Inductees

For decades, amateur athletes would check out Sports Illustrated magazine weekly and dream. Perhaps they would land in Faces in the Crowd. Maybe their sports team would get some ink in a short story about a remarkable achievement.

So imagine the pride felt when Sports Illustrated delivered a lengthy feature on the Show-Me State Games in 2003, calling the organization more organized than the 2000 Salt Lake Olympics. Just as notable, ESPN.com included the Show-Me State games in its “101 Things All Sports Fans Must Experience Before They Die.”

And now look. This past summer marked the 35^th anniversary of the Show-Me State Games and the 25^th anniversary of the Missouri Senior Games, with both organizations – each an Olympic-style festival – now inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame with the Class of 2019.

Established in 1985, the Show-Me State Games is a non-profit program of the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness & Health, plus hosted by the University of Missouri. Its roots date to 1977 when the U.S. Olympic Committee saw state-wide sports festivals as a way to identify potential Olympic competitors.

What an incredible mark the Show-Me State Games have made, both for athletes and the economies of Columbia and Boone County. More than 1 million participants have been a part of the games, with 113 of Missouri’s 114 counties represented this past year alone – totaling more than 57,000 athletes in 2019.

Economically, it has been a force, too, helping Columbia and Boone County generate $10.3 million of direct economic impact as well as $19.5 million of an extended economic impact.

Of course, another big boost was the addition of the Missouri Senior Games in 1994. It’s also an Olympic-style sports festival for folks 50 and older.

It provides an annual physical fitness event to promote social, competitive, athletic and recreational activities as well as to foster an amateur athletic network of participants, volunteers and sports enthusiasts across the state.

All this for an organization whose funding is provided by four different sources, with the largest being corporate sponsorships and entry fees. It relies on fundraising and merchandising for the remainder of the funding. All of which covers a roughly $1.4 million budget.

Credit the success to its line of leadership, from the late Gary Filbert (MSHOF Legend 2011) and then on to Ken Ash (MSHOF 2015) and now Dave Fox.

“Gary Filbert had a good plan,” said Ash, who joined the Show-Me State Games in 1989 and served as Executive Director from 2002 to 2015. “He had a lot of contacts across the state. His ability back then to bring in good people was something that really helped the Games and established the Games. Gary was a very good boss and my mentor, and I leaned a lot from him.”

In Ash’s tenure as executive director, he eliminated the regional festival concept (10 total) and brought all competitions to Columbia, meaning three consecutive weekends of Games. He also stabilized the budget of $1.4 million annually with long-term sponsorships and entry fees from at least 25,000 participants annually.

These days, roughly 40 sports are now contested.

They are: archery – 3D, NASP and Target, baseball, basketball, bowling, cycling, disc golf, fencing, flag football, youth tackle football, golf, golf par-3 doubles, gymnastics, handball, ice hockey, judo and lacrosse. The Games also include martial arts, miniature golf, mountain biking, pickleball, powerlifting, road race/racewalk, rugby, shooting, soccer, 3-on-3 soccer, softball, swimming, synchronized swimming, table tennis, tennis, track & field, triathlon/duathlon, ultimate, volleyball and wrestling.

All this after an ominous beginning. Only 600 participated in that first year.

Fox has carried the torch, so to speak. A former Central Methodist University basketball player who played for Ash, he was a 29-year coach for Jefferson City High School, became executive director of the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association and then was hired in 2012 as associate director of the Show-Me State Games.

“Development has changed over the years. Years ago, people just wanted to be good stewards and say, ‘Here, we want to be a part of the Show-Me State Games,’” Fox said. “That still exists, but marketing today is much more about, ‘What can you give me for that sponsorship?”

Anyone with ties to an athletic organization, from youth-league soccer parents to Mizzou football fans, receives frequent Show-Me Games mailers encouraging them to sign up and compete.

Just as important is the army of volunteers.

“A lot of people don’t understand we have a staff of seven,” Fox said. “You think about one year having 62,000 folks. That’s 30,000 participants, hundreds of volunteers, hundreds of commissioners, site supervisors, tournament directors, referees – all those people that actually make the events go. It’s just amazing.”