Inductees

Al Wallace always wanted to work close to home. His plan after graduating from Texas Tech was to stay in Texas and work his way up to a job near his childhood home in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.

“Working in Kansas City happened by chance. After working in Lubbock, Texas, for seven years, I knew it was time to move on in the summer of 1984,” Wallace said. “Kansas City was one of the larger markets that I applied to work in, and I did that because it was a major sports city.”

Wallace worked in the Kansas City market for four years before his dream seemingly came to fruition and he got a job back in Dallas. But 13 months later, the opportunity to come back to Kansas City presented itself and Wallace couldn’t say no.

That led to a career of more than 30 years that saw Wallace become one of the most well-known faces of Kansas City sports coverage. For that career, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted Wallace with the Class of 2025.

Wallace knew in seventh grade that he wanted to get into sports broadcasting. Growing up with a legendary broadcaster in your local market can have a profound impact.

“Growing up just outside Dallas, I would watch Verne Lundquist on Channel 8,” he said. “And growing up with two older brothers, we were always involved in sports. Sports were part of our DNA. It was an escape and became part of who we were.”

The son of a military family who lived in Fort Leonard Wood, Wallace covered sports for WDAF-TV for 33 years. Overall, he covered three World Series, 10 NCAA Final Fours, three MLB All-Star Games, as well as Kansas City Chiefs training camps and Kansas City Royals spring trainings.

He also covered the development and opening of various sports venues in the area, including the Kansas Speedway and the T-Mobile Center.

Wallace was a studio host and field anchor for ESPN’s Studio 66 coverage of Big 12 basketball and was among 1,000 national voters for the John Wooden Award, which goes to the top college basketball player in the country.

He has contributed to the NFL Network’s coverage of the NFL Draft and also worked with multiple radio stations and programs, including KRPS, the country’s oldest Black-owned and operated radio station.

As host of “3rd and Long,” and “The Chiefs Hour,” Wallace worked with Missouri Sports Hall of Famers Derrick Thomas, Neil Smith, Eddie Kennison and Derrick Johnson.

In March 1998, the Kansas City Globe honored Wallace as one of the “Most Influential African Americans” in Kansas City, and he was selected to be included among the first group of “Who’s Who In Black Kansas City.” In 2009, he was honored with the Gordon Docking award by the GKCFCA for his high school coverage and, in 2017, he was honored by the Olathe Branch of the NAACP with its Diversity Advocate in Sports Award. He is currently an adjunct journalism professor at the University of Kansas.

“I don’t consider any moments as small,” he said. “I enjoyed watching and being involved in covering the growth and significance of women’s sports coverage in the KC market. I enjoyed being involved in the evolution of sports coverage and being able to broadcast live from any location in the country, or the world for that matter.”

Wallace credits a handful of Kansas City sports media stalwarts with helping him get started and building his career.

“I had a lot of help,” he said. “Mainly, WDAF-TV news director Mike McDonald, sports director Frank Boal (MSHOF 2017), and photographers James Edward and Don Proctor.”

Wallace said he hopes viewers remember his hard work.

“The one thing that I hope people recognize about my career is my work ethic,” he said. “I retired in late 2018. I was proud of the fact that I only called in sick three times in 33 years. The last time I called in sick was 2012, and that was because I had been diagnosed with cancer.”

Wallace’s retirement from WDAF came in 2018, right when another Texas Tech grad (Patrick Mahomes) began to make his mark on Kansas City.

“I have no regrets about retiring when I did,” Wallace said. “I worked in five different decades as a television sports reporter, my dream job. I was very fortunate to do it for as long as I did at Kansas City’s oldest and most trusted television station, WDAF-TV.”