1. The main reason anyone really watches Mad Men went to Mizzou.
2. It’s illegal to dry clothes on a line in Columbia, but not to drape them over a fence.
3. University of Missouri was the first university in Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase.
4. And Jefferson’s family liked University of Missouri so much they gave the university his original tombstone. It’s on the east side of the quad.
5. If you’ve ever wondered why University of Missouri-Columbia is called “Mizzou”, no one really knows, but it was used in the student quarterly as early as 1905.
6. Another official story is if you were to say the college’s original initials, MSU, fast enough, it sounded like “Mizzou”. Either way, it’s a great college.
7. Mizzou started the tradition of a homecoming celebration. So everyone else just go home.
8. Mizzou has the biggest bass drum in college football, at a staggering nine feet wide. Only alumni are allowed to handle it.
Source: Youtube user GordonCollegeGA
9. Brad Pitt went to school here. No big deal.
10. Since 1971, the goal posts at Mizzou were torn down in celebration(?) after home games and carried to Harpo’s Bar and Grill. The university installed removable goal posts, but that didn’t stop a mob from tearing them down after the 2010 Oklahoma game.
11. Mizzou’s mascot Truman the Tiger named so? Because of one of the most famous Missourians ever, President Harry S. Truman.
12. It’s illegal to drink in a bar between 2 and 6am in Columbia.
13. How sure were Columbia’s founders that they’d be a great college town? The original plan for the city actually included space for a state university.
14. Columbia actually earned its state university by campaigning harder and raising three times as more money than any other city in the state. You just don’t get those kind of Kickstarter results anymore.
15. Mizzou is the only university to have every sport be ranked Division I.
16. Max Scherzer, one of the great pitchers for the Detroit Tigers and winner of the Cy Young Award, played ball for Mizzou.
17. The Tigers mascot was inspired by the original Fighting Tigers of Columbia, a homegrown militia fighting guerrilla soldiers from Kansas during the Civil War.
18. The defender of the Big Board in Dr. Strangelove and Patton in Patton, George C. Scott is one of Mizzou’s greatest alumni.
19. The Border War between the Tigers and Kansas Jayhawks, which has its roots in the actual conflict between Missouri and Kansas in the Civil War, is the oldest football rivalry this side of the Mississippi—even if it is technically dormant now.
20. The head engineer of the world-s tallest man-made structure, the Burj Khalifa, was Bill Baker, a Mizzou grad.
21. Sheryl Crow’s deepest first cut may have been at her alma mater, Mizzou.
22. Mizzou’s school of journalism was the first of its kind in the US, and the first in the world behind one in France.
23. Jim Lehrer, one of the greatest TV journalists ever, went to school at Missouri.
24. The patron saint of Missouri football, Stan Kroenke (owner of the Rams) is from Columbia.
25. Indie darling of the mid-2000s Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT is from Columbia.
26. Tennessee Williams has to be Mizzou’s most historically esteemed alumni, though.
27. The reach of Mizzou Marcher Barbara McClintock’s research is hard to estimate, but her genetic map of maize and demonstration of telomeres and centromeres rank her as a Great Scientist In History.
28. Antennas are illegal in Columbia, but 25’ satellite dishes are definitely just fine. Try justifying that weird law.
29. Astronaut Linda Godwin, who logged over 38 days in space and now teaches at University of Missouri, was also a student at the university back in the day.
30. The University of Missouri-Columbia is so gorgeous for a reason—it’s a state-designated botanical garden.
31. And Columbia College was once the first women’s college this side of the Mississippi.
32. The Show-Me State Games are the largest state games in the whole country—bringing in about 35,000 athletes in total.
33. ESPN listed these games as one of the 101 Things All Sports Fans Must Experience Before They Die.
34. White Rabbits lived the quintessential college dream: They all met in college (at Mizzou) and then went on to become indie rock stars.
36. The region of Boonslick was named for two denizens of Daniel Boone himself, who started up a saltlick 40 miles northwest of the present-day city.
36. The most lucrative of all the shooting championships, the NRA Bianchi Cup is also hosted in Columbia.
Source: Youtube user NRA BianchiCup
37. Ken Lay of unfortunate Enron fame, was a whippersnapper in Columbia back in the day. Wonder if he ever cheated someone out of their marbles?
38. Joseph Smith brought his Church of Latter-Day Saints through this area to found a Mormon settlement called Far West.
39. Ever stayed at a Hyatt hotel? You can thank Columbia and Jack Crouch for that.
40. Bud and Sam Walton, conquerors of modern American retail, were both born in Columbia, MO.
41. Columbia’s early success as a stagecoach stop along the Oregon Trail ensured its growth into the great city it is today.
What’s your favorite fun fact about Columbia? Tell us in the comments below!
