This column ran in the Nov. 25, 2006, sports section of the Topeka Capital-Journal, the day of the then-annual Missouri-Kansas game. The Tigers won that game 42-17. This column featured the 1960 game, which was the biggest in the rivalry until 2007’s “Armageddon at Arrowhead,” which Missouri won 36-28 to move up to the nation’s No. 1 ranking.
It’s been more than 46 years – 16,796 days to be exact – since Paul Tompkins watched Kansas stun No. 1 Missouri 23-7 in Columbia, Mo.
But at 83 years old, the Topeka native remembers the Nov. 19, 1960 game as if it happened yesterday.
“It’s one of those experiences you never forget,” said Tompkins, a retired insurance executive. “That memory is still very fresh and clear to me. It was something else.”
That Tompkins attended the game is a sliver of the story. How he got there, who he was with and how he got in, that’s the meaty part.
HAVE WAGON, WILL RIDE
Tompkins didn’t keep his automobiles around for nostalgia. When he bought a sparking Oldsmobile station wagon the week of the Kansas-Missouri game, it was business as usual, time for a new ride for the family.
While others in the neighborhood took notice, one man’s interest ultimately led to the trip of a lifetime. Tompkins’ neighbor was the late Dick Snider, a legend at The Topeka Capital-Journal who served in many capacities over the years at the newspaper, including sports editor and editor.
“Dick Snider saw my station wagon and said he had a deal for me,” Tompkins said. “He said he’d get me in the game if I drove him and some others there. That sounded like a good deal to me.”
The other passengers in Tompkins’ ride were sports writer Curt Mosher, who went on to become the public relations director for the Dallas Cowboys, and the late Don Pierce, former sports information director at The University of Kansas.
THE DAY BEFORE
They piled into Tompkins’ wagon the Friday before the showdown. The driver’s recollection of the three- to four-hour drive?
“I remember Don Pierce and Dick Snider smoking cigars,” he said. “And that car smelled like cigars until I got rid of it a few years later.”
There was no waste of space once the group arrived at its hotel in Columbia. The four men crammed into a single room.
“Snider only got one room, and they brought an extra bed in for us,” said a laughing Tompkins. “Boy, was it tight in there. We had to crawl over one bed to get to the bathroom.”
BEFORE THE GAME
Who knew Ahab would have a hand in this story? Actually, that’s AHAB, which stood for “All Hawkers are Bastards,” an acronym printed on buttons worn by thousands of Missouri fans that day.
“We got on the elevator, which was just packed,” Tompkins said. “And on the way down, this Mizzou fan had one of those AHAB buttons on. A Kansas fan looked at the guy and said, ‘Do you really think I’m a bastard?’ Then he grabs the button and rips it off the guy, and it tore a big hole in the shirt. We almost had a scuffle right there in the elevator.
“You call somebody a bastard, I guess that’s the reaction you can expect.”
GAME TIME
Getting there was easy. Getting in wasn’t. There was no pass waiting for Tompkins. He couldn’t sit in the press box.
“I told Sinder, ‘How am I supposed to get in,” Tompkins said. “And I remember Jack Mitchell (KU’s coach at the time) and Pierce said they’d find a way to get me in.”
The solution?
“They gave me an old camera. It was broken and didn’t have any film,” Tompkins said. “Sinder told me to walk up and down the sideline, and I had a sideline pass as a newspaper photographer.”
Thanks to that broken camera, Tompkins witnessed the rivalry’s biggest game. A Big Eight championship was on the line for both schools. Missouri, ranked No. 1, was a win away from playing for a national championship.
“I really did not expect Kansas to win,” Tompkins said. “But that defense was something else. Missouri couldn’t do a thing.”
The Tigers didn’t pick up a first down until late in the third quarter. By that point, the game was over. The Jayhawks rolled to a 16-point win, and Missouri’s hopes were history.
THE AFTERMATH
Kansas eventually had to forfeit the game because of NCAA violations. Running back Bert Coen was declared ineligible, and the Jayhawks were forced to forfeit two Big Eight wins. Missouri won the conference crown, beat Navy in the Orange Bowl and finished the season “undefeated.”
Almost half a century later, the game sparks debate. The schools list different records in the series – both schools count the game as a win. Tompkins, a Washburn graduate and lifetime Jayhawk fan, still bleeds crimson and blue.
“I’ve got four grandchildren and six great grandchildren,” he said. “All of them are growing up Hawkers.”
As for today’s meeting in Columbia?
“I’ll just say I think the Jayhawks have a great shot, “Tompkins said.
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