Happy 10th birthday, Rock M Nation

Ten years ago, I wrote my last post at Mizzou Sanity, the blog I had begun with friends as a way to a) write lengthy screeds about Missouri and b) do so in a format that wasn’t a message board. In the last 10 years...

Mizzou Football enjoyed its best eight years since the 1960s, then fell apart.

Mizzou Basketball rose under Mike Anderson, stumbled, surged in Frank Haith’s first year, found itself in depths unknown since before Norm Stewart was coach ... and then signed the top prospect in the country, hopefully signaling another rise.

We went through MIZZOUEXPANSIONAPALOOZA 2010 and its sequel, MIZZOUEXPANSIONAPALOOZA 2011. The first was more intense and original; the second had a far more satisfying ending.

Mizzou wrapped up a nearly two-decade run by athletic director Mike Alden, then proceeded to hire two new ADs within barely a year.

We lost a couple of really, really good friends. Also made a lot of incredible, new ones.

I got the chance to make a career out of this. The day after my daughter was born.

Missouri’s history has had plenty of extremes, but this has been a particularly extreme 10 years. We’ve had the chance to react to some of the most incredible moments in this school’s history. We’ve also had the chance to react to ... other things.

To everyone who’s followed this site for any portion of the last 10 years, I thank you. Manning a blog means sharing yourself and your own personal ups and downs, even when you don’t really mean to. This community has developed its own personality, cranky, insular, and hopelessly optimistic. We will have happy things to react to again one day, and I look forward to sharing more moments with everybody here. I owe this site my livelihood. That’s a hard debt to repay.

This is a celebration thread. Feel free to share ... whatever you like in comments. Favorite moment of the last 10 years. Favorite post. Favorite picture. Favorite person. If you haven’t posted in a while, stop by and say hi. Stick around a while if you like.

I wish we had more happy things to talk about in the present tense, but in the meantime we can always romanticize the past and maintain hope for the future. Hey, you never know when or things will turn for the best.