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The unlikely heroes By J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH Jason Horton is always the hero against Kansas. Never any other Big 12 team. Always KU. Sometimes, it goes like this: Missouri down by one. Four seconds left. Horton at the top of the key. He penetrates. He pulls up for the runner! Good! Missouri beats Kansas! Other times, it goes like this: Missouri down by two. Seven seconds left. Horton receives the outlet pass. The Tigers have numbers. Horton decides to take it himself! He elevates for three! Good! Missouri beats Kansas! There are many ways to get it done, and Horton has gone through just about all of them. “Even when I was in high school and decided to come here, I knew how big the rivalry was,” says Horton, a junior guard for MU. “I’ve re-enacted it in my head a hundred times. I’ve visualized it, so that when I make it, I won’t be surprised.” Horton making the game-winning shot against Kansas today at Mizzou Arena would be highly unlikely. He averages 4.4 points per game and played only 12 minutes in the Tigers’ last game. But that’s the thing about the Border War — heroics can come from surprising places. In this rivalry, you’ve never had to be a McDonald’s All-American or a future NBA talent to be remembered. Today, every player on the Kansas and Missouri benches could be the Big Man On Campus forever with just one lucky bounce. “You’ve got to make the shot,” says Kansas freshman reserve Brady Morningstar. “If you do hit it, you can be known the rest of your career as the guy who made that shot. You can make a name for yourself.” Just look at former Missouri forward Corey Tate. He averaged 8.8 points per game before hitting the game-winner in double overtime back in 1997, sending the Hearnes Center into a frenzy. He has some advice for the current Corey Tates in this rivalry. “More than anything, don’t expect it,” Tate says. “I did not expect it. I couldn’t tell you it was coming before it happened. But when your opportunity knocks, be ready to open the door. You don’t know how it’s going to come. You might get a steal, you might get the rebound to close the game out. Just be ready.” Jan. 11, 1969 Theo Franks was ready. His assignment that night against a top-10 Kansas team was to lock up All-American Jo Jo White. Franks, a junior, did a bang-up job, and somehow, the supremely talented Jayhawks led only 46-45 with about 3 minutes to go. This was before the shot-clock era. So Missouri coach Norm Stewart, in his second year, told the Tigers to play keep-away from Kansas and take the last shot. “We were going to lose by one or win by one,” Stewart says. Missouri miraculously made 98 passes without turning it over, and Stewart called a timeout with about 10 seconds left. The play was called for Missouri guard Dave Pike to drive and create a shot for himself or a teammate. Turned out, that teammate was Franks, known more for his defense than his offense. Franks elevated from about 18 feet, and the ball hit the right edge of the rim and went in. Missouri won 47-46, and the crowd at old Brewer Fieldhouse carried Franks off the court. “That was the highlight of my college career, by far,” says Franks, retired and living in Palm Springs, Calif., where he plays golf with Stewart. “If you want your career to be remembered, do something really positive against KU. Believe me, it will change your basketball career.” Jan. 22, 1985 Tad Boyle was ready. The senior guard had been playing about 10 minutes a game previously, but there he was, on the floor at Allen Fieldhouse with Kansas leading 69-68 and 12 seconds left. Kansas center Greg Dreiling missed a free throw, and Missouri grabbed the rebound. Tigers guard Bill Roundtree moved the ball up the floor and tried to pass the ball to fellow guard Jeff Strong. That’s when Boyle, on the floor only because Missouri went to a smaller lineup, made his move. Boyle anticipated the pass and snared it with 7 seconds remaining. Kansas went on and won 70-68. “If you would have asked someone before the game if I would make that play,” Boyle said that night, “they would have told you you were crazy.” Boyle, now in his first year as head basketball coach at Northern Colorado, echoed those sentiments 22 years later. “It wasn’t my speed or athleticism that came up with that steal,” Boyle says. “The guy must not have seen me.” Needless to say, walking around campus as Tad Boyle was a bit different after that. Jan. 9, 1988 Scooter Barry was ready. When Missouri arrived at Allen Fieldhouse his junior year, Barry was not playing much. But he was on the floor at the end of the game because Kansas was ahead and needed to get the ball in the hands of a top free-throw shooter. Up 76-74, Barry received the inbounds pass and was fouled by Missouri guard Lee Coward with 6 seconds left. Coward gave Barry the “choke” sign as Barry walked to the line with a chance to ice the game. For the first time in his career, all eyes were on him. “I can remember that when I shot the free throws,” Barry says, “I couldn’t feel my arms anymore.” Barry sank both free throws, and Kansas won 78-74, keeping its 54-game home winning streak alive. The Jayhawks went on to win the national championship that year, and Barry became the team’s sixth man. “I used to joke around and say I’d make the all warm-up squad,” Barry says. “I’d do reverse dunks and 360s in warm-ups to show I could do something. When I finally did get to play and produced in that game, I was taken more seriously as a player.” Since graduating in ’89, Barry has played overseas. He’s now living in Germany, making the transition to coaching. He’s so disconnected from things here that he thought Quin Snyder was still Missouri’s coach and today’s game would be played at Hearnes. Feb. 4, 1997 Corey Tate, of course, was ready. Kansas came to Hearnes with a record of 22-0 and ranked No. 1 in the country. Yet, Missouri took Kansas to double-overtime, and with only seconds left, the Tigers had the ball with a chance to win. Stewart drew up a play that had nothing to do with Tate. But the play went haywire and the ball ended up in Tate’s hands with 7 seconds to play. Tate knew the situation and fired up a shot from 16 feet away. He nailed it with 5.6 seconds left, and Missouri held on and won 96-94 in one of the most shocking upsets of the rivalry. Nobody was more shocked than Stewart. “I don’t think he even knew I was on the floor,” says Tate, now basketball coach at Mineral Area Junior College in Park Hills, Mo. “Coach Stewart didn’t know my name until I hit that shot.” Now, Tate gets to watch the replay of his shot almost every time MU and KU play. Luckily, Mineral Area’s schedule has worked out so that Tate can watch in person today. He says he should be able to scrounge up a ticket in Columbia. “You would think,” he said, laughing. Feb, 10, 2007 So, will today be the day? And, more important, who’s next? It could be anybody, from Horton to Morningstar to Missouri freshman J.T. Tiller to Kansas junior Jeremy Case. You just never know in this rivalry. Kansas coach Bill Self said that Case and Morningstar — two rarely used guards — could play if Missouri goes to a small lineup. Coincidentally, that’s the same way Tad Boyle got on the court back in ’85. Thing is, you don’t have to make a game-winner, steal the ball or ice the game at the line to be remembered. Former Missouri center Charlie Henke knows that all too well. Henke was involved in starting one of the biggest on-court brawls in Border War history back in 1961. Henke fouled future NBA player Wayne Hightower hard two plays in a row, and Hightower punched him. Then, Henke connected in a fierce rebuttal. The benches and the stands cleared as a fight broke out for more than five minutes. Henke was thrown out of the game, and Missouri went on and won 79-76. Today, living in Concordia, Mo., Henke is a different kind of hero. He says nobody asks him about averaging 24 points per game that year. They ask him about the punch. “I get asked about it quite often,” Henke says. “I
hope I’m known for something a little more than the fight,
but most any Missouri and Kansas fan remembers it.”
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J. Brady McCollough - jbrady@coveringsports.com (email) - 816-868-2621 (cell) |
