If Don Faurot had left for greener pastures in 1951, maybe Mizzou’s playing field would still be named after him. After all, he still made the program’s name far more of a national item than it had been before him. He had still won some conference titles and played in big bowl games. He still ran the athletic department for more than a decade. He still reinvented the game of football with his offensive innovation.
But he would have also been A Guy Who Left. And it came pretty close to happening.
Let’s start with the picture that Bob Broeg painted in his 1970s Mizzou opus, Ol’ Mizzou: A Story of Missouri Football.