On the pages of the local St. Louis paper back in 1989, readers came across this: a black-and-white photo of a 10-year-old dribbling a basketball on an outdoor concrete court at Blewett Middle School, with the shadows – of the ball, the young man’s Nike shoes and lower half of the goal – capturing a… Read more »
News
Sport: Basketball
Denny Hunt
On a bus ride home from a basketball game, with his senior season at Summersville High School coming to an end, Denny Hunt felt the real world tugging on his letter jacket. Going into business? Well, he had jotted that down as a potential college major. Yet that wasn’t him. And so he sought out… Read more »
Steve Hunter
For years, Steve Hunter’s basketball teams “pressed the dog out of you.” Those were his words and for good reason. In the early 1990s, after about seven years as a high school coach and clearly frustrated, Hunter and assistant Rick Boyce installed their own version of the run-and-jump press while at West Plains High School,… Read more »
Henry Iba
Henry Iba was one of America’s most highly regarded basketball coaches and teachers who had a brilliant career that began in Missouri, blossomed in Oklahoma, and was acclaimed internationally. Iba, born in Easton, Missouri was a tough and methodical coach, and the way his teams played reflected this. He developed a “swinging gate” defense (a… Read more »
Clarence Iba
Born and raised in Easton, Mo., Iba served as the head basketball coach at the University of Tulsa, coaching the Golden Hurricanes for eleven seasons, from 1949 to 1960. He is the brother of former Oklahoma State coach Henry Iba. When Iba was hired in 1949, he became Tulsa’s first full-time basketball coach. Iba led… Read more »
Earl Iba
Earl Iba was among the Iba basketball coaching family. Born in Easton, he was the youngest of five children born to Henry B. and Zylfa Iba. His childhood was spent playing basketball, baseball and fishing, pursuits he and his brothers enjoyed through the rest of their lives. Their early years of basketball provided the foundation for… Read more »
Howard Iba
Howard Iba, the brother of legendary Oklahoma State University basketball coach Henry Iba, was the longtime basketball coach at Central High School in St. Joseph. He and his brother grew up in the northwest Missouri town of Easton, playing basketball on a dirt court with their other two brothers, Clarence and Earl . All four brothers… Read more »
Incarnate Word Academy Basketball Program
So how in the world did the Incarnate Word Academy Basketball Program rise from a little-known school to one of the most respected in Missouri and beyond? For that answer, just ask one of its best players since 2000, Felcia Chester-Wootton. Years before she played in the WNBA – and before that, for DePaul University… Read more »
Floyd Irons
Floyd Irons is a 1966 graduate of Vashon High School in St. Louis. During his prep years, he was an excellent student-athlete, Irons holds the prestigious honor of being the first scholar-athlete selected from Vashon High School by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as the scholar-athlete of the year. Upon graduation from Langston University in Oklahoma,… Read more »
Stan Isle
The Stanberry native returned from a tour of duty in World War II to become sports editor of the Moberly Monitor-Index from 1946-1961. He helped to form and nurture the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, even serving as the Hall’s Executive Director for a time. He joined the staff of St. Louis-based “The Sporting News”… Read more »
Larry Jansen
Larry Jansen began his successful career in basketball by playing for National College in the early 1960’s. After graduation from Central Missouri State University, he began his career in education as a teacher in Lee’s Summit, Missouri in 1969, serving as head coach of the girl’s basketball team from 1975-1996. His coaching record over 21… Read more »
Earl Jansen
Perhaps St. Louis’ most versatile high school athlete, Jansen earned 13 varsity letters in six different sports – football, basketball, baseball, track, swimming and fancy diving – while at Cleveland High School in the late 1920’s. He attended the University of Illinois, winning All-American honors in fancy diving in 1934. After graduation, he returned to… Read more »
Steve Jenkins
His tucked-way office just off the gym might make a first-time visitor assume that nothing big has happened here. It’s oblong in design, and not even the size of a college dorm room. And yet from behind that desk – and out on the hardwood some 40 feet away – is where Evangel University men’s… Read more »
Tim Jermain
He grew up on a northwest Missouri farm helping to work 1,400 acres of row crops as well as handle hogs and cattle. But, eventually, the pull of coaching high school basketball tugged on his sweat-stained shirt. Then again, why wouldn’t it? Tim Jermain was coached by Don Edwards, attended a camp led by coach… Read more »
Rick Jester
He’ll never forget the moment. All of 20 years old and having grown up in Springfield where basketball had long been the premier sport, Rick Jester walked into his family’s kitchen one Saturday and there was his old high school coach, Larry Atwood, enjoying a cup of coffee along wtih Jester’s dad. “Sit down here,”… Read more »
Joe Kleine
Kleine, a seven-foot center, graduated from Slater High School in Slater, Missouri, and originally enrolled to play basketball at the University of Notre Dame. After his freshman season, He transferred to the University of Arkansas. Kleine was selected by the Sacramento Kings with the sixth pick in the 1985 NBA Draft. He went on to… Read more »