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COLUMBIA, Mo. — On Friday night, Carter Arey formed his plot for the on-field stunt that became a lasting, viral image of Saturday’s Border War football game.

He found out the day before the game that he’d won an Instagram giveaway run by one of the game’s sponsors, which meant he’d have one chance during a timeout to kick a field goal. If he made it, he’d win $25,000.

Arey asked the contest organizers the logical follow-up question: How long would the field goal be?

Forty-five yards, they told him.

“I was like, ‘oh my God — no chance,’� Arey told the Post-Dispatch. “I came back and told my wife: ‘I’m gonna kick it directly at the Kansas bench.�

And that’s exactly what he did.

During a TV timeout, Mizzou brought Arey onto the field for his kick, announcing the contest and the prize money at stake. For a second, it looked like he was going to attempt the field goal. But then he lifted his shirt to reveal three letters – “F KU� — written on his chest, turned around and smacked the ball not at the goalpost but at the Jayhawks assembled on the sideline.

Nobody was harmed in the process, and Arey’s decision earned a roar from the crowd and high-fives aplenty as he walked back up into the stands. Mention and video of the kick on social media have gone viral — his phone has barely stopped buzzing with hundreds of comments and texts, he said.

Though he knew what he was going to do before he even entered Faurot Field for the game, Arey said he wasn’t nervous at all stepping up for his stunt.

“Playing in front of people isn’t a big deal,� he said. “There wasn’t pressure or anything like that.�

That’s because Arey, 35, is something of a world-class athlete himself. He played wheelchair basketball for Mizzou for five seasons, earning All-American honors three times between 2013-15. In 2014, he was named the National Wheelchair Basketball Association’s player of the year. He made Team USA three times, too.

He grew up in Columbia, where he attended Rock Bridge High School before eventually enrolling at MU. When he was 4, he had his right foot amputated because of a condition that gave him a shorter right femur bone than his left.

Now, he’s a vice president at a mortgage company in Columbia and rising rapidly through the ranks in adaptive golf — his new chosen sport, at least until this kicking thing takes off.

Oh, and he greatly dislikes the Kansas Jayhawks.

“I have such disgust and disdain for that state and that team,� Arey said.

He has no regrets over his stunt. He feels a little bad that he had to “dupe� the Mizzou staff who set up the kick so he could pull it off, but also feels like he contributed to the 121st edition of an MU-KU football game.

But mostly, he’s happy that he took his chance to leave a mark on the Border War and show why college football is such a wacky, beloved sport best displayed during rivalry games like Saturday. His motive is simple: He’s spent his whole life cheering for the Missouri Tigers and he’s proud of it.

“I’m just a true son,� Arey said, “doing true son activities.�