Norm Stewart made sure his Missouri team was prepared for everything in his final Border War.
That means everything, all the way down to the winning handshakes.
On Jan. 11, 1999, Kansas came to Columbia and left with a win. The Jayhawks made sure the Tigers felt it, gathering at the center of the Hearnes Center court and celebrating wildly as they waved off Missouri fans headed for the exits.
The reverse game in Lawrence was scheduled for 13 days later.
So Stewart, with a trip to Allen Fieldhouse on the horizon and revenge on the line, prepared a response, and it didn't involve retaliation or reciprocation.
It was geared at winning the games — plural. Basketball and mind.
"We practiced at the Hearnes Center, practicing how we're going to celebrate when we walk off the court and go into the locker room after winning," then-Missouri point guard Brian Grawer told the Columbia Daily Tribune. "He prepped us like, 'you know what, we're going there to win. And when we win, you're going to act like you expected to win.'"
On Saturday, the Tigers will return to Lawrence, Kansas, for the second time since they left the Big 12. No active Mizzou players, since Kaleb Brown is out for the season with an injury, have played in Allen Fieldhouse as a Tiger.
Not a single player on Missouri's roster was born before the Tigers' last win in Lawrence.
It came in January 1999.
It came when Grawer, Stewart and the Tigers walked into the Phog, cleared it out and shook hands with the Kansas team just like they'd practiced.
More than 24 years on, here is the tale from the Tigers' last win in Lawrence:
Missouri didn't just practice handshakes and humility.
No. That's not how you walk into Lawrence and win. The Allen Fieldhouse environment had forced 35 straight conference opponents to leave with a loss.
Jeff Hafer, a starting forward for the Tigers in '99, remembers the evening game and the light creeping through the Phog's windows. It gave him the feeling he was always had in Lawrence, like he was playing in an "old barn arena."
Now couple that with the noise.
"The student section is full, and the moment even before the clock starts for warm ups, when we're out there shooting and warming up on our own, they're out there," Hafer said. "They are engaged and after you. … They get there early and they don't let up on you."
But Stewart had a plan, and it only involved a hair of horseplay.
"We practiced in our upstairs gym at the Hearnes Center," Hafer said, "that's really just four walls and six baskets. And Norm put massive speakers in each corner of the gym, shut all the doors and played the theme to Lone Ranger as loud as he could."
It was to prepare the Tigers for the crowd noise. Hafer said he found the constant loop of the William Tell Overture a bit "unorthodox" at the time.
Now?
The forward said he thinks it prepared the Tigers for what came next …
Grawer remembers walking off the team bus and being greeted by a sea of red, white and blue.
'Greeted' might be a little misleading.
"Phog Allen's an incredible venue. They hate us," Grawer said. "You're walking in, there's a line of people waiting for your bus to yell at you."
That's how it starts. The players still have to go inside.
Hafer recalls the messages from the student section.
The forward was engaged in 1999. The KU student section found out about Hafer's fiancé, and they came equipped with heckles and handmade messages. Then-Missouri freshman Keyon Dooling's father was a florist at the time, Hafer said. They were ready with barbs for that, too.
"They did their research and their homework — at that time with not a whole lot of internet and a lot of media guides," Hafer said. "They would do a lot of research to make sure they were trying to come at us personally."
Presumably, none of the words can go in print, Jeff?
"Correct," Hafer said.
Hafer said the team never stayed in Lawrence, opting instead to sleep overnight in Kansas City and drive to Lawrence the following morning. Aside from "never wanting to spend money in Kansas," a quote Hafer certainly borrowed from his former coach, the Tigers simply couldn't. The KU faithful would make sure they didn't sleep a wink.
The Jayhawks never forgot the forward, either. He took a job as an assistant coach at Pittsburg State two years after picking up a couple of "intentional fouls" for Mizzou in the Border War. The KU student section booed him on and off the court.
Nobody forgets much when it comes to this game.
Stewart certainly hasn't forgotten.
On Thursday morning, two days before Missouri heads to Lawrence again, Stewart, 88, sits front and center while watching his hometown North Shelby girls basketball team compete in the first game of the Norm Stewart Classic on the court named after him at Mizzou Arena. He stops for a couple moments to talk Tigers and Jayhawks.
The coach mentions his record as a coach against Kansas in games in Columbia and Lawrence. It's 31-35. He mentions his record as an MU player in the true home and road Border War games, too. That was 5-1.
Keeping count: 36-36.
"I always say," Stewart says, before swiping his right hand left to right, "we're even."
The 1999 game was his last as a coach against KU.
He leveled the score.
There was 1:36 left in the game. Missouri was up by a single point after leading by nine at the half. Kansas was hunting, doing what Kansas had been doing at Allen Fieldhouse, where they hadn't lost to a conference opponent since 1994 — also at the hands of MU.
Hafer received a pass from Grawer on the wing and began driving, before noticing an open Albert White. But before he could dish it out, the ball was forced out of his hands by Kansas' Nick Bradford.
But when it's your day, it's your day.
The dislodged ball flew straight into White's hands. White sent it right back to Hafer, who had kept moving and was underneath the basket. Hafer converted an open layup to make it 64-61.
The Tigers came up with a defensive stop. The ball ended up in Grawer's hands, and he hung onto it for a while, happy to stall.
Then, the point guard took a risk.
Grawer launched a pass from near halfcourt between all five Kansas players on the court. White was open underneath the basket. Grawer's pass was on the money.
White leaped up, slammed it home with a two-handed dunk and hung around on the rim for a moment, MU now up five with 55 seconds to go.
Nail, meet coffin.
"That's one I think of often," Hafer said, "because I can remember very vividly just how deflating it was for KU's players and even the fans feeling that, knowing, 'Uh oh, that one hurts.'" And, you know, it's Albert White dunking and sitting on the rim and staring at the camera."
Grawer led all scorers with 18 points that day. Hafer tacked on 11. White had 15, which was matched by Dooling.
Kansas called a timeout, but Hafer was already watching the exits jammed with Jayhawks.
With 55 seconds left, the Tigers knew it was over.
Triple-zeros: Missouri 71, Kansas 63.
Grawer caught the eyes of some of his teammates. They'd practiced for this moment, but a part of him still wanted to celebrate. Stewart wanted them to win and take pleasure in victory, but there was a reason behind his preparations.
He didn't want to let the Jayhawks have any satisfaction.
"I think the main reason was, you know, part of when you beat somebody, you want to beat them, but a rival — you don't want to make them feel like you did something you didn't expect to do. And so I think that was pretty big for Norm."
So Grawer did as the Tigers had practiced, and found plenty pleasure anyway.
The players watched the glum faces leaving Allen Fieldhouse.
"That's pretty gratifying when you're on the road," Hafer said.
"I mean," Grawer said, "that's what you live for as a competitor."
As planned, they got into a handshake line and slapped palms with then-KU coach Roy Williams, Jeff Boschee and the rest. That didn't feel bad, either.
And you best believe they let loose in the locker room and on the bus. The words said in celebration in that visiting locker room, Hafer said, also can't go into print.
Stewart followed the team into the locker room and let out a round of "atta boys." It ended up being his last Border War as a coach, as he retired a little more than two months later.
Grawer remembers getting back onto the team bus — the one the Tigers and been jeered off hours earlier — and taking delight in all the solemn faces walking home.
The Tigers haven't seen that sight this century. On Saturday, they'll get a chance, albeit as underdogs to the No. 2-ranked Jayhawks.
Let the last players to accomplish tell you, though …
There ain't much like it.
"There is no better sound in college basketball than silence in Phog Allen Fieldhouse toward the end of the game," Grawer said. "It is the most rewarding sound that you could ever hear as a Mizzou basketball player — to not have to hear the Rock Chalk Jayhawk chant at the end of the game."
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: The last win in Lawrence: Relive Mizzou's 1999 Border War win at Allen Fieldhouse
