Inductees

In the late 1970s, a former U.S. Marine was working wonders for a college gymnastics program – despite not having much of a gymnastics background.

And word of his success found its way to the University of Missouri athletics department, and soon a phone call found its way to Jake Jacobson.

“Mizzou contacted me to start their program,” Jacobson said. “I came and visited and am still here today.”

Jacobson is considered the Father of Missouri gymnastics, and his hard work over a 20-year period is why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted him with the Class of 2024.

Overall, it’s a story that’s almost too good to be true. But it is.

Jacobson coached Mizzou’s program from 1979 to 1999. When he retired, the program was the third-highest grossing athletic program on campus behind football and men’s basketball.

His teams were 229-198-1 in the regular season, and he led them to 13 NCAA Regional appearances. The 1981 team won the NCAA Central Region and advanced to the NCAA Championships.

Along the way, Jacobson earned the 1990 Big Eight Conference Coach of the Year and 1999 Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year honors. He also directed Mizzou to the 1992 Big Eight Conference championships.

Additionally, he founded three premier events – Shakespeare’s Festival, the Corvette Cup and the Cat Classic, an event that set a program record crowd of 10,562 in 1987 thanks, in part, to an appearance by none other than U.S. Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton.

He also founded Tiger Academy of Gymnastics in 1980 through 1999 as a way to generated kids’ interest.

“In the early years, I didn’t have much of a budget or practice area,” Jacobson said. “I brought all of the equipment from Grand View (University in Iowa) to start with. I was able to market the sport to Ralston Purina.”

The memories have long been kept not only in Jacobson’s heart but also the basement of his home. There, you’ll walk down the stairs and right into memory lane.

See the Coach of the Year awards on the wall? Some are from the old Big Eight Conference itself. Others from Mizzou Athletics. Not far away is a framed poem that was a paid advertisement in the local newspaper, with the headline, ‘We’ll miss you Jake!” emblazoned under a photo of him in his coaching days.

But there’s far more. For Jacobson, the accolades deserve to go to the gymnasts, and he has team photos from almost every year he coached. They are hanging by a bar area.

He’s proud of every one of them.

“My gymnasts were good at all four events,” Jacobson said. “Julie Dorn (MSHOF 2022) was an All-American. A very high percentage graduated. Many gymnasts were excellent students. Some became doctors, veterinarians, teachers, engineers, coaches, etc.”

Jacobson was old-school as a coach. But perhaps that was to be expected.

He graduated from 1954 from East High School in Des Moines, Iowa before entering the Marines for three years, serving in Japan, Okinawa and Iwo Jima.

He then attended Grand View College, and earned a bachelor’s and master’s from Drake University. When he was in his master’s program, he taught in education and physical education, coached gymnastics and softball.

That led him to Grand View.

“Grand View had Danish gymnastics, and I became interested in it,” Jacobson said. “I was never a gymnast.”

Jacobson threw himself into learning every facet of the sport.

“I would consider myself a combination of a hard-nose and soft coach,” Jacobson said. “But my gymnasts were like my daughters. They knew that they could seek advice as needed. They considered me their second father. They would often come to our house for get-togethers.”

In efforts to enhance the program – both to challenge the Mizzou gymnasts and offer a so-called box-office draw for the community – he created competitions such as the Shakespeare Festival, named after the popular pizza restaurant in Columbia.

For the Corvette Cup, he invited corvette clubs to display their cars in the arena – sometimes 250 on site.  The Cat Classic drew schools with tiger mascots and had the sponsorship support of Purina.

Looking back, Jacobson counts as mentors Iowa State’s Ed Gagnier, club coach Earl Duggan and Southern Illinois’ Herb Vogel.

He always had the support of his wife of 61 years, Nola, who passed away in 2022. They are parents to Julie, Jackie and Jill.

“Coaching gymnastics at Mizzou brought a lot of challenges, joy and also made my hair gray,” Jacobson said.