Missouri Tigers Football History
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Long before Missouri settled into competing against Nebraska and Oklahoma on an
annual basis, the school's first played football in 1890 against a squad known as the
Picked Team. Since then, Missouri has built its strong football tradition by being one
of the nation's top 30 schools in bowl appearances.
A trip to the Christmas Festival Bowl for a 1924 match up against USC marked the
Tigers first postseason appearance. Mirroring Missouri's "Show Me State" mentality,
the Tigers have shown enough of the right stuff to play in four Orange Bowls, two
Sugar Bowls, one Cotton Bowl. Consecutive Orange bowl appearances followed the
1959 and 1960 seasons, with the latter capping Missouri's best season.
Under the direction of head coach Dan Devine, Missouri captured the nation's top
ranking by rolling through its first nine opponents. However, the Tigers dropped in
the polls after stubbing their toe in the regular season finale against Kansas.
Despite a 21-14 Orange Bowl win over Navy, Missouri could only muster fourth place
in the UPI rankings. Ironically, Missouri later improved its 1960 season to an 11-0
mark after Kansas was forced to forfeit the victory for using an ineligible player.
Before Devine bolted for the NFL's Green Bay Packers in 1971, he became the
second winningest coach at Missouri. His 93 wins in 13 seasons (1958-70) ranks
behind only Don Faurot's 101 victories. Eventually Devine returned to the collegiate
scene and led Notre Dame to a national championship in 1977.
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