The Difference Between Class and Trash.

The internet blew up with rumors this week when it was posted on a Kansas fan message board that Missouri fans planned on sporting NMT gear at next Saturday’s border rivalry game. What is NMT you ask? An acronym for No Mom Tom, and a low blow at Kansas forward Thomas Robinson, who lost his mother, grandmother, and grandfather within a month last year.

The rumor stated that the infamous Mizzou spirit group, the Antlers, were in the process of making NMT shirts, posters, and anything else they could get their hands on. In case you don’t know who the Antlers are, here’s a little bit of history.

• The Antlers were formed in 1976, when attendance was low at basketball games. They got their name from a dance from a Saturday Night Live skit.
• The Antlers have a history of doing nasty things, such as starting a “Corey Beck has Syphilis” chant on national television (against Arkansas). A member also dressed up as an OU fan and threw up on former OU coach Eddie Sutton after he stated that the Antlers made him sick. And they tend to make inappropriate jokes some times, as seen here, where one Antler dresses as a “porn star”…

But to make a dig at a player’s late mother? Even that seems a little low for the Antlers. They took to their Twitter page to clear up some of the rumors.

So if not the Antlers, then who? No one is known for being more vile and derogatory in the realm of MU athletics than the Antlers. Unless, maybe…you’re talking about Kansas fans.

Missouri and Kansas have a rivalry dating back to pre- Civil War years, when battles between slave and anti-slave states were violent and frequent. The burning of six Missouri towns led to a raid on Lawrence, Kansas, in which troops murdered 200 people. Kansas University later chose to name their athletics teams the Jayhawks, clearly derived from the term Jayhawkers, or guerilla fighters who battled against Missouri pro-slavery groups. MU and KU have one of the most passionate rivalries still today. More on the history of the Border War can be found here.

Mizzou Nation did some investigating into where the post originated from. Here’s what they had to say:

Here’s the irony- nobody at the University of Missouri even knew of this alleged plan.

“Wait, so what’s going on here?” Tiger fans are obviously upset because they thought they had what many are calling a “douchebag” in their fan base. Kansas fans are upset because of the low-blow the reference takes. ‘T-Rob’ has been through a lot since the tragedies of last year, which all happened within a month of each other. Now, it is just him and his sister.

Back to the irony. Nobody at Mizzou, and apparently nobody in the state of Missouri knew what was going on….until it was posted on a Kansas fan message board. The post originator’s IP (internet protocol) address was traced to the Lawrence, KS area. 

Oh, Kansas. With your loss to Iowa State today, shouldn’t there be more on your mind than trying to start rumors about Mizzou? If I were you, I’d focus more on your basketball team and how you’re going to avoid embarrassment when you show up in Columbia on Saturday. Besides, we’re too classy for that.

Credit: Columbia Missourian, the Maneater, Mizzounation1839.blogspot.com, historynet.com