Ramblings: The Players and Moments That Made Me A Mizzou Fan

Hey! I guess this is my first official post on Zoulogy. My name is Jack Nowland, I am a Sophomore at the University of Missouri and I am excited to be able to share my thoughts on my favorite teams with everyone.

From the minute that I was born, I was going to love sports. You see, I was born in Kansas City at St. Lukes Hospital in the same room as the son of Royals legend George Brett. After this occurrence of coincidence with the sports gods, I have been obsessed with Kansas City and Mizzou athletics. So, that got me wondering. What made me love sports this much?

My earliest memories of Mizzou athletics is hearing stories from my Dad about the Norm Stewart era and what he saw on one faithful night in 1997. What happened was that my Mom and Dad were standing behind the fence on the hill of Farout Field during the infamous Flea Kicker play. He says that they were getting ready to jump the fence to rush the field when he saw the ball fly into the air and then the Nebraska section going crazy.

My first memory of attending a game happened to be the “Fire Code” game. Where a then ranked Number 2 Tigers team lead by Kareem Rush faced off against a very talented Iowa team, in front of an above capacity crowd of 14,500 (announced capacity is 13,611). A common theme in the Missouri fans life is being disappointed or let down in one way or another. This night was no different, the Tiger shooting was abysmal (33% from the field, 17% from three) and the Hawkeyes took advantage, upsetting a shocked crowd 83-65. Although I remember exactly zero of the game, I still remember that night as the beginning of something awesome.

At this point in my fanhood, I am only sure of a couple of things, that I like Missouri and that I hate Kansas. I really wasn’t sure why, I am pretty sure that my Dad did some sort of brainwashing ritual or something when I was a baby but I am damn sure that I am thankful for it.

The next football season, things started to turn around. Gary Pinkel started a Freshman Quarterback named Brad Smith, he is the player that most people would agree changed the culture of Mizzou Football, also he is my favorite player in the history of the athletic program. I only got to watch him in person once, it was in late 2002 against Troy State. Mr. Smith went for 213 yards through the air and 137 yards on the ground before being taken out part way through the 4th quarter. I remember his touchdown run in that game, it was a 3rd or 4th in short and he dives in the pile and then after losing sight of him for a second all of a sudden one guy exits the pile and sprints towards the end zone it was incredible.

If you don’t mind me quoting some of my previous writing,

"Let me take you back to October 11th, 2003. This is when the program jumped the first hurdle towards becoming legitimate. In the first time in 24 years, we beat the University of Nebraska. I credit that night as the night the momentum started. Then we beat them in 2005, then 2007, then 2008. The thing is part of the game of football is completely mental, before 2003 we didn’t think we belonged on the same field as Nebraska."

As hinted at in this this excerpt, Brad Smith is the reason Missouri has one of the most successful football programs over the past 5 years. He brought the program forward several years, and the fact that he will never get his number retired is a complete joke (I will save that for a different post). Anyway, I know I wouldn’t have been as much of a fan of Mizzou with out Brad Smith and that is a fact.

That set the foundation for my fan hood, but what took it to the next level was the years 2007 and 2008. If you are reading this I assume you know what I am about to dive into, the best two years in the history of the Missouri athletic program. With names like Chase Daniel, Jeremy Maclin, Martin Rucker, Pig Brown, William Moore, Demarre Carroll, JT Tiller, and Zaire Taylor…Oh God it was exciting.

For some reason, I don’t even know what to say about that football season, it was one hell of a roller coaster. I remember being in Manhattan and hearing the K-State student section chanting “BEAT KU” as the game was ending the week before the massive showdown in Kansas City, which still gives me chills. Then being at College Gameday in the parking lot of Arrowhead was amazing, and knocking of the Jayhawks on national television on the biggest stage in either teams history cannot be described.

I know Matt covered the 2008 basketball run very well in his first post, but I am pretty sure that the season that the basketball team put together lead me to become a student at Mizzou, and it also made me realize that Missouri Basketball is my favorite team in any sport.

Even though I lost a lot of my interest in the program through the Clemons/Snyder fiasco. I remember finding my way back, it happened when I made it down to Columbia for a game against SIU-Edwardsville. I knew it would be a blowout, but it was the first game back from a suffering a beating against Illinois. It all clicked when I saw the intro video for the 2008 team.

The battle cry at the beginning by Demarre Carroll is so cheesy and epic all at the same time. I remember watching that youtube video before every game to get myself fired up.

Now, once I got to Columbia for school last year. I had a few moments that made me glad that I chose to be able to go to every game during the season. The Moe Miracle, the OU game and everything that came with that, going to KC to watch the Georgetown game at Sprint Center, watching Bowers dunk on peoples heads, and seeing Marcus Denmon get a clutch steal and layup to knock off Vanderbilt in overtime. I would say it was a good year.

So, that is just an overview on how I got to this point. I am sure that I will be able to share some more of my favorite moments with everybody when the time comes around.

MIZ-ZOU!