Inductees

Thumb through the scrapbook of old newspaper clippings, and it’s easy to see why Dave Gill is held in such high regard in the mid-Missouri community of Ashland.

“1981 State Champions” screams one headline below a worn photo of a softball team. Stretched across the top of another sports page, a headline reads “Gill retires with 456 victories, plenty of memories” with a photo of Gill coaching a boys basketball game. And then there’s this: “Practicing in the lunchroom” – a Columbia Daily Tribune feature story months after a fire gutted the high school. Yes, Gill had no choice but to get creative.

What a 27-year run it was at Southern Boone High School for Gill, who did just about everything and did it well. Which is why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted Gill with the Class of 2019.

Between 1977 and 2003, Gill juggled coaching duties of  basketball, softball, golf as well as track and field. Anything else? Oh, he also served as athletic director every year.

Gill led the boys basketball team for 25 seasons (1978-2003) and holds school records for wins (445), games coached (679), conference titles (12), district titles (5), sectional titles (3) and 20-win seasons (9). His 1985, 1987 and 1993 teams all reached the state quarterfinals in Class 3, arguably the most challenging level in the state because of the largest number of public and private schools vying for state titles.

In 2012, the school named the basketball court “Dave Gill Court.”

Over 12 seasons coaching the softball program, his teams were 203-46 and reached five Final Fours, with the 1981 and 1986 teams winning state championships.

In 25 seasons coaching boys golf, three of his teams placed in the Top 15 of the state meet.

All of which is only the Cliff’s Notes version of his career.

“When I was (in college) I was a pretty good golfer and won the 54-hole Columbia City Championship and worked at A.L. Gustin Golf Course. I had a choice – do I want to become a teaching pro or go into coaching?” Gill said. “Coaching was it.”

A graduate of Columbia Hickman High School, Gill had enrolled at Lincoln University to run track and then transferred to the University of Missouri just to be a student. However, he eventually was recruited back to Lincoln by Leo Lewis, Jr. (MSHOF 2019) to play golf.

After graduation, he taught two years at Hatton McCredie, a middle school in Kingdom City. His boys basketball teams both finished 13-0.

“I totally loved it,” Gill said.

Gill saw to it that his Southern Boone Eagles basketball teams were always in shape. Practices included a fast-break drill called the Crazy Eagle, in which he had three on offense, two on defense – and then a third defender ran on to the court from the side of halfcourt. He had borrowed the idea from then-Hickman coach Ken Ash (MSHOF 2015).

Folks still talk about the 1987 team, which lost by only seven points to Cape Girardeau-Notre Dame High School, which featured a 7-footer as well as 6-11, 6-8 and 6-1 players who all signed Division I scholarships.

“If the 3-point line had been in effect,” Gill said, “we could have beaten them. We played a great basketball game.”

He certainly wasn’t afraid to be creative.

In the 1981 softball sectional against defending state champion Mid-Buchanan, Gill instructed every batter to bunt against All-State pitcher Sherri Kemp for 15 innings. Southern Boone won after Traci Wren reached base, stole second and scored on Dora Calvin’s single.

The 1986 team featured pitcher Lisa Taggert, who threw nine no-hitters.

“Coaching softball, even though I never intended to be a girls coach at all, I found it to be rewarding,” Gill said. “They taught me as much as I taught them.”

Gill later spent 10 years as the Director of Competition for the Show-Me State Games. He also was president of the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association (1997-1998) and inducted into the MBCA (2004). He was inducted into the Southern Boone Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018.

Overall, he credits many for his success – particularly his wife, Jeanne, and their children Kim, Merideth and Sara.

“I was known as a hard-nosed, strict coach,” Gill said. “I think I made the game enjoyable. They loved to play, but we instilled some discipline. So it’s nice when a former player comes back and says, ‘Coach, what you taught me made me better in life.’”