In March 2001, years after setting foot in sports broadcasting, Tom Ladd found himself immersed in an amazing story – that of the Missouri State University Lady Bears basketball team. A team, that is, that reached the NCAA Final Four with the legendary Jackie Stiles (MSHOF 2002), and did so in St. Louis not from… Read more »
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Sport: Basketball
Larry Lady
Very few people get the opportunity to have three different impactful careers. Larry Lady, however, is one of those people. A college basketball referee for 40 years, Lady also enjoyed a successful career in the financial sector as an executive. When he retired from his day job with Waddell & Reed in 1992, little did… Read more »
1992 Lady Bears Final Four team
The poet Maya Angelou once said, “If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” It’s a quote that seems fitting about the Missouri State Lady Bears that reached the 1992 Final Four. Ask any player, and you’ll hear inspiring stories about the journey along the way.… Read more »
2001 Lady Bears Final Four team
A team of destiny. That’s arguably the only way to describe the Missouri State Lady Bears of 2000-2001 basketball season. Put it this way: The team’s jersey numbers added up to 314, which as many know is the area code of St. Louis. It was the site that March of the Final Four. “We thought,… Read more »
Bud Lathrop
Bud Lathrop was born and raised in the Kansas City suburb of Raytown. He attended Raytown High School and excelled as a prep basketball player from 1950 to 1954. He then attended William Jewell College and earned a coaching/teaching degree in 1958. His coaching career began at Mound City High School, where he served as… Read more »
Bill Laurie
Bill Laurie describes himself simply as a “sports fan.” But that characterization doesn’t begin to define his personal history or the positive impact he has made on the sporting world, both in Missouri and nationally. His skills as a high school basketball player led him to Memphis State, where he played point guard and helped… Read more »
Learfield
In 1975, a quaint broadcasting company launched by Clyde Lear and Derry Brownfield struck a deal to provide radio network distribution of University of Missouri Athletics. It seemed simple enough. Carry all of the Mizzou Tigers football and basketball games and distribute the broadcast to dozens of other stations throughout the state. Little did anyone… Read more »
Erv Leimer
Erv Leimer began his 32-year coaching career at Bismark High School in 1942. He led the Indians to the Missouri Championship with a total enrollment of only 84 students when the tournament consisted of only one class. After a year at Brentwood High School, Leimer initiated the basketball program at Lutheran Central and had a… Read more »
Betty Lennox
In basketball terms, Betty Lennox has done and seen it all. And that’s not hyperbole. She began her basketball career playing 6-on-6 in Oklahoma before moving to Fort Osage High School in Independence, where she eventually led the Indians to a 27-1 record as a senior, twice earning All-State honors. In junior college she helped… Read more »
Gary Link
A standout athlete at Lindbergh High School in St. Louis, Link went on to a very successful basketball career at the University of Missouri. He played on the team from 1970-1974. During his sophomore and junior years, he played on the first two teams in Mizzou history to win 20 or more games. The Tigers… Read more »
Emil “Liz” Liston
A native of Stockton, Missouri, Liston attended Michigan College of Mines where he was a star football player. In September 1918, Liston was hired by Wesleyan University as coach of the school’s football team. He left Wesleyan in June 1919 to play professional baseball for the Wichita, Kansas team in the Western League. After spending… Read more »
Yancey Little
For Yancey Little, being a coach was the plan from the start. “I always wanted to be a coach,” Little said. “I watched my dad coach men’s fastpitch softball through the years, learned a lot and it intrigued me. Then, when my oldest brother Marty began coaching high school, my desire to coach grew.” And as… Read more »
1993-1996 Lockwood High School Boys Basketball Final Four Teams
Thumb through an old scrapbook that Dennis Cornish kept from his days coaching the Lockwood Basketball Tigers, and it’s hard not to shake your head in awe. See the headlines from the mid-1990s? They scream, “Tigers quickly learn how to enjoy state a title” and “The Tigers did the impossible” and “Lockwood has reloaded for… Read more »
1982-1986 Era Logan-Rogersville High School Boys Basketball
It all started at the top. That’s what the players will tell you. By a basketball coach who could have doubled as a drill sergeant and, on game days, wore suits as if he was readying for a GQ cover shoot. What a time it was for the the Logan-Rogersville High School boys basketball teams… Read more »
Lynn Long
In the early 1990s, after having coached boys high school basketball teams for almost decade, Lynn Long faced this reality: His three daughters soon would play on the hardwood in middle school and high school, so, if he continued on, Long likely would miss many of their moments and memories. After all, all the hours… Read more »
Dave Loos
Dave Loos made his way in this world as a basketball coach, winning more than 500 games at the collegiate level and earning his way into numerous halls of fame. But baseball was his first love. “Baseball was my favorite sport,” Loos said. “I was more skilled in baseball. Good hands and a plus arm… Read more »