Quantrill-themed T-shirt stirs bitter emotion

By George Diepenbrock     Nov 14, 2007

A photo of a yellow-and-black T-shirt has disgusted some Kansas University fans.

The shirt displays a picture of Lawrence burning in William Quantrill’s Raid of 1863. Below the picture is the word “Scoreboard” and a University of Missouri logo.

“They burned the town. It’s related to slavery and anti-slavery stuff around this town, and that’s just not something I would really want attached to sports,” said Emily Baucom, a KU senior from Lawrence.

Another KU senior said while KU fans have worn “Muck Fizzou” shirts, the “Scoreboard” shirt goes too far.

“(Muck Fizzou is) just more of a vulgar comment than a history of violent act. It’s just something completely different,” said Cory Abbott, a KU senior from Leavenworth.

The “Scoreboard” shirt comes ahead of the Nov. 24 football game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., where the No. 3 Jayhawks will play the No. 5 Tigers. The winner likely will play in the Big 12 Championship game Dec. 1 in San Antonio.

An outside user posted a photo of the T-shirt on the message board Web site Tigerboard.com, and other blogs picked it up. The Web site is not affiliated with the University of Missouri and is owned by Nick Witthaus, a Missouri alumnus. Witthaus said he had not seen any actual T-shirts.

“I couldn’t see a majority of Mizzou fans buying a shirt like that. We’ve got people with bad taste, too, but there’s a line most of us even won’t cross,” Witthaus said.

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