News

Bob Roth

Roth has given much to the game of basketball. He is Chairman of the Board at Hillyard, Inc., the leader of basketball flooring products in the country. In his life, he was also the first president of the Missouri Basketball Hall of Fame in 1986 and the initial president of the John Q. Hammons Missouri Sports… Read more »

Bill Rowe

Story by Mark Stillwell If the truth be told, Bill Rowe wouldn’t have minded a few more years coaching the Missouri State baseball Bears. After 19 seasons, his program was enjoying its longest run of sustained success when he answered the University’s call in 1982 to step aside from his diamond duties and spearhead the… Read more »

Gene Ruble

Ruble was born in Plato, Missouri and began making a name for himself as a basketball standout in Camdenton, Missouri. He helped guide that team to the Missouri Class B State Championship during his first year of high school play in 1941. His junior year, Ruble moved to Lebanon High School and helped the Yellowjackets… Read more »

Craig Ruby

A two-time All-American and All-Missouri Valley Conference forward at the University of Missouri, J. Craig Ruby took over the head coaching position of his alma mater in 1920. Ruby coached the Tigers for two seasons, compiling a record of 33 wins and only 2 losses. Both of Ruby’s Missouri teams were retroactively named national champions… Read more »

Dale Russell

Born and raised in Branson, Missouri, Dale Russell was a standout athlete for the Branson Pirate basketball team that went a perfect 41 and 0 en route to the 1955 Class B State Championship. At only 6’2″, Russell played center for the Pirates. His height, however, was not a handicap as he was named the… Read more »

Joann Rutherford

From the moment her father put a basketball in her hands at age 2, Joann Rutherford loved the game, and her passion for the sport only grew from there. How could it not? Her father, who had played at Pittsburg State University and with the U.S. Air Force team, had installed a full-length court in… Read more »

Nancy Rutter

Nancy Rutter, from Shelbina, Missouri, was a four-year letter-winner in women’s basketball and a three-time co-captain (1975-78). Rutter earned Big Eight Conference all-tournament team honors in back-to-back seasons in 1977 and 1978 and helped lead Mizzou to a Big Eight Conference Tournament title in 1978. Mizzou was nationally ranked in Rutter’s junior and senior campaigns… Read more »

Claude Samson

Claude Samson’s success as the boys’ and girls’ basketball coach at Northeast Nodaway High School is exceptional. His boys’ team won 15 conference championships and nine district titles. They won seven final four state tournament appearances, including three second-place finishes, for a record of 536-129.  The Northeast Nodaway girls had similar success with an .880… Read more »

Sandbothe Family

Back in the 1980s, if folks running Missouri’s tourism board wanted to attract even more eyes to the state, it could have included this line without anybody thinking twice: Sandbothe Family Basketball Machine. No, it wasn’t a factory that produced basketballs. More accurately, it was a seemingly endless assembly line of Sandbothe children – seven… Read more »

Jim Scanlon

Some college graduates want to go straight to the big time after walking across the graduation stage. However, Jim Scanlon wasn’t afraid to start his career at the bottom of the coaching ladder. Nor was he allergic to rolling up his sleeves to get a job done. Call it a great road taken. Scanlon coached… Read more »

Walt Schoenke

Walt Schoenke was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1993 as a sports contributor. He enlisted in the Air Force in 1941 and served four years as a crew chief on the F-86 Fighter Sabre Jet. After his military career, Schoenke eventually joined the Monsanto Company as a national sales manager for… Read more »

Sue Schuble

In her 25th year as the head basketball and volleyball coach at Kickapoo High School, Sue Schuble has had a tremendous career in both sports. A graduate of Raytown High School, Southwest Missouri State University and the University of Maryland, Schuble began her coaching career in 1973 at Kickapoo. As head basketball coach, Schuble has… Read more »

Joe Scott

For successful athletes, writing the next chapter of their lives can be a challenge. However, Joe Scott offers a blueprint. Once a basketball standout known as “the Gainesville Gunner” in high school and who later starred for the University of Missouri, Scott has become an integral part of the Poplar Bluff community over the past… Read more »

Scott County Central Boys & Girls Basketball

For years, they played in a crackerbox gym perfect for small-school basketball, with the locals in their community north of Sikeston packing the place on winter Friday nights. Banners of success and retired jersey numbers now decorate the new place, named for its patriarch, Ronnie Cookson. So one can imagine if there ever was a… Read more »

Lyndal Scranton

He grew up in Springfield following the local high school or local college basketball teams, eventually kept stats of the Central High School boys and did the same for American Legion baseball teams. Usually for Lyndal Scranton, his summer nights ended in either calling in scores or running them by the Leader & Press. “That… Read more »

Dr. Richard Seagrave

Dr. Rick Seagrave earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan before heading south to work on his doctorate at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. It was at UTMB that Dr. Seagrave did his residency in Orthopedics. Always interested in sports, Rick moved to Los Angeles, where he completed a fellowship… Read more »