Inductees

It’s the stuff of storybooks. As a teenager, he played high school football at Columbia Hickman. In his 60s, he became a National Football League scout, assisting in the Kansas City Chiefs’ turnaround.

And, in between, Randy Ball lived a dream as a football coach and enjoyed incredible success in colleges. Put it this way, he ranks third all-time in coaching victories (98) in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, considered the Southeastern Conference of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS and previously I-AA).

Thus, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is proud to induct Ball with the Class of 2016.

“The whole thing is to be sincere and honest with the kids,” Ball said, explaining his secret to success one day while in his Arrowhead Stadium office in Kansas City. “Say you bring a kid in and you get him graduated – and everything you told him was the truth – then you have a friend forever. And the best thing is they try to go back and change the environment where they came from.”

A 1969 graduate of Columbia Hickman and a 1973 graduate of Truman State University, Ball made his mark at Western Illinois University from 1990 to 1998.

He led the Leathernecks to a 64-41-1 record (.608 winning percentage), with the team becoming the FCS’ winningest from 1996 to 1998.

Under Ball, the Fighting Leathernecks won their first I-AA postseason victory (1997), enjoyed their first 11-win season (1997) and reached their first national semifinals. He was also part of three Gateway Conference Championships, now the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The first was in 1988 as an assistant and the next two were in 1997 and 1998.

Ball was the 1997 Eddie Robinson Award finalist for the National Coach of the Year in addition to being named the Bruce Craddock Award recipient and Gateway Conference Coach of the Year. After leading the Leathernecks to their second outright conference title in school history in 1998, Ball was named the American Football Coaches Association Regional Coach of the Year. Led by James Milton, the winner of Buck Buchanan Award for the nation’s top linebacker, the 1998 team led the nation in holding opponents to only 9.4 points per game. In the early 2000s, Ball became the winningest coach in the MVFC while at Missouri State University.

Among college players under Ball – and who later played in the NFL – were Don Beebe, Bryan Cox, Rodney Harrison, Mike Scifres and Missouri State’s Brad St. Louis.

In recruiting, Ball emphasized to families that academics would be priority No. 1 and tradition would follow. That’s what happened at Western Illinois.

Ball ascended to head coach in 1990, after serving as an assistant coach there for seven seasons. The door opened after the program’s longtime coach and Vietnam War veteran, Bruce Craddock, stepped aside to battle cancer. Ball was the interim coach in 1989 and was promoted to head coach after Craddock passed away.

“It was balancing act keeping the kids going in a positive direction and helping him get through it as much as I could,” Ball said.

Ball met with the athletic director after his first season, a 3-8 campaign. “I said, ‘If we don’t have a winning record next year, you won’t have to fire me. I’ll resign,’” Ball said. The Leathernecks were 7-4-1 the next season, losing to Marshall 17-4 in the playoffs, and the rest is history.

Coaching was a natural fit for Ball, who in his youth sold game-day programs at Missouri Tigers football games. At Columbia Hickman High School, Ball earned three varsity letters in football and two in track and field. He later was team captain and earned all-conference honors at then-Northeast Missouri State University (Truman State), which won three league championships between 1969 and 1972.

In coaching, Ball was an assistant at Hannibal and Hazelwood West high schools before moving on to Missouri Western (1977), Illinois State (1978-1980) and Northeast Missouri State (1981). At Missouri Western, the team won the Boot Hill Bowl in 1977, and the 1982 Northeast Missouri State team won the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association and reached the NCAA Division II playoffs.

Now Ball is a pro scouting assistant for the Chiefs, who reached the playoffs in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Previously, he assisted at Drake University as well as three pro football leagues – the All-American, the United National Gridiron and United Football League.

“You coach because of the players and relationships you have with them,” Ball said. “I’ve been asked, ‘What do you miss the most?’ And that’s what I say.”