The year 1960 was a good one for Missouri, who—like the Big Eight in general—had spent the 1950s in Oklahoma’s shadow.
Starting unranked, the Tigers opened 8–0, demolished the Sooners in Norman, Okla., lost to Kansas and beat Navy in the Orange Bowl in front of President-Elect John F. Kennedy. Their luck further increased when the Jayhawks, who fielded ineligible halfback Bert Coan against Missouri, were forced to forfeit the Border War.
