Henry Iba was one of America’s most highly regarded basketball coaches and teachers who had a brilliant career that began in Missouri, blossomed in Oklahoma, and was acclaimed internationally. Iba, born in Easton, Missouri was a tough and methodical coach, and the way his teams played reflected this. He developed a “swinging gate” defense (a… Read more »
News
Category: Coaches
Floyd Irons
Floyd Irons is a 1966 graduate of Vashon High School in St. Louis. During his prep years, he was an excellent student-athlete, Irons holds the prestigious honor of being the first scholar-athlete selected from Vashon High School by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as the scholar-athlete of the year. Upon graduation from Langston University in Oklahoma,… Read more »
Jake Jacobson
In the late 1970s, a former U.S. Marine was working wonders for a college gymnastics program – despite not having much of a gymnastics background. And word of his success found its way to the University of Missouri athletics department, and soon a phone call found its way to Jake Jacobson. “Mizzou contacted me to… Read more »
Larry Jansen
Larry Jansen began his successful career in basketball by playing for National College in the early 1960’s. After graduation from Central Missouri State University, he began his career in education as a teacher in Lee’s Summit, Missouri in 1969, serving as head coach of the girl’s basketball team from 1975-1996. His coaching record over 21… Read more »
Kip Janvrin
Influenced by his dad, who was a teacher, coach and athletic director, Kip Janvrin’s quest to positively impact the lives of young athletes as a coach hit a roadblock in his early 20s. You see, as a decathlete, he also had eyes on the Olympics. So you can imagine how the real world was grabbing… Read more »
Steve Jenkins
His tucked-way office just off the gym might make a first-time visitor assume that nothing big has happened here. It’s oblong in design, and not even the size of a college dorm room. And yet from behind that desk – and out on the hardwood some 40 feet away – is where Evangel University men’s… Read more »
Tim Jermain
He grew up on a northwest Missouri farm helping to work 1,400 acres of row crops as well as handle hogs and cattle. But, eventually, the pull of coaching high school basketball tugged on his sweat-stained shirt. Then again, why wouldn’t it? Tim Jermain was coached by Don Edwards, attended a camp led by coach… Read more »
Brian Jett
He ran cross country for a successful St. Louis high school, absolutely loved the sport but then, in his first few years after college, stayed under the radar as a high school/junior high shop teacher. So when Brian Jett got the chance to coach a junior high girls track team — and was well into… Read more »
Rich Johanningmeier
Rich Johanningmeier has taken some unrelated steps along the path of his professional career in college athletics, and he’s excelled at all of them. A native St. Louisan whose first sports love was – and will always be – football , Johanningmeier has been a coach, athletics administrator and a valued staff member within the… Read more »
Maurice John
Maurice E. “Maury” John was a basketball coach at Drake University and Iowa State University. John is the all-time wins leader at Drake and led the Bulldogs to the NCAA Final Four in 1969. In his 28-year coaching career, John had a 528–214 record. He died of cancer at age 55 in 1974, while coaching… Read more »
Doug Jones
In rural Wright County, not far from where his family ran a dairy and cattle farm, the kid who fell in love – first with baseball, then a girl named Calleen – is proof of a universal truth: If the big leagues never come calling, you can still make it big in small-town America –… Read more »
Diane Juergensmeyer
Up in the left corner of a poster board-turned-scrapbook – the one dedicated to St. Elizabeth High School’s 2002 state championship softball team — the headline screams, “Lady Hornets sting ‘em at state.” It’s a newspaper clipping from the Miller County Autogram-Sentinel, and see the other scrapbook items glued to the board? Look closely, because… Read more »
John Kadlec
For over a half century, the name John Kadlec has been synonymous with football at the University of Missouri. As a star player, coach, recruiter, fundraiser, administrator and football color analyst, Kadlec has never tired of helping the institution he loves and the school that gave him the opportunity to earn a bachelor and master’s… Read more »
Russ Kaminsky
Russ Kaminsky ranks as one of the top high school basketball coaches in the nation and a giant among the coaching fraternity in the state of Missouri. Kaminsky compiled a basketball coaching record of 591-222. His coaching career began in 1942 in Mountain View, Missouri. Moving to Joplin in 1943, Kaminsky coached for 33 years… Read more »
Stan Kee
In a place called Carrollton, about 10 miles north of the Missouri River off U.S. 65, a longtime football coach by the name of Stan Kee sort of embodies the town – hard-working, old-fashioned and resilient. Here, it’s as if stepping back in time. There’s the traditional town square, anchored by the Carroll County Courthouse.… Read more »
Earl Keth
Earl Keth led the Mules basketball team to national prominence in the late 1930’s. He was the star of the 1937 and 1938 teams that won the first two National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball (NAIB) championships. He was chosen to the Chuck Taylor All-America Team for the 1937-38 season, becoming the Mules’ first All-American in… Read more »