Scores and statistics don’t always tell the story.

While the U.S. Cellular Miner’s Bowl has not been competitive for years, the importance of the game is not lost on the players, coaches and fans. Lions’ head coach Bart Tatum uses the lopsided results from years past to motivate his team.

“I just checked and in 2002 Missouri Southern was 4-0,” he said. “And game five was Pittsburg State University and the score was 50-12 and Pitt won. Our guys understand this, we’re not hiding it from them.

“They know it. They understand what the history of the matchup is.”

The Lions last won this matchup in 1993 and in the years since has lost by an average score of 37-11. If Tatum wants to motivate his team for this game he might want to let them know about “The Rumble in the Jungle,” which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.

On Sept. 25, 1991, Pittsburg State University came to Hughes Stadium ranked in the top 10 and held a 5-1-1 record. Southern entered the contest 6-1 and undefeated in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. The winner would likely be conference champion.

When the players took the field for warm-ups, tempers began to flare. With the scoreboard showing 35 minutes to game time, both squads showed they were ready to rumble. The story in the Oct. 31, 1991, edition of The Chart told the story:

“Both teams were on the field for pre-game stretches when PSU players started waving their arms and arousing their fans. The Gorillas then apparently began to taunt the Lions.

“Southern took exception to the taunting, and the two teams met on the 50-yard-line, where the melee occurred. The mass shoving match then broke into smaller altercations across the field.

The Lions committed 10 turnovers that day and ended up on the wrong end of the 43-21 score. The fallout from the brawl was not over, however.

Lions’ head coach Jon Lantz drew a one-week suspension from the MIAA on Nov. 1 and Gorillas’ head coach Chuck Broyles drew a public reprimand.

A sports column in The Chart called out the MIAA commissioner for doling out different punishments to the two coaches for the same incident. Coach Lantz accepted his fate, but clearly did not agree with the league’s decision.

” It hurts,” Lantz said at the time. “My whole career, I have tried to do things right. I would rather they do it this way, though, than throw kids out because they lost their temper.”

Lantz still lives in Joplin and this week he told The Chart that despite the 1991 incident, the rivalry is a friendly one.

“It’s not really a rivalry if both teams don’t win,” he said. “It’s more for the fans. It has never been an ugly rivalry. Both sidelines share much respect between the coaches and players.”

While Lantz may be employing selective memory in ignoring the 1991 brawl, his point is well-taken considering Tatums pre-game comments this week.

“What we anticipate seeing from Pittsburg is their best game plan,” he said. “Anton Stewert , Carl Roth, Lance Cullen-those guys are premiere football coaches. And their pride is hurt right now, after what happened last week; I guarantee it. And guys like that with with that type of character, passion and tradition are at their best in a situation like this.

“What we anticipate is a fired-up, very well coached defense that gets after it.”

But Tatum’s praise wasn’t reserved for the Gorilla’s defensive coaching staff.

“Coach (Bill) Kroenke is a great technitian,” he said. ” He’s a fiery coach that gets those guys ready to play every week. Tim Beck, Kroenke and (John) Pierce – They’re gonna have that machine ready to roar, I guarantee you.”

If history and the 1991 “rumble” are on Tatum’s mind, he isn’t saying. But he does know he wants to avoid the turnover nightmare the Lions endured 15 years ago. This year’s team has only coughed up the ball once in its three games.

“I don’t know how you put a price tag on that,” he said. “It is why we are 3-0. Hopefully we can go over there and squeeze that football and take care of it again.”

Part of that ball security will likely have to come from a solid ground game, but Tatum insists Southern will keep the Gorillas guessing.

“If everything goes like we want it to, and we take 70 snaps, 35 will be runs and 35 will be pass,” he said.

Tatum said that tweaking the offense before each game is a normal process and preparation for the Miner’s Bowl is no different.

“We always tweak our offense,” he said. “That is just what we do. We are multiple and we try to keep people off-balance. That is our philosophy.”

Tatum said he is looking forward to this game, but indicated he is also looking ahead.

“We’re trying to make progress as a program,” he said. “I am here long-term. I have the long-term interests of this program at heart, but I also feel an enourmous debt of gratitude to our senior class.

“We have some guys in the junior and senior classes who really could have gone the other way. Because we have challenged these guys like thay have never been challenged before.”