Robert Penn – Football Coach – Class of 2014 The tapestry of Bob Penn’s life presents an interwoven pattern of faith, family, friends, and sports. His journey to enshrinement in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame began after his parents, Robert and Inez, moved young Bob and his two sisters from Kansas City, MO to… Read more »
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Sport: Football
Carl Peterson
In the midst of building the Kansas City Chiefs’ Golden Era of the 1990s and early 2000s, team president and general manager Carl Peterson met a man who was about to build the Golden Era of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. That was then-CEO & Executive Director Jerald Andrews, who invited Peterson to attend… Read more »
Gary Pinkel
Paging Gary Pinkel … you are wanted by the statues … Gary Pinkel. Indeed, had public address announcers of press boxes across the Show-Me State bellowed those words, they would have been met with applause. After all, he is the man who rode off into the sunset in 2015 as the winningest football coach in… Read more »
Plattsburg High Shool 1979 State Championship Football Team
In the summer of 1979, during the hot and humid days north of Kansas City, the football players readying for Plattsburg High School’s season hit a two-week training camp ready to work. In some ways, they could have taken their lunch pails and hardhats to the field daily. After all, they had a job to… Read more »
Ed Podolak
Ed Podolak – Football Ed Podolak was born on a small farm near Atlantic, in Southwest Iowa on September 1, 1947. His father, Joe had just returned from his four years fighting in the Philippines when he married Dorothy Pont, a country school teacher. Neither parent had any history in sporting activities, so it was… Read more »
Dr. E. A. Porter
Dr. Edward Addison “Doc” Porter was a lifelong resident of the Hannibal, Missouri area and a sports enthusiast. While still pursuing his degree at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery, Dr. Porter was a student physician for the athletic teams of Northeast Missouri State University in Kirksville. While in that capacity, he became friends… Read more »
Doug Potts
Beginning in 1966 and finishing in 2000 with a record of 213-132-2, Doug Potts coached the Bolivar High School football team for 35 years. A Neosho native, Potts was Football All-Time Letterman at Pittsburg State University (1961-1964) and All-Conference in 1964. Doug was named the Missouri State Football Coach of the Year in 1992 and… Read more »
Warren Powers
The call came in after his first season as a head coach of a major college football program out West. On the other end of the line was the University of Missouri athletic director and a job offer to, in essence, come back home. For Warren Powers, who grew up in Kansas City and had… Read more »
Neil Rackers
A graduate of Aquinas-Mercy High School in St. Louis, Neil kicked professionally from 2000 to 2011 for the Cincinnati Bengals, Arizona Cardinals and Houston Texans. A 2005 Pro-Bowler and All-Pro Selection, he led the league in field goal attempts in 2005 and 2006. He also holds the record for most 50+ yard field goals in… Read more »
Tom Rackers
Growing up in Jefferson City, with his dad, Robert, working as the advertising manager at the News Tribune, Tom Rackers spent his days reading all about the sports stars of Kansas City, St. Louis and in his hometown. Back then, five newspapers combined from those I-70 cities were delivered to the family’s doorstep – two… Read more »
2004-2006 Era Raymore-Peculiar High School Football
In the summer of 2004, or five years after the arrival of coach Tom Kruse, football players at Raymore-Peculiar High School were about to set the state aflame. Kruse’s 2002 team had finished as a state runner-up, and participation numbers kept climbing. “We told them we were going to two-platoon, meaning guys would only play… Read more »
Gil Rector
Gil Rector was born in Herman, MO and graduated from Higginsville High School in 1959. His first coaching job was in Carrollton, MO as an assistant to his former high school coach, Cliff Cromer. In the spring of 1968, Gil accepted the head coaching position at Lexington, where he completed his student teaching. In 1973,… Read more »
Jim Redd
At Northwest Missouri State University, Redd captained the team for three years, garnering First Team Defensive Lineman and Second Team Offensive Tackle awards in 1965. Jim began his head coaching career in 1976, mentoring the Bearcats of his alma mater. He was later named Director of Athletics for Northwest, and in 2003 was appointed Director… Read more »
Howard Richards
When he was younger, he grew up looking up the family tree at Uncle Ernie McMillan, an offensive lineman of the National Football League’s St. Louis Football Cardinals from 1961 to 1974, even though he loved baseball more. For Howard Richards, however, everything changed in the mid-1970s when Leon Anton, the football coach at St. Louis’ Southwest… Read more »
Tony Richardson
Noted as one of the best blocking backs to ever suit up, Auburn’s Tony Richardson spent 11 seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs from 1995 to 2005. He was selected to represent the AFC in the 2003, 2004 and 2005 Pro Bowls. He represented the Minnesota Vikings in the 2008 Pro Bowl. While Richardson’s 24… Read more »
Willie Roaf
His story, it seemed, was straight out of Hollywood: An undersized lineman from Pine Bluff, Ark., gets no offers from Power 5 schools, heads off to little-known Louisiana Tech and yet, in five years, surges to the eighth overall selection in the 1993 National Football League Draft. Think Willie Roaf’s work was done? Hardly. Over… Read more »