Bob Nelson coached for 25 years at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park, 19 years with the men’s team and six years with the women. Along the way, “Mad Dog,” as his former players affectionately know him, amassed a record of 509-240.
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Category: Coaches
Palmer Nichols
Palmer Nichols was a basketball coach at Sacred Heart High School in Sedalia, Missouri. He also co-founded the local Boys and Girls Club chapter in Sedalia.
Tom O’Brien
You don’t coach for over 50 years without loving what you do. And it’s pretty clear that Tom O’Brien has loved being a coach. The Barstow School boys and girls tennis coach since 2006, O’Brien has been a coach in the Kansas City area for more than five decades. He began at Bishop Hogan High… Read more »
Gary O’Neal
Compiling a record of 239 wins, 52 losses, and one tie during his 28-year tenure as Hardin-Central High School Head Football Coach, O’Neal has 10 undefeated regular seasons under his belt. Gary is a three-time State Coach of the Year recipient. His two State runner-up trophies are rivaled only by his two State Championships, which… Read more »
Greg Oder
Look at the body of work – the state championship games in his time as both a head coach and assistant, plus the number of wins and so forth – and the natural assumption is that Greg Oder had this dream even as a youth football player. Not so, said Oder, one of the state’s… Read more »
Kelly Odneal
He grew up on the family farm in north central Missouri, learning the value of hard work, and it was the kind of work that Kelly Odneal could have done. That is, if he hadn’t loved sports so much – or, as a teen, fell under the guidance of the man who became his mentor,… Read more »
Al Onofrio
In 1971, after spending 12 years as an assistant coach, Albert Joseph Onofrio was named the head football coach at the University of Missouri, a post he held until 1977. While his record hovered at the .500 level, he was noted for having pulled upsets, mainly on the road. He coached four All-Americans and 30… Read more »
Jay Osborne
He had grown up as the son of a high school basketball coach, and so taking on challenges simply was in his DNA. In the summer of 1992, after a couple of dominate seasons at a Polk County school, Jay Osborne took on his next project – the Nixa High School boys basketball team. “Accepting… Read more »
Ruth “Casey” Osburn
After pioneering women’s basketball at Shelbyville High School in the early 1930s, Ruth “Casey” Osburn was the first player selected for the world famous Olson’s “All-American Redheads.” The 6-foot star played jumping center and was an accomplished ball handler. She toured with the Redheads for six years, promoting women’s basketball throughout the country as the… Read more »
Dave Palmeiro
28 of Dave’s 30 years in coaching have come at the helm of the Tarkio Indians at Tarkio High School. During his tenure, Coach Palmeiro amassed a total of 204 victories against only 56 defeats and 5 ties. A 1993 inductee to the Missouri Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame, he guided his Indians to… Read more »
Norris Patterson
Dr. Patterson amassed an impressive 134-33-10 record as head coach of the William Jewell College Cardinals during his 18 year tenure. Under his leadership, the Cardinals won 13 conference titles and finished as runner-up five times. The late Dr. Patterson is also a member of the NAIA, NACDA Athletic Directors, Missouri Valley College and William… Read more »
Jacky Payne
This may be the epitome of Jacky Payne as a high school basketball coach: In 1985, in his first meeting with the Marshfield Blue Jays, he pointed to the empty walls and flat said they would one day hoist their own banners. “They probably thought I was crazy,” Payne said, explaining Marshfield hadn’t won much… Read more »
Jim Pearson
A graduate of Missouri Valley College, Jim played football for the Vikings under Coach Ashford from 1951 to 1955. After his graduation, Pearson held positions as an assistant football coach and head golf coach at high schools in Missouri and Illinois. In 1971, he was named the first head football coach at Springfield’s Kickapoo High… Read more »
Kirk Pedersen
For Kirk Pedersen, his arrival to the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg in the mid-1980s wasn’t supposed to be anything more than a pit stop on the way back to rural Iowa. There he was, a college graduate in need of a job, so he figured a graduate assistant role for UCM track and… Read more »
Robert Penn
Robert Penn – Football Coach – Class of 2014 The tapestry of Bob Penn’s life presents an interwoven pattern of faith, family, friends, and sports. His journey to enshrinement in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame began after his parents, Robert and Inez, moved young Bob and his two sisters from Kansas City, MO to… Read more »
Don Peterson
It all began innocently enough. In the 1960s, right about the time he was transitioning to college, Don Peterson met the gentleman who owned John the Diver, a scuba diving store on Table Rock Lake. Soon, a summer job was offered — $100 for the season, plus room and board. “My parents never told me… Read more »