Long before his TV sports broadcasting days, he developed his reporting chops as a free-lance writer the old-fashioned way: A student by day working his way into the University of Missouri School of Journalism. A beat writer at night covering the 1983-1984 Mizzou basketball team, even lugging around a portable typewriter and dictating two stories… Read more »
News
Sport: Basketball
Ron Lykins
It all started with a degree requirement. Ron Lykins and the wheelchair basketball community would never be the same. Lykins, the University of Missouri head coach, retired from international coaching in 2021 after spending nine years as the head coach of the United States Men’s Wheelchair Basketball Team. He finished his career with Team USA… Read more »
“Easy” Ed Macauley
Ed Macauley glided down the lanes of the NBA for easy layups and precise hook shots, frustrating many of the game’s greatest big men. A phenomenal player under Hall of Fame coach Ed Hickey at St. Louis University, Macauley was everyone’s All-America. “Easy Ed” started his 10-year NBA career with the St. Louis Bombers, played… Read more »
Randy Magers
In the 1960s in Springfield, you wouldn’t have found Randy Magers in his parents’ home other than to eat dinner, study and for bedtime. Instead, he and buddies rode bikes to Nichols Baseball Park on the city’s northwest side. Or, you could find Magers in his backyard, where his dad, Orville, had built a pitching… Read more »
Marionville High School Boys Basketball State Tournament Teams
For the past six decades, the Marionville High School boys basketball teams have been among some of the best teams in Missouri. Since 1970, the Comets have had 17 state tournament teams. That covers six Final Fours (1978, 1982, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006), as well as six state quarterfinalists (1970, 1981, 1998, 2007, 2019, 2023).… Read more »
Squeaky Marquart
If you’ve attended any athletic event across Missouri, you would know that people just refer to him as “Squeaky.” He’s become synonymous around Mizzou athletics. His love for the Black and Gold has taken him all across the country to see his beloved Tigers play. In essence, he’s a genuine PR guy for the state… Read more »
Marshfield Lady Jays Basketball Program
Thumb through the Marshfield High School yearbook of 1975 and eventually you’ll land on a four-page section devoted to the inaugural Lady Jays basketball team. Splashed with old black-and-white photos, the opening pages also feature headlines reading “Girls Shine In First Season” and “Show Potential for the Future.” Amazingly, it was prophetic. Just outside the… Read more »
1988, 1989, 1990 Marshfield High School Lady Jays Basketball
The term “dynasty” is often used to describe great teams who win a series of national or world championships. It is rarely associated with teams at the collegiate or high school sports levels. From 1988 through 1990, though, the Marshfield High School Lady Jays Basketball teams were just that…a true dynasty. Under the direction of… Read more »
Taren O’Brien Martin
Not far from Highway 71 in northwest Missouri, in a community hugged by nearly endless corn fields, folks helped fuel her passion for basketball. Taren O’Brien Martin looks back now on her childhood in Savannah with nothing but fondness, right down to the night she played on despite her eye splitting open. For teammates, coaches,… Read more »
Tom Mast
He must have had a puzzled look on his face. A year after arriving as Springfield’s newest TV Sports Director, he got sent to Louisiana to cover what was anticipated to be Evangel University football’s first victory. Yet upon arriving to the field, well, we’ll let Tom Mast tell the rest of the story. “What… Read more »
Denny Matthews
Over the years, Royals fans have followed the hitting of George Brett, graceful fielding of Frank White and the masterful pitching of Bret Saberhagen. But one aspect of Royals baseball has remained a constant – the voice of Denny Matthews. His broadcasting career started in college, where he worked as an announcer during the basketball… Read more »
Dr. Reed Maxson
Dr. Reed Maxson was a hero before he settled down to a long and successful career in medicine. During World War II, he served in Europe, treating the wounded in the heat of battle. Maxson was born in LaHarpe, Kansas, and graduated from the University of Kansas Medical School in 1942. He immediately joined the… Read more »
Scott McCaulley
He broke into the Ozarks’ sports broadcasting scene of in the mid- to late 1980s, initially covering American Legion baseball and certainly taking mental notes from seasoned radio veterans. Yet Scott McCaulley soon realized that, if he wanted to truly chase his dream, he would have to venture outside of Springfield because all others were… Read more »
Nolan McCaulley
In the early 1960s, while attending Drury University in Springfield, Nolan McCaulley walked into a sports officiating class and found his calling. In order to pass the class, students were required to join the Missouri State High School Activities Association and the local association for umpiring and refereeing. That semester, classmate Emry Dilday (MSHOF 2019)… Read more »
Mike McClure
You don’t spend nearly 40 years broadcasting local high school and college sports if you don’t love what you do. And Monett’s Mike McClure has had a love affair with sports since he was a young boy. McClure caught the broadcasting bug as a youngster by listening to Jack Buck (MSHOF 1980) call Cardinals games… Read more »
Ben McCollum
Sometimes loss can be the driving force behind success. Ben McCollum knows that all too well. The former Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball head coach was at a crossroads in 2016 after the Bearcats lost in the NCAA Regional final for the third straight year. His team couldn’t get over the hump and make that… Read more »