Dang a Mizzou program? I'll take it! Wait, how much? 50 cents? I'LL TAKE IT! This wasn't the only one either, but let's not jump ahead too much.
I like how this Spring Game program looked. I am a fan of when they did the spiral pages but this one stands out because the made the players appear on football cards, that's pretty cool. In fact maybe I'll try to replicate these at one point especially for this group of guys. In 2005 I wasn't really into the team that much, but a lot of names stand out. Not a bad team, but not much inside to really show off.
I also found the 2006 Spring Program too. The Spring game programs I would imagine would be tougher to find so this was pretty nice to find. Again, not a lot on the inside to show, but a couple things to show.
Gary Pinkel was always criticized for not recruiting 4 and 5 star talent. They always said at best he recruited 2 start talent and if lucky, some 3 star talent. If that's the case, Mizzou would have been unstoppable if he was able to sign 4 and 5 start talent. Or, we could eventually recruit a guy like Dorial Green Beckham and watch his talent go to pot (in more ways than one).
Anyways, look at this list of 2 and some 3 star talent. Danario Alexander, Tim Barnes, Jeremy Maclin, Kevin Rutland, Sean Weatherspoon... all played in the NFL. Pig Brown, Del Howard, Castine Bridges, all guys that I think could have made it in the NFL. This was an amazing class. Obviously Jeremy Maclin was the biggest, but Spoon and Danario made many Mizzou fans happy during their time in Columbia.
In addition, I found something else inside this book, which wasn't part of the book.
These are given out as you enter so you know who's playing and how they score the game. They usually change the scoring rules each year, so its good to get a heads up. I think my first Spring game was 2009, and I always had a blast.
One more Spring game program, this one from 2007. By this time they had started to achieve some success as evidenced by the cover. Not the best cover, but still a good one.
Let's move on to a nice program, this also from 2007. While not on the same level as the rivalry with Kansas, the Illinois rivalry is just as big as it gave a good Big 12 vs. Big 10 matchup. The rivalry on the gridiron faded away but the basketball rivalry continues on even if it has gone the Illini's way more recently.
Nothing else is too different than a normal program, but I'm always amused at this little insert.
I don't know how many people actually read through the program before the game, but I actually do. Its very helpful especially if your not all up on the team. When I sold programs I usually spent the time before the gates opened studying what was inside, who they profiled, and such and think I had better sales because of it. I even sold programs to some of the parents of the players profiled, it was always fun to do. Maybe one day I'll sell programs again.
I also found a media guide from 2002 as well. I was amazed this was also 50 cents. In total all these Mizzou books cost 50 cents a piece.
Every time I find one of these programs I look to see if Atiyyah Ellison is in it, but then I begin to wonder why I haven't tried to get his autograph yet, he lives a town or two over and he's good friends with a friend of mine so it should be easy, but I've never done it. I did run into him once, but didn't talk to him. I like the layout of this media guide though.
I like how they had this biography on Don Faurot as well. I think it is great to know the history of the program and putting this in the media guide was a good idea.
Besides football, I also got a few basketball guides too. Though to be honest I think I already had them. However when you see a stack of Mizzou books at a bargain, you might as well buy them all. I really liked this cover aside from the holographic design in the middle.
Granted, the back does look a little plain, but I still think it looks much better. This is probably my favorite cover from all the basketball ones.
I included this to show what all Mizzou has done with renovations for a decade starting about 20 years ago. It seems they are always renovating and building something with sports at Mizzou. Currently they are building a stadium for softball and have plans for 100 million in renovations to Faurot Field. I'm not against it as like as they have donors covering it, but there are a lot of other renovations needed elsewhere on the campus too that sometimes get overlooked. Their main focus outside of sports is housing.
So that wraps it up for now, but there is plenty more to show and I'll show that on another day. Thank you for reading, and if you are like me and have major weather issues this weekend, be safe. All I hope is around here I don't lose power, I think I can handle it though. Have a great weekend.
Good stuff. Thanks for the post.
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