The unfairness of life didn’t derail her even though it could have. You see, public schools didn’t field women’s sports teams during her childhood and teen years, and her only shot to earn a college softball scholarship was, well, old-school.
In fact, this was the scene for Cindy Henderson Snead back in 1971: She and her dad grabbed their gloves and headed to their backyard in the rural Pulaski County town of Crocker, all for a 10-pitch tryout in front of the softball coach from Missouri State University.
“Kay Hunter must have seen something in me,” Henderson Snead said, referring to MSU’s coach. “I threw 10 pitches, five were catchable and none were strikes. But that’s how I came to Springfield.”
Call it a spring-board toward a remarkable career – both in softball and basketball – at Missouri State University before pro leagues came calling. Which is why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is proud to induct Henderson Snead with the Class of 2019.
The honor is part of the Baseball & Softball Luncheon presented by the Ozarks Coca-Cola/Dr Pepper Bottling Company, set for 11 a.m. Wednesday at the University Plaza Hotel & Convention Center in Springfield. For tickets, call 417-889-31oo.
A 1971 Crocker High School graduate, Henderson Snead led the Missouri State softball team to the 1974 AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) national championship as she was 10-2 as a pitcher, a year after guiding the Bears to a state championship and a third-place national finish. She went on to play four seasons in the International Women’s Professional Softball League.
Then again, she also had the choice of playing in the Women’s Professional Basketball League, having been drafted by the Milwaukee Does in 1975. After all, at MSU, where she was recruited to join the basketball team, Henderson Snead had averaged 17.5 and 19.1 points a game her final two years and once held career records in points (1,104) and rebounds (791) and the single-game scoring (37). She helped two teams win state titles and earn regional runners-up.
This from an athlete whose childhood came years before the 1972 passage of federal Title IX legislation, which required public schools to offer women’s sports teams.
“There were no high school sports at all, and the only way I could play was on my brother’s baseball team,” said Henderson Snead, who joined that team at age 10, only to be road-blocked the next year by a new league rule banning girls.
Fortunately, her dad, a catcher in men’s fast-pitch, started a youth softball team, although it played only 10 games a season.
Hunter’s offer led Henderson Snead to Springfield, where she lived with an aunt and uncle and, at age 17, joined the Springfield Foremost Dairy fast-pitch softball team.
Over the next couple of years, she mentored under Hunter, Foremost teammates Linda Dollar (MSHOF 2011) and Sue Schuble (MSHOF 1998), and men’s fast-pitch standouts Roy Burlison (MSHOF 2015) and Steve Murdaugh.
Henderson Snead credits Hunter’s patience for her success.
“I finally got enough control working with her,” Henderson Snead said. “And, once I got the speed of the pitch, I’d go talk to the men’s players and they helped me more.”
Along the way, then-MSU coach Reba Sims (MSHOF 2009) asked her to join the women’s basketball team.
“I had no clue,” Henderson Snead said. “My brother (Danny) was 6-foot-5. We played pick-up basketball, and our rule was – no blood, no foul. I was rough. But Reba, she really had to have patience.”
She played one softball season for the Michigan Travelers and three for the St. Louis Hummers, compiling a 68-39 record. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch often referred to her as Samurai and Slingin’ Sam in print and for good reason – she was 15-4 with a 0.53 earned run average in 1978, earning All-Star honors, and was 21-4 with a 0.34 ERA the next season, when she had a league-best 11 shutouts.
Henderson Snead later coached high school softball at Richland, Worth County and Parkview before coaching two seasons at Southwest Baptist University.
For years, she was inspired by a letter of commendation written by umpire Dan Craft, and also found inspiration as mom to Aaron and grandma to Sydney.
Fittingly, Henderson Snead has been inducted into the Missouri State Athletics Hall of Fame (1981), Crocker High School Sports Hall of Fame (1991), the Springfield Softball ASA Hall of Fame (1994), the St. Louis Softball Hall of Fame (2011), the Springfield Area Sports Hall of Fame (2015) and the USA Softball-Missouri Hall of Fame (2019).
“You’ve got to love the game. Competition is what drove me. I liked to be in the thick of things” Henderson Snead said. “But sometimes I think – did I do all that?”
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Baseball & Softball Luncheon presented by Ozarks Coca-Cola/Dr Pepper Bottling Company
When: 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 22
Where: University Plaza Hotel & Convention Center in Springfield
Inductees: St. Louis Cardinals slugger Brian Jordan, the late Joe Medwick, an outfielder during the Cardinals’ Gas House Gang of the 1930s and an inductee of the National Baseball Hall of Fame; Missouri State pitcher Cindy Henderson Snead, late Glendale High School baseball coach Don Provance as well as the Glendale High School Baseball Program and the Webb City High School Softball Program.
Diamond 9 Award recipients: Nick Admire (Lebanon High School/University of Missouri), Charissa Fuhr (Kickapoo High School/Iowa State University), Hailee Hendricks Fury (Miller High School/Northwest Missouri State University), the Hughes Brothers of Branson High School — Colby Hughes (Meremac Community College/Missouri-St. Louis/Colorado Rockies), Logan Hughes (North Arkansas College/Missouri-St. Louis); Trent Oxenreider (Strafford High School/College of the Ozarks), Joey Rich (A.S.A./USA Softball), Brad Roweton (Bolivar High School/Southwest Baptist University), Jakki Prater Schneider(Nixa High School/University of Central Missouri) and Jim Smith(Collins High School/Missouri State University/New York Yankees).
Tables & Tickets: A sponsorship table of eight is $400 and includes recognition in the printed program as well as a poster autographed by individual inductees. A head table ticket is $100 while an individual ticket is $40 in advance, or $50 at the door. Numerous sponsorships also are available, including congratulatory ads.
Call: 417-889-3100
