Every work day since October 1995, Jerald Andrews’ drive into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame has driven him. Turning east from the Highway 60-65 interchange in southeast in Springfield and then crossing a bridge, there awaits a steep grade before arriving. Call it a metaphor for his tenure, because he always reached the top.… Read more »
News
Year: 2022
Stephanie Bates
Life in small-town Missouri always fit Stephanie Bates like a warm jacket. Growing up in Salem, a community of 4,400 at the time, she developed her love for sports in large part due to her experiences watching her older brother and a host of cousins participate in athletics and from the encouragement of her sports-minded… Read more »
1990 Billings High School State Championship Baseball Team
It was a memorable spring of 1990 for Billings High School, its baseball team and those who called the Christian County community home. The Wildcats enjoyed an unblemished start to their baseball season and stood on the brink of a historic accomplishment heading into the Class 1 state tournament finale at Simmons Field in Columbia.… Read more »
2006 & 2007 Blair Oaks High School Baseball State Championship Teams
Brian Ash had never heard of Blair Oaks High School prior to becoming baseball head coach in 2005. But it didn’t take long for the rest of the Missouri high school baseball community to become familiar with the Falcons. In 2005, Ash began to lay the foundation for success, leading Blair Oaks to a 15-7… Read more »
1974 Boonville High School State Championship Football Team
In May of 1974, long before two-a-day football practices would get under way, folks in the mid-Missouri town of Boonville couldn’t believe their eyes. There they were – business cards, and not just ordinary ones. Instead, the inscription touted the Pirates football team as the Class 3 1974 State Champs. Yes, for a season that… Read more »
Michelle Boyd
College athletics departments are full of unsung heroes. From team managers and equipment room personnel to communications professionals and administrative assistants. But perhaps no individual is more essential – or more often overlooked and underappreciated – than the athletic trainer. Truman State’s Michelle Boyd knows that all too well. For 28 years, Boyd has served… Read more »
Judy Warden Brown
Her skeet shooting career started not because she wanted to compete but because of something far more important. In the early 1960s, a couple of years after her older brother Tommy was lost in an automobile accident, Judy Warden Brown picked up a shotgun and joined her dad. “After Tommy’s death, my dad continued to… Read more »
Bryan Properties
Speak to anyone who runs a successful business, especially in Springfield, and they make one thing clear right away: If you don’t give back to your community, you’re not truly successful. A prime example is Bryan Properties. Not long after it launched in 1985, it began sponsoring a number of sporting events and organizations in… Read more »
Rick Byers
Looking back, anyone would have understandably guessed that he would climb the ladder like any young high school football coach, gain valuable experience and move on. Yet Rick Byers found his calling. In 1987, about a year after walking across the college graduation stage, he came aboard the football coaching and teaching staff at St.… Read more »
Chris Carr
He grew up in the southeast Missouri town of Ironton – population of roughly 1,400 – and, yet one year after graduating high school, there Chris Carr was … playing against none other than the Duke Blue Devils in the NCAA Tournament. That is, the Duke of 1993 whose roster featured seven future NBA players… Read more »
Columbia Orthopaedic Group
The longtime former president of Columbia Orthopaedic Group sometimes sits back and just beams. And why not? Just look how far sports medicine has come since the 1950s. “It used to be a joke in the ’70s and ’80s that sports medicine was a ‘bucket and a sponge at the end of the bench!’” said… Read more »
Danny Cox
His road began in the late 1970s as un-recruited pitcher who tried out on a whim with an Alabama juco called Chattahoochee Valley and, from there, soldiered on – right into his big-league debut in August 1983. Not that it was an ordinary debut. Instead, Danny Cox was matched opposite the great Steve Carlton of… Read more »
Craig Curry
He worked his way up from the bottom, in a Lebanon bank run by his granddad since 1917 and then his dad in the early 1950s. Think Craig Curry kicked back? Hardly. In the 1970s, you could find him sweeping the bank’s floors, bagging coins or hauling transfers up to Jefferson City when he wasn’t… Read more »
2022 Class – Diamond Nine
CLASS of 2022 Dr. Mark Baker — Webb City High School/Missouri Southern State University Charlie Burt — Truman High School/Ban Johnson League/Missouri State University Tim Clubb — Eureka High School/Missouri State University Mary Stratton-Johnson — Hillcrest High School/Slow-Pitch Softball Jordan Logan — North Callaway High School/Jefferson College/Columbia College Renay Ries Spilker — Blue Springs High… Read more »
Julie Dorn
Her name had flown on to the radar of college gymnastics recruiters across the country – Utah State, Penn State, Nebraska, nearby Minnesota – and ultimately she found the one made for her. In fact, Julie Dorn remembers visiting the University of Missouri during a gymnastics competition. “I will never forget walking into the Hearnes… Read more »
1980-1996 Era Eldon High School Volleyball
In the community of Eldon in mid-Missouri, the big box-office draw years ago was over at the high school gym. Walk into the lobby these days, and the history of Eldon Volleyball, particularly 1980 to 1996, takes up most of the real estate. You can’t miss the over-sized picture of the 1991 state championship team… Read more »