Inductees

Don Foster turned the Palmyra boys basketball program into Northeast Missouri’s most successful and feared program during the 1970s and ’80s. The Panthers won a state championship in 1979, made four other state tournament appearances under Foster, and showcased how a no-nonsense approach worked.

“The way he taught us to play the game and how to play together was the best thing,” said David Bier, who started on the 1979 team that won the Class 2 state championship. “He got everybody to play as a team. He brought out the best in everybody with the style that he had.

“The way he coached wasn’t that hard. It was pretty simple. You played hard defense, you played hard offense and you won games that way.”

The Panthers did it without flash or gimmicks or anything other than respect for the game.

“One of the things Coach Foster used to say I guess in his way to me to keep me grounded and not get a big head was, ‘You’re not playing for the crowd,'” said Greg Church, one of two players Foster coached who went on to play at the University of Missouri.

“I never once in my mind thought I was playing for the crowd. He wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to play for the crowd. That was his way of saying, ‘Don’t get the big head and be humble.’ That was his way of making sure we didn’t get conceited.”

Foster was as grounded as anyone and stayed true to his small-town roots.

He retired after the 1993-94 season, having compiled a 512-254 record over 28 seasons. He also coached one season at Wyaconda and seven at Auxvasse, winning more than 600 games in his celebrated career. He was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1989.

Unbeknownst to many, he also coached softball and tennis. But it was as a basketball coach that he left his legacy.

“He was great for the community and all the young kids playing basketball,” Church said. “We all looked forward to playing basketball at Palmyra growing up. Anybody in Northeast Missouri or West-Central Illinois, if you mention Don Foster, they know who you’re talking about. There’s no question about it.

“He’s a legend and did a lot for the game of basketball and built that tradition in Palmyra.”

More than anything else, he taught kids how to win the right way.

“It didn’t matter who you were,” Bier said. “Heck, Mike Foster (Coach Foster’s son) took as much heat as the rest of us did when he was in high school. It didn’t matter. If you didn’t play it his way, you were going to be sitting on the bench for a while until you got your head out of your rear.”

That approach led to historic moments, none greater than winning the 1979 state championship.

“To give that to him after all he had done for Palmyra basketball, that has to be my favorite memory,” Bier said. “We wanted to win that state championship for him.”