Dr. E.L. Niedermayer served as a team physician for Tarkio College for over 30 years. In addition to being part of the MSHOF class of 1983, he was also inducted into the Tarkio College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987. In 1967, the Tarkio City Council voted to rename North City Park to Niedermeyer Memorial… Read more »
News
Sport: Basketball
Nixa Eagles Basketball Program
Every winter, the Nixa Eagles are among the state’s must-see basketball teams. After all, notice the Final Four banners in the gym? Heck, the trophy case is crowded, too. “Our program has been successful going back to the 1950s and 1960s,” Nixa coach Jay Osborne said. “We always talk about our history with our new… Read more »
1973-1979, 1982 Northeast Nodaway High School Girls Basketball
Whenever the story of a girls sports team is told, it’s easy to assume that its success came only as a result of Title IX, the 1972 federal legislation that required public schools to offer sports to girls. However, that is not the case in the communities of Ravenwood and Parnell, which are rural northwest… Read more »
Tom O’Brien
You don’t coach for over 50 years without loving what you do. And it’s pretty clear that Tom O’Brien has loved being a coach. The Barstow School boys and girls tennis coach since 2006, O’Brien has been a coach in the Kansas City area for more than five decades. He began at Bishop Hogan High… Read more »
Larry O’Reilly
Years ago, Larry O’Reilly sat with the great Stan Musial, the most iconic name in the St. Louis Cardinals’ rich history, and enjoyed the story that “Stan the Man” relayed that day. “I got to be friends with Stan, and he was so gracious and even pulled out his harmonica,” O’Reilly said, noting friend and… Read more »
Becky Oakes
Becky Oakes – Sports Administration A native of Rolla, Missouri, Becky Oakes began a lifelong love and appreciation of sport in elementary school playing softball and making the decision to become a physical education teacher. In high school Becky participated in intramurals and community sports, music and student government. Oakes attended Southwest Missouri State University… Read more »
Anita Rank Oplotnik
Years ago, on a western Missouri farm just outside of a town called Lincoln, her parents bolted a net-less basketball goal on the barn door when she was just a grade-schooler. Anita Rank Oplotnik has never forgotten it. Nor she has forgotten the girls who were teammates from then through high school, or the guys… Read more »
Jay Osborne
He had grown up as the son of a high school basketball coach, and so taking on challenges simply was in his DNA. In the summer of 1992, after a couple of dominate seasons at a Polk County school, Jay Osborne took on his next project – the Nixa High School boys basketball team. “Accepting… Read more »
Ruth “Casey” Osburn
After pioneering women’s basketball at Shelbyville High School in the early 1930s, Ruth “Casey” Osburn was the first player selected for the world famous Olson’s “All-American Redheads.” The 6-foot star played jumping center and was an accomplished ball handler. She toured with the Redheads for six years, promoting women’s basketball throughout the country as the… Read more »
Ed Osiek
Edward Henry Osiek played football, basketball, baseball, and track at St. Charles High School from 1932 to 1936. After high school, he played minor-league baseball from 1936 to 1938. Osiek began his career as a sporting goods salesman in 1940 in his father’s business, Economy Sporting Goods, in St Charles. He later worked in sales… Read more »
2005 & 2006 Ozark High School Girls Basketball State Championship Teams
Sports history is littered with stories of teams who surpass their preseason rankings. Teams not expected to do much, who end up becoming champions. That’s where the 2005 Ozark High School girls basketball team comes in. Picked to finish ninth in their conference, the Tigers used a stingy defense to finish 24-8 and capture the… Read more »
Medford “Med” Park
Medford Park grew up in Lexington, Missouri. He attended Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington from 1947 to 1951 and was a star athlete. Park then went on to become an All-American basketball player for the University of Missouri. A 6’2″ guard/forward, he played five seasons (1955–1960) in the National Basketball Association as a member of… Read more »
Parkview’s Jolly Green Giants, 1964-1966
Before they would ever be nicknamed “The Jolly Green Giants” and long before they would ever tower over high school boys basketball in Missouri, the Parkview High School Vikings had to learn expectations. Players such Gail Fredrick will never forget the scene: New coach Bill Harding, who put aside running a Dairy Queen in the… Read more »
Rickey Paulding
Rickey Paulding started playing basketball in Detroit, took a turn to Columbia, Mo., and a journey in Europe ended in Oldenburg, Germany. Along the way, he became one of the best basketball players to ever play for the Missouri Tigers, as proven by being named to the Mizzou All-Century team. After his college days ended,… Read more »
Jacky Payne
This may be the epitome of Jacky Payne as a high school basketball coach: In 1985, in his first meeting with the Marshfield Blue Jays, he pointed to the empty walls and flat said they would one day hoist their own banners. “They probably thought I was crazy,” Payne said, explaining Marshfield hadn’t won much… Read more »
Yvette Buhlig Pearce
Sports is full of funny stories, and Yvette Buhlig Pearce has two great ones. At the state volleyball tournament in 1984, a University of Missouri coach, not knowing she was a freshman, asked Santa Fe High School coach Charlie Bock where Yvette was going to school next year. “I hope back at Santa Fe!” Bock… Read more »