He might have played pro baseball if not for a car wreck in his early 20s, and who knows where his journey would have taken him.
Fortunately, the baseball gods had a great plan for Howard Bell as a high school baseball coach.
“He was a kid magnet,” said Mark Stratton, the longtime Glendale High School baseball coach who later coach Drury University. “It was never about Howard.”
Bell certainly positively influenced thousands of teenagers through the game – and won a lot, too – and that’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is proud to induct Bell posthumously with the Class of 2018.
The honor will come during the annual Baseball Luncheon presented by the Ozarks Coca-Cola/Dr Pepper Bottling Company, set for 11 a.m. Thursday, May 24 at the University Plaza Hotel & Convention Center in Springfield. (For tickets, call 417-889-3100 & see below.)
A former standout for Parkview High School and then Missouri State University, Bell coached 28 seasons at Springfield’s Glendale High School and its American Legion program, earning well north of 800 combined victories. In fact, he was promoted to Glendale’s head coach in 2006 and ran the club through 2012, compiling an 87-69 record and winning four Ozark Conference championships.
However, that is only scratching the surface. Bell was not defined by wins or losses but by the grace with which he encouraged teens, whether they were athletes or not.
And all of southwest Missouri witnessed his inspiring touch in 2012 as Bell publicly fought Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He passed away in March 2013 at age 48, but only after … dropping by school every day to visit with students during lunch, attending his team’s practices and games and smiling almost all the time.
It was Vintage Bell, who along with his wife, Kim, had walked through Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis for a medical visit and happened to see terminally ill children.
“We’re seeing 3- and 4-year-old kids that are bald, have one leg or one arm,” Bell told Matt Schoch of the Springfield News-Leader in spring 2012. “Kim and I, almost at the exact same time, said to each other that we’re never feeling sorry for ourselves again. Look at these little kids, they don’t stand a chance in life. … Since then, life has been very good. I don’t worry about it.”
It’s probably no wonder then that a crowd of almost 4,000 turned out in September 2012 for “Battle for Bell,” a fundraiser for the Bell family and exhibition baseball game between Missouri State University and Drury University.
As MSU coach Keith Guttin, his former coach, would later tell KOLR 10 TV, “In his illness, he set a great example of courage. That’s how people are going to remember the last couple of years. He was a great player for us. He was a very good coach at Glendale. He was a wonderful influence in the community. I think the money was secondary. It was more of a tribute to him.”
“When you get 4,000 people that are essentially your friends who come out to see you while you’re alive,” Guttin said, “that’s a pretty good statement.”
He had worked himself into a tremendous player at Parkview High School and then was a standout for Missouri State from 1984 to 1986, becoming the 1986 Mid-Continent Conference Player of the Year.
Ultimately, Bell found his calling as a coach after the car accident.
“At that time, he only measured himself by baseball,” Kim said. “Even though that’s who he became, he realized there was more to him than that. His worth wasn’t measured by his batting average.”
Said Stratton, “No. 1, it was always about the kids. No. 2, Howard knew every kid could improve.”
Stratton hired Bell as an assistant, and the two had a successful program because they played the roles of “Bad Cop, Good Cop” so well.
What Stratton saw, especially, was an assistant who truly grew into the job, even as a physical education teacher at Glendale.
“The more Howard taught in high school, the more confident he got,” Stratton said, pointing out that Bell would speak with any teen in the hallways and especially made himself available at lunchtime.
“Now, Howard was a confident guy. He was a baseball player, after all. But he didn’t rub it in anyone’s face,” Stratton added. “And he loved the kids, and the kids loved him.”
In fact, one of Bell’s players told Schoch, the prep writer at the time for the local paper, just that.
“He has that ability to affect kids that don’t want to be at Glendale High School, and he gets them on the right track,” then-senior outfielder Elliot Carlew was quoted as saying in 2012. “Even kids who aren’t passionate about school care about Coach Bell. That’s a testament to how he affects people.”
………………………………………..
When: 11 a.m. Thursday, May 24
Where: University Plaza Hotel & Convention Center
Inductees: St. Louis Cardinals Rick Ankiel, the St. Louis Browns Baseball Club, late Glendale High School coach Howard Bell, longtime Centralia High School softball coach Jill Angell as well as Ozark High School baseball coach Mike Essick, the Ozark High School Baseball Program.
President’s Award: John Cyrus of Mount Vernon
Diamond 9 honorees: Clint Anderson (Willard High School, Crowder College & Charleston Southern University baseball), Nolan Fogle (Plato High School baseball & USSSA/ASA/NSA softball), Tina Ruble Helm (Lebanon High School & Southwest Baptist University softball), Jamie Holmes (Republic High School, Crowder College & Columbia College softball), Greg Lindstrom (Glendale High School & University of Missouri baseball), Jarrod Mays (El Dorado Springs High School, Missouri State University, Team USA & Cleveland Indians baseball), Raeven Replogle (Webb City High School & Missouri State University softball), Carlie Rose (Nixa High School, University of Missouri & University of Central Missouri softball) and Blake Wixson (Hillcrest High School & Drury University baseball).
Tables & Tickets: Sponsorship tables of eight are $400 and include an autographed print and recognition in the printed program. A head table ticket is $100, and an individual ticket is $40 in advance, or $50 at the door. Call 417-889-3100.
