Inductees

His days shooting a rifle date back to when he was 6 years old and his dad handed him his Model 1928 Daisy BB gun. A few years later, his dad gifted a .22 long rifle from his days on a Navy shooting team.

Soon, Chris Stark joined an NRA junior rifle club at the local National Guard armory, which had a 50-foot indoor range.

“I started going to rifle matches held at the Oklahoma Military Academy at Claremore and, at my first match, I won four trophies and was hooked,” Stark said.

That passion for shooting led Stark to becoming one of the best shooters in the United States and internationally, including tremendous success in the Show-Me State. That’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted Stark with the Class of 2022.

A competitive shooter from 1962 to 1999 with an air rifle, smallbore rifle (22LR), service pistol, service rifle and high power rifle, Stark dominated at the Missouri State Championships. He won 15 high power rifle championships, three times in air rifle and once in smallbore rifle.

However, that’s only a glimpse into his success.

Stark shot on the Oklahoma and Missouri State Teams and was All-Big Eight Conference with the University of Kansas rifle team (1965-1969). He also shot on Missouri’s 102nd ARCOM, Fifth Army, All Army, All Army Reserves and All Army International teams.

Along the way, he earned the U.S. Army Distinguished Rifleman and Pistol Shot badges and the prestigious President’s Hundred Tab 15 times. Those are the highest awards for marksmanship in the U.S. military.

Additionally, he was on five International World Champion teams and won seven individual international championships. His resume includes four team and two national individual championships, and two All Army individual championships. Stark also won two interservice individual championships and six individual and five team championships at the U.S. Marine Corps Range at Quantico, Va.

In other words, he can entertain folks for hours talking about stories from his days winning trophy after trophy.

Among his favorites? The first two of his three International Air Rifle Championships, held in Potosi. He was in competitions, and teaching adults and juniors as a Master Unclassified.

“No one there knew me or had heard of me. No one even talked to me. I just stood up and won the match and walked away with the Missouri State Championship,” Stark said. “The next time I shot at Potosi, it was a different story. People talked to me and, interestingly while I was shooting, several shooters who were waiting their turn or who had completed shooting were set up in the back of me, taking notes and watching each shot through their spotting scopes and taking pictures.”

The secret to his success was mental training.

“I read books on mental training, dry-fired my rifles and practiced mental training every day,” Stark said. “When it comes right down to it on the range, at a match, the small group of people that are capable of winning are all pretty much equipped with accurate rifles, good coaches, ammunition and equipment. … The ability to focus on a 2-inch target at 200 yards in a 15- to 25-mph wind while standing is what wins matches.”

Stark’s shooting ramped up seven years after he graduated from KU law school. He had gone on active duty with the U.S. Army and was assigned as a commander of a basic training company at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.

There, he attended a match held by the 102^nd ARCOM. He won so many trophies that team leaders put him on their team to compete at the Fifth Army Championships. He shot with an M16 A2 rifle.

His training had been limited to occasional active-duty weekends at ranges in Marshall, Missouri and match competition. But he progressed from shooting with the 102^nd ARCOM to the Fifth Army Team and then the All U.S. Army Reserve Team.

Soon, he was training at Fort Benning in Georgia and competing across the country. He entered in the National High Power Championships at Camp Perry, Ohio (1960-1965, 1980-1999), and shot international matches in Germany, Australia and England in 1983, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1996.

Stark thanks many mentors, including Lt. Col. Tommy Pool, an Olympic silver medalist, an All-Army champion and National Service Rifle champion.

In recent years, Stark co-founded Honor Flight of the Ozarks and served as Board President and Team Leader on trips to Washington, D.C.

What a career it’s been.