She emerged years ago as one of southwest Missouri’s best tennis players, later competed on championship softball teams and, fortunately, never forgot. That is, Jodie Adams never forgot what it truly meant for her, as a child and then a high school and college student-athlete, to learn the valuable lessons that sports so often teaches.… Read more »
News
Sport: Tennis
Tom Adams
He was one of the best tennis players in Missouri State University history, plus grew the game as the tennis teaching pro at a local country club and, later in life, piloted Springfield’s professional tennis franchise for 14 years. For Tom Adams and tennis, however, it wasn’t exactly love at first sight. “My brother had… Read more »
Sallie Beard
In the fall of 1974, two years after the passage of federal Title IX legislation, the door to Sallie Beard’s office swung open, as several women on the Missouri Southern State University campus sought to start a basketball team. Suddenly, the teacher who had a bias against athletics – those were her own words –… Read more »
Bob Belote
In sports, sometimes meeting just the right person can set you on an incredible career path. During his Missouri State University days in Springfield, Bob Belote involved himself in campus recreation and worked part-time for the then-named Springfield Park Board, where he met his future wife, Deana. He also became friends with Jodie Adams, (MSHOF… Read more »
John Bryant
Now in his 44th year at SBU, John Bryant serves as the men’s and women’s varsity tennis coach and an associate professor of mathematics. Bryant served as the director of athletics from 1989 to 1995. From 1967-1986, SBU tennis won 18 NAIA District 16 titles, played in 19 consecutive NAIA national tournaments and won the… Read more »
Earl “Butch” Buchholz
Active in tennis since his youth, Buchholz played in his first tournament at the age of six and won his initial title a year later. He became the first player to win junior titles at the Australian and French Opens, Wimbledon and the U.S. Junior Championships. Ranked number 5 in the world in the early… Read more »
Dwight Davis
Dwight Filley Davis Sr. (July 5, 1879 – November 28, 1945) was an American tennis player and politician. He is best remembered as the founder of the Davis Cup international tennis competition. He was the Assistant Secretary of War from 1923 to 1925 and Secretary of War from 1925 to 1929. Davis reached the All-Comers… Read more »
Dale Eshelbrenner
To understand the lasting impact of Dale Eshelbrenner, just listen to those who played for him – or coached with him – in his days leading the Pembroke Hill School tennis programs. “My favorite memories of Dale were watching him be so strict with the team one day,” said Joshua Bortnick, a 2017 graduate. “I… Read more »
The Farmer Family
Mike Farmer loves telling this story. It’s about his dad, Elliott, the second baseman of the early 1930s Missouri Tigers baseball teams. “I remember being told by friends of his that he never went down swinging,” Mike says with a chuckle. “Hitting a baseball to him was (as easy) as catching a baseball.” In the… Read more »
Joanie French
Every athlete has their favorite memory and, when Joanie French talks about hers, it’s almost too good to be true. In 1974, at age 17, there she was playing shortstop for Big Blue in the Women’s State fastpitch softball tournament against Foremost Dairy, known as Springfield’s best travel squad full of coaches and collegians. With… Read more »
1975 Glendale High School Girls Tennis State Championship Team
In 1974, Linda Sisco was a young physical education instructor at Glendale High School when the principal and athletic director asked her if she would like to coach the girls’ tennis team. She had played tennis herself but had never coached a team. The federal Title IX legislation had passed just two years earlier, allowing… Read more »
William Greenblatt
Back in middle school, he took photos on a Polaroid camera and, during high school, would photograph football games while he stood on the sidelines in his marching band uniform. At age 16, William Greenblatt was working for a St. Louis camera store when Fred Sweets walked in one day. Sweets’ father was the publisher… Read more »
Jim Klousia
Talk about destiny. Because that may be the only way to describe Jim Klousia and the sport of tennis. You see, initially, he turned down a college scholarship to play at Southwest Baptist University before having a change of heart. And then, after graduating and heading out into the real world, the sport just kind… Read more »
Jean Larrick
She arrived at Springfield in 1968 and, after helping the tennis team at Missouri State University to success, realized she didn’t want to put away her racquet for good. Jean Larrick loves to tell this story, just as she loves tennis. In 1980, she was hired by Jodie Adams (MSHOF President’s Award 2017) to be… Read more »
Ben Loeb
Back in the mid-1980s, anybody would have understood had Ben Loeb went off into the business world. After all, a marketing degree and an MBA were already in his back pocket. And yet there he was, on a college campus again and trying to earn a high school teaching certificate. You see, the ultimate goal… Read more »
Dr. E. L. Niedermeyer
Dr. E.L. Niedermayer served as a team physician for Tarkio College for over 30 years. In addition to being part of the MSHOF class of 1983, he was also inducted into the Tarkio College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987. In 1967, the Tarkio City Council voted to rename North City Park to Niedermeyer Memorial… Read more »