Sunflower Showdown to pay for the construction of Allen Fieldhouse, which would seat 17,000. KU opened the facility with a 77–66 victory over Kansas State on March 1, 1955. This period also saw the beginning of the 'Sunflower Doubleheader', with two non-conference teams visiting the state to play KU and K-State at one venue one night, then switching venues and opponents the following evening. This event was held from 1957 to 1968, and featured national powerhouses such as UCLA, Xavier, San Francisco, St. Joseph's, Cal, and Marquette. The basketball rivalry between the two schools continued unabated through the 1960s and 1970s, with
Mississippi State Penitentiary program after December 31, 1894, and finally had to build prisons to accommodate convicted persons. The State of Mississippi began to acquire property to build its first correctional facilities. But, as Douglas Blackmon explores in his book, "Slavery by Another Name", a study of the convict lease system, the South kept a system of convict labor in place until World War II. Generations of black men were trapped in the system. In 1900 the Mississippi State Legislature appropriated US$80,000 for the purchase of the Parchman Plantation, a property in Sunflower County. What is now the prison property was located at