Inductees

For every successful athlete, there are those in the shadows who deserve the credit.

For Otto Porter, Sr. – one of the best to ever set foot on a basketball court in southeast Missouri – there were many who set him up for success.

“I don’t know if you would say I loved the game right away,” Porter said. “My brothers, uncles and I played a lot of sandlot ball. I also watched players like Dr. J, David Thompson and George Gervin on TV, which really inspired me to really start to fall in love with the game.”

Once he did, Porter skyrocketed, becoming one of the Show-Me State’s best, and that’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted him with the Class of 2024.

A 1976 graduate of Scott County Central High School, he led the team to its first state championship during his senior season, finishing with a 32-1 record.

A 6-foot-4 smooth shooter who loved playing on the baseline, he scored 143 points in the four-game state tournament series – still a record in Missouri high school history – and grabbed 45 rebounds, also a record that stood for years. That included a then-record 25 rebounds in the championship game.

When he graduated, he held the school rebounding record, with 1,733 rebounds.

He then played a season each at Southern Baptist University and Three Rivers Community College before spending his final two seasons at Southeast Missouri State University through March 1981.

At SEMO, Porter averaged 27 points a game as a junior and 25 points a game as a senior. He was a Second Team All-American by the National Basketball Coaches Association in 1981. His two-year scoring average of 25.9 points is still the top mark in the MIAA and SEMO history more than 40 years later. He finished with 1,216 career points.

And to think that he didn’t start playing basketball until the eighth grade.

“I was taller than most classmates and really skinny,” Porter said. “My height started to take off my freshman/sophomore year.”

As a freshman, he played mostly junior varsity and saw some time on the varsity as the season progressed.

“The summer going into my sophomore year, Larry Mosely and I spent numerous hours playing one-on-one basketball every opportunity I had,” Porter said. “The lessons (in high school and in pick-up games) that were instilled me were simply not to lose. Having a killer instinct and focus on winning (were the secrets to success).”

When he could, he watched NBA games on TV.

“I would say I watched the professionals to learn the game,” Porter said. “I watched their movement, how they were able to create shots and how they played defense. Then, I’d go work on perfecting those same behaviors, ultimately adding to my game.”

Fortunately, Scott County Central coach Ronnie Cookson (MSHOF 1991) – and later, Three Rivers coach Gene Bess (MSHOF Legend 2016) – built Porter into an even better player.

“Ronnie Cookson would have players like Fred Johnson and others who had already graduated come down and scrimmage us,” Porter said. “These guys were good athletes. They were athletic, physical, and had good basketball IQ. This made us as a team better players.”

“On the court, Cookson demanded 150 percent,” Porter added. “He could see things that most couldn’t see. He recognized talent that I didn’t at the time know I had. He knew all the right buttons to push on the hardwood. Off the court, Cookson was just a special. He was there for everyone.”

Cookson made certain that colleges took notice, and one stop led Porter to Bess, who in 2020 retired with 1,300 victories – the most in college basketball history at any level at the time.

“His discipline and the work ethic that he demanded,” was what Porter credits from Bess. “There was discipline in practices. There was discipline in the classroom. Practices were based on defense, the early morning weight-lifting, the park runs … these are the types of workouts you’ll never forget.”

They were not the only great influences in his life.

His mother, Jonnie Mae Porter, raised Otto and his siblings, “to be hard-working individuals.”

In doing so, she also influenced those who followed Porter’s playing days.

“Opening the door for the younger generations to see my success gave them a roadmap to a goal,” Porter said. “Seeing them not only meet those goals but to go on and exceed them is what this game is all about.”