For the first time since 2011, the University of Missouri Tigers and the University of Kansas Jayhawks are prepared to square off on the gridiron this weekend.

This will be the first time the rivals have faced off since the Mizzou left the Big 12 conference for the SEC, and it’s the longest the teams have gone without playing football since the rivalry began in 1891.

Rebecca Smith / KBIA

But there's a long and complicated history of violence that predates the games — and even the Civil War.

Jay Sexton, director of Mizzou's Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, has been teaching the history of the Kansas-Missouri border disputes for many years, and is, himself, a proud KU alum.

He said the sports rivalry, which is a sort of continuation of the Missouri-Kansas conflict, is r

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