Maurice E. “Maury” John was a basketball coach at Drake University and Iowa State University. John is the all-time wins leader at Drake and led the Bulldogs to the NCAA Final Four in 1969. In his 28-year coaching career, John had a 528–214 record. He died of cancer at age 55 in 1974, while coaching… Read more »
News
Sport: Basketball
Eric Johnson
While Webb City became synonymous with championship football, Eric Johnson was building something just as lasting inside the gym. Coaching many of the same athletes who fueled the Cardinals’ Missouri Sports Hall of Fame football tradition, Johnson guided a basketball program that enjoyed a historic run of its own during his 24 years on the… Read more »
Shelly Jones
Jones accumulated more than 300 wins as a head coach, including at Parkview High School (134-37) in Springfield and then at Marshfield High School. At Parkview, she led the Lady Vikings to runner-up finishes in the Ozark Conference and Class 4 district play for three consecutive years. Sixteen players earned college scholarships. At Marshfield, she… Read more »
Bill Jones
Bill Jones was a trainer for the Kansas City Kings, later the Sacramento Kings, from 1973 to 1993. Before working with the Kings, he had been a trainer with the Kansas City Royals. Nicknamed “Jonesy” he is remembered as being kind and generous, serving the players as a doctor, mentor, and friend. He is especially… Read more »
1974-1978 Joplin Memorial High School Basketball Teams
At the year-end banquet, just weeks after his team came up short in the state championship game, sophomore guard Gary “Cat Johnson had something to say. And so coach Mike O’Rourke gave him the floor. What came next – and over the next two years – defined the Joplin Memorial High School boys basketball teams… Read more »
Russ Kaminsky
Russ Kaminsky ranks as one of the top high school basketball coaches in the nation and a giant among the coaching fraternity in the state of Missouri. Kaminsky compiled a basketball coaching record of 591-222. His coaching career began in 1942 in Mountain View, Missouri. Moving to Joplin in 1943, Kaminsky coached for 33 years… Read more »
Mike Kelly
It’s true that sports broadcasters, by nature, do a lot of talking. However, the pro’s pros also listen. And, for Mike Kelly, he was all ears in his first season of calling Missouri Tigers basketball games. And why not? The advice that he still remembers to this day came from none other than the legendary… Read more »
Blair Kerkhoff
For more than 100 years, one of the country’s most respected newspapers could be found near downtown Kansas City on Grand Boulevard. Blair Kerkhoff, a sportswriter, would walk in in awe most days. The Kansas City Star, and the exterior walls fitted in brick, likely elicited similar reactions from many others. “Something that made an… Read more »
Ben Kerner
Ben Kerner brought professional basketball to Missouri. Kerner bought the Milwaukee Hawks and brought them to St. Louis on a risk and gamble, which paid tremendous dividends to him and the city of St. Louis. The St. Louis Hawks went to the NBA finals against the Boston Celtics in just their third year since relocating… Read more »
Earl Keth
Earl Keth led the Mules basketball team to national prominence in the late 1930’s. He was the star of the 1937 and 1938 teams that won the first two National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball (NAIB) championships. He was chosen to the Chuck Taylor All-America Team for the 1937-38 season, becoming the Mules’ first All-American in… Read more »
Billy Key
Billy Key arrived at Missouri Science & Technology — then Missouri-Rolla — in 1964 to become the head men’s basketball coach and four years later, was named to replace the legendary Gale Bullman as athletics director. He retired from coaching following the 1986-87 season with the most coaching wins in school history but remained as… Read more »
Kickapoo High School Girls Basketball Program
Walk into the gym at Kickapoo High School, and it’s understandable why jaws drop in awe. See the banners of the six girls basketball state championships? And the retired jerseys of 24 All-State players? However, in the fall of 1973, before the Lady Chiefs’ first ever practice – and just a year after federal Title… Read more »
Boyd King
Boyd King, who attended the Hannibal Public Schools, won 11 letters in football, basketball, and baseball at Truman State University and later returned as a successful basketball coach. He was captain of the 1936 baseball team. After graduation, he coached at Pittsfield, Illinois, and Hannibal. During World War II, he served as an ensign in… Read more »
Frank Kirchmer
His passion for sports took root in south St. Louis, where he and his buddies played just about every sport you could think of. In the summers, they’d ride their bikes through south Kingshighway to Mertz Field, a sandlot really, and at night he would listen to the KMOX broadcast of the St. Louis Cardinals… Read more »
Bob Kurland
Kurland was born in St. Louis graduating from Jennings High School where he participated in basketball and track. Kurland considered attending the University of Missouri, but when Oklahoma A&M played a game at Saint Louis University, A&M coach Henry Iba invited Kurland to dinner and offered a scholarship. Missouri could only offer Kurland a job.… Read more »