Missouri vs. Kansas is called the Border War because the two states were actually at war with each other before either school existed as a football program. The name refers to the guerrilla fighting along the Kansas-Missouri line in the years before and during the Civil War, a period known as Bleeding Kansas, and the football rivalry that started in 1891 inherited both the name and the grudge. The schools officially renamed it the Border Showdown in 2004, but almost nobody outside the athletic departments calls it that. Missouri plays at Kansas on Friday, September 11 at 8 p.m. ET on FOX, the Tigers’ first trip to Lawrence since 2005 (preview on our Missouri vs. Kansas page).
| First game | October 31, 1891, Kansas City |
| Games played | 122 |
| All-time series | Missouri 59-54-9 (Kansas claims 58-55-9) |
| Official name | Border Showdown, since 2004 |
| Trophies | Indian War Drum (1937) and Lamar Hunt Trophy (2007) |
| Hiatus | 2012 to 2024, after Missouri left the Big 12 for the SEC |
| Last meeting | Missouri 42, Kansas 31, September 6, 2025, Columbia |
| Most recent meeting | Missouri 38, Kansas 21, Friday, September 11, 2026, in Lawrence |
Where the Name Comes From
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 let settlers in the new Kansas Territory vote on whether to allow slavery. Missouri was a slave state, and pro-slavery Missourians crossed the border to vote and to fight, while anti-slavery settlers poured into Kansas to do the same. The result was seven years of raids, ambushes and reprisals that the press called Bleeding Kansas. Once the Civil War began, the border became one of its ugliest theaters. Kansas irregulars, the Jayhawkers, raided Missouri farms; Missouri guerrillas, the Bushwhackers, raided Kansas towns. The worst of it came in August 1863, when William Quantrill’s raiders rode into Lawrence, killed roughly 150 men and boys and burned much of the town to the ground.
Both mascots come out of that fight. A Jayhawker was a Kansas free-state fighter before it was a school nickname. The Missouri Tigers take their name from a Columbia home guard militia formed during the war to protect the town from Bushwhacker raids. When the schools met on a football field for the first time on October 31, 1891, in Kansas City, the war had ended only 26 years earlier, and Civil War veterans watched from the sidelines. Nobody had to invent a rivalry. It was already there.
Why It Was Renamed the Border Showdown
In 2004 the two athletic departments agreed to drop the word war from the official branding, out of respect for American troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the series has been marketed as the Border Showdown ever since, with a corporate sponsor attached in recent years. The new name never really took. Players, coaches, fans and most of the media still say Border War, and the two trophies that go with the game predate the change. The Indian War Drum, a traveling trophy commissioned in 1937 by alumni groups on both sides, is the older one; the Lamar Hunt Trophy, named for the Chiefs founder who hosted the game at Arrowhead Stadium, was added in 2007.
The Games That Defined It
1960: the forfeit that still splits the record. Missouri came into the game ranked No. 1 and lost 23-7 in Columbia. Kansas later had to forfeit the win because it used an ineligible player, halfback Bert Coan. Missouri counts the game as a win, Kansas still counts it as a win, and that single game is why the two schools publish different all-time records to this day.
2007: No. 2 vs. No. 3 at Arrowhead. The peak of the modern rivalry. Missouri, ranked second, beat third-ranked Kansas 36-28 on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Kansas City, went to No. 1 in the polls for the first time since 1960 and played Oklahoma for the Big 12 title the next week. Chase Daniel and Todd Reesing were the quarterbacks; it remains the biggest game the series has produced.
2008: Kansas’ last win. The Jayhawks beat Missouri 40-37 at Arrowhead. Nearly 18 years later, that is still the most recent Kansas victory in the series.
2011: the goodbye. Missouri had already announced it was leaving the Big 12 for the SEC. Kansas said it would not continue the series as a non-conference game, so the November 26 meeting at Arrowhead was treated as the last one. Missouri erased a 10-point deficit and won 24-10, then did not play Kansas again for 13 seasons.
Why It Stopped and How It Came Back
Missouri’s move to the SEC in 2012 ended the annual game, and Kansas declined to schedule it out of conference, which Missouri fans took as the Jayhawks running from the rivalry and Kansas fans took as Missouri abandoning it. The hostility carried on anyway, in basketball, in other sports and in chants aimed at Kansas during Missouri games that had nothing to do with Kansas. In 2020 the schools announced a four-game football agreement: Columbia in 2025, Lawrence in 2026, and another home-and-home in 2031 and 2032.
The return on September 6, 2025, delivered. Kansas led 21-6 after a quarter and 31-28 early in the fourth before Missouri scored twice late, Brett Norfleet’s 27-yard touchdown catch putting the Tigers ahead and Jamal Roberts’ 63-yard run sealing a 42-31 win in front of a sold-out Faurot Field. Beau Pribula threw for 334 yards and three touchdowns and Kevin Coleman Jr. caught 10 passes for 126 yards.
Where It Stands Now
Missouri leads the series 58-54-9 by its count, has won four in a row and six of the last seven, and Kansas has not beaten the Tigers since 2008. Friday’s game in Lawrence is the first between the two on the Kansas campus since 2005, when Kansas won 13-3; the five meetings before the hiatus were all played at Arrowhead. Both teams are 1-0. No. 23 Missouri opened with a 54-14 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff behind new quarterback Austin Simmons, who went 17 of 19 for 252 yards and four touchdowns; Kansas beat Long Island 51-6 with Isaiah Marshall throwing for 246 yards and two scores. Kickoff is 8 p.m. ET on FOX, the only Friday college football game on broadcast television this week.
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The Bottom Line
Missouri vs. Kansas is called the Border War because the states fought a real one along their shared border before and during the Civil War, and the 1891 football series simply took the name. It was officially renamed the Border Showdown in 2004, went dormant for 13 years when Missouri joined the SEC, and returned in 2025 with a 42-31 Missouri comeback. Missouri leads 58-54-9 and has won four straight heading into Friday night’s game in Lawrence.