COLUMBIA, Mo. — Hand-in-hand with his 7-year-old daughter, Scott Eveler trekked down the grassy berm overlooking Missouri’s north end zone. Sophia sported gameday attire: a bright yellow Tigers shirt and black pants decorated with sparkling stars. The pom bouncing on her Missouri winter hat didn’t quite reach her dad’s shoulders.



Saturday was Sophia’s first trip to Memorial Stadium, and Scott wanted to show her a part of the venue he holds dear, one that ties generations of Missouri fans together.



“Go sit on the rocks so I can take a picture!” Eveler told her.



Sophia obliged, posing on the whitewashed stones shaped in a block M, the logo Missouri wore on its helmets from 1971-2011. She looked tiny as a pebble in front of the 90-foot-wide, 95-foot-long collection of rocks, but she was the center of her dad’s attention.



The landmark came to be in Fall 1927, when freshmen used leftover rocks from Memorial...