Ontario license plates on it, and Michael and Marie Johnston, the owners of the behemoth, had just moved to Missouri from Canada.

The young couple came to Missouri in the middle of November because Michael’s engineering job transferred him to the state.

“We’ve been to a few (Toronto) Argonauts games back at our old home,” Michael Johnston said. “Everyone’s told us this is the best one in the area to go to, so we thought we’d check things out.”

Dressed in matching new Blackout shirts, the 32-year-olds were getting their first tastes of the rivalry.

Their neighbors told them stories about how the bands didn’t travel to away games in the Border Showdown anymore because fans threw things at them. They read stories in papers about the intensity of the games. People told them reasons to dislike Kansas almost since the day they moved to the state, but it was their firsthand experience that left them feeling as though they were truly a part of the rivalry.

“We had some Kansas fans walk by early on who had seen our flag and thought they’d give us trouble,” Marie Johnston said. “They were mocking us, saying things like, ‘Mizzou fans, eh? Ready to lose, eh? Eh?’ I can see why people don’t like them very much.”

WHAT RETIREMENT?: Down at the south entrance to the stadium, a very spirited man guards the gate.

Decked out in a black Mizzou wrestling pullover, an old tiger paw hat with gold football buttons adorning it, Don Waltman smiles and greets each person who enters Memorial Stadium.

In his 13th season working with the stadium crew, 71-year-old Waltman applied after retiring from his regular job as a store manager at J.C. Penney outside of Sioux City.

“Our son had gone to school here,” he said. “(Columbia) just has the excitement of a college town. We didn’t know too much about it, but it’s a great place.”

In addition to the football games, Waltman ushers men’s basketball games and is an official greeter at volleyball games, wrestling meets and gymnastics tournaments. As if that weren’t enough, he also occasionally does track meets.

“It’s the excitement, that when I retired, I thought I wanted to be a part of it,” he said. “Not just football, but all sports. I enjoy it very much.”

REPLAY QUANDARY: Referee Drew George and replay official John Laurie addressed questions on the reversal of a third-quarter touchdown from Chase Daniel to Jared Perry.

“I kept looking at the screen and it was obvious to me that Missouri had fouled prior to the touchdown, and Rule 12 allows me, on scoring plays, to review scoring plays,” Laurie said. “It was obvious to me that around the 30-yard line was where the black-shirt (Perry) fouled.”

George said that at that point, he realized he had misunderstood the initial penalty, which was on Kansas. After that, the two realized there were offsetting fouls, and there were unnecessary roughness penalties on Perry and on a Kansas defender.

“The perception may have been that replay caused the second foul,” Laurie said. “That was not the case.”