The group bounced a basketball to the game to show its support for the team.

“We had two cars,” said Rudy Bess, who participated in the trip. “We would take turns, a half-hour at a time, dribbling a basketball.”

The men would dribble the ball while running between the two cars, and they say the hardest part was the large hills.

“The hills between Alto Pass and Murphysboro I remember being really severe,” said participant John Davis.

When they reached the Mississippi River bridge east of Cape Girardeau, they were given a police escort to the gym.

The Salukis would lose that game but defeated the Indians when it counted – during the NCAA Tournament a month later. That year’s Salukis made it all the way to the national championship game of the College Division before losing in overtime.

Though they watched the game with very sore feet, Davis said he’d like to see a group of Saluki fans duplicate the accomplishment for this year’s meeting between the two schools.

“We were always a rival every year,” Bess said, “and we did our part that year to get up the enthusiasm”

Soon after that game, the paths of the schools split.

When the Salukis’ won the National Invitational Tournament in 1967, the momentum propelled them to join the ranks of the University Division, similar to today’s Division I.

SEMO stayed in the College Division, the equivalent of Division II, and joined Division I in 1991. Shortly thereafter, the series was renewed in earnest.

This is the 10th edition of the renewed series with SIU’s oldest rival as the Salukis and Indians have played each other every winter since 1993.

The rivalry originally began in 1914 with a “high-scoring” 11-7 Saluki win. But you can be sure that getting to the game was nearly as eventful as the game itself.

Fred Huff, SIU’s sports information director from 1960 to 2001, researched many of the early years of the rivalry and said that the players sometimes had to board three different trains to reach Cape Girardeau.

Crossing the river in those days before the bridge was constructed was also quite an event.

“They got on the banks of the Mississippi where they boarded skiffs,” Huff said.

One of the skiffs, or small boats, sunk, but the players on it were able to reach shore safely. One player refused to get back on the skiff after the scare.

It was so hard to get to Cape Girardeau during the 1920s, that the teams would play two games each trip and four games a year.

But these days the players are more concerned with the game than the transportation.

The Salukis have won eight of the nine games played between the two schools since the series renewal, and the Salukis only lead the overall series 64-44.

There have been some great games during the long history of the rivalry as well.

In 1939, the Indians beat the Salukis by one point in double overtime on SIU’s home floor.

Since the Indians joined the Division I ranks, SIU has dominated the series, but there have still been some close contests.

On Dec. 15, 1994, an unheralded SEMO squad would give SIU a scare in Cape Girardeau, but Chris Carr saved the day for the maroon and white.

It was a seesaw affair in which SEMO held an 11-point first half lead, and SIU jumped to several eight-point leads in the second half, but the game would not be decided until the waning seconds.

After SEMO center Jermall Morgan’s 3-pointer with 18 seconds remaining tied the game, Carr’s 15-footer rolled in at the buzzer, delivering a 74-72 win for SIU and giving the junior from Pilot Knob, Mo., 32 points on the night.

SEMO finished with a losing record that year while SIU advanced to the NCAA tournament.

Assistant coach Shane Hawkins was a freshman guard during that game. He said he expects a tough game every time the Salukis travel to SEMO.

“Anytime you go to SEMO it’s their big game, especially when you have them at their place,” Hawkins said. “They kind of look up at our program. [SEMO’s] a place where you have to play very hard on the road.”

And though the Indians come in sporting a .500 record, SIU head coach Bruce Weber knows SEMO will not hand the Salukis a win.

“A game like this, you kind of throw out the records,” Weber said.

He knows this first hand, as his Salukis fell at SEMO in 2000.

“Two years ago we went down there, and they played one of the best games of their year,” Weber said.

The Indians’ performance against the Salukis may be partly due to the SEMO fans, which consider a win over SIU is a big accomplishment.

The victory two years ago is still being used on radio advertisements to sell SEMO basketball tickets.

“It’s a big win for those guys,” Watson said. “Coming from Division II to Division I probably has more to do with it than anything.”

You can be sure the Indians and their fans will be gunning for the Salukis Saturday night at the Show Me Center after SIU’s Sweet 16 season.

“Their fans … are sick of hearing about SIU,” Weber said.

But representatives of the two schools can agree on one thing:that the two schools should square off every year.

“There’s absolutely no reason why SIU shouldn’t be competing with them in all sports,” Huff said.

SEMO sports information director Ron Hines said, “It’s a game where both communities can become involved. It just makes sense. I think it’s a natural.”

Reporter Ethan Erickson can be reached at [email protected]