Missouri Tigers: Worst sports moments for Mizzou fans

WORST MOMENTS FOR MU FANS – NUMBER 6: FLEA KICKER

NOVEMBER 8TH, 1997 VS NEBRASKA

Oh, the “Flea Kicker”. One of the weirdest plays to ever take place in college football.

Perhaps a big reason as to why Missouri fans hate Nebraska even years after the two both left the Big 12 starts (and finishes) with this very play. I’ll set the stage for you in case you burned this memory (no one would blame MU fans for doing so).

In 1997, the Tigers and Cornhuskers were playing against each other in football. Nebraska was 7-0 on the year and were looking to add to their trophy case with another National Championship on their resumé. The Tigers were 6-2 and a very good team, but they had never knocked off a number one ranked team.

Missouri had a great chance of finally beating Nebraska (the first time they’d have done so since 1978), but obviously something crazy happened or we wouldn’t be talking about it here, would we? Well, something REALLY crazy happened.

With the Huskers driving to tie the game and send things into overtime, Nebraska quarterback Scott Frost threw a pass that hit Shevin Wiggins in the chest, bounced off an MU safety’s foot, and as Wiggins was being tackled, he kicked the ball into the air. Nebraska receiver Matt Davison went after it and came down with the football in the end zone.

The play happened very fast so it was tough to really tell how it all went down at the time, but Missouri fans stormed the field because they figured the game was over and their Tigers had won. Instead, the officials did not rule Wiggins’ kick as intentional and gave the Cornhuskers the touchdown.

Once the Tiger fans were cleared off the field, Nebraska tied things up with the extra point and would go on to win in overtime. It was just another typical moment for Missouri sports fans and had this type of play happened today, there’d be about 5,000 replays of it. Unfortunately for Mizzou fans, that wasn’t the case back then and the Tigers would lose the game after being oh so close.

Nebraska would end the season with another National title while Missouri would finish out at 7-5.