The dreams are roughly the same for every athlete: Leave a legacy both for the team you play for and the under-served of the community. Yet the reality is that it’s tough to do, for obvious reasons. And yet Derrick Thomas made it all look so effortless. Back in the late 1980s, the Kansas City… Read more »
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Sport: Football
Kurt Thompson
Sometimes, a job that you don’t pursue ends up being the spring-board to huge success. Which is why Kurt Thompson’s start as a head football coach seems almost to believe. Back in 1990, at age 23 and after his second season as an assistant coach at Webb City High School, Thompson’s phone rang one February… Read more »
Denny Thum
In 1988, a dozen years after joining the Kansas City Chiefs as an entry-level accountant in the ticketing office and then slowly climbing the ladder, Denny Thum found his career in the big-time of a National Football League front office. That’s when the Chiefs hired Carl Peterson (MSHOF President’s Award 2022) as team president, general… Read more »
Mel Tjeerdsma
Completing his 16th season at Northwest Missouri State and his 26th as a collegiate head coach, Tjeerdsma has guided the Bearcats to eleven MIAA Championships overall. In the past 11 years, the Bearcats have won three National Championships and the have made seven appearances in the championship game. Tjeerdsma has more postseason victories than any… Read more »
Vince Tobin
Following a successful football career at MU, Vince Tobin joined the Tiger coaching staff and by 1967, was the full time defensive end coach. Tobin joined the Chicago Bears in 1986. In Chicago, Tobin’s defensive unit ranked first in 1986, allowing only 258 total yards per game and just 94.2 rushing yards per game. Tobin… Read more »
Bill Tobin
A native of Burlington Junction, MO, Bill Tobin’s collegiate football career started at the University of Missouri, where he lettered from 1960-1962 on teams that had a cumulative record of 26-3-3. A halfback and kicker, Tobin was the MVP of Missouri’s 14-10 win over Georgia Tech in the 1962 Bluebonnet Bowl. He was the Houston… Read more »
George Toma
At age 10, he went to work on a vegetable farm, but not by choice. The family needed the money after his dad, a coal miner in eastern Pennsylvania, passed away. Fortunately for George Toma, the minor leagues rescued him as a teenager in the 1940s. But not because he could hit or pitch. Instead,… Read more »
James Edward “Brick” Travis
Tarkio, Missouri, is a quiet little college town tucked away in the northwest corner of the state and hardly known as a hotbed of football talent. It was there that Ed Travis starred as a high school player, dreaming of the day when he could play for the University of Missouri. But Ed’s stellar high… Read more »
Kerwin Urhahn
All Dr. Kerwin Urhahn ever wanted to do was his best. Nothing more, nothing less. Whether he was teaching math, coaching, or serving as a principal, Urhahn worked to give everything he had to the job with which he was entrusted. And in his 16 years as Executive Director of the Missouri State High School… Read more »
Valle Catholic High School Football
The story of Valle Catholic High School football may be best summarized by Joseph Hoog, a fan going back to the 1940s. He recalls a state championship game in which quarterback and future coach Judd Naeger tucked the ball and ran. “Somewhere around midfield he broke into the open, and there was a defender. I… Read more »
Bruce Van Dyke
A product of Buckner, Missouri, Bruce Van Dyke played college football at the University of Missouri, where he was a two-way starter, playing on both the offensive and defensive lines. As a first team All-Big Eight Conference defensive tackle in 1965, Van Dyke played on Tiger teams that went a combined 21-8-2 from 1963 to… Read more »
Dr. Ronald VanDam
Ronald Leonard VanDam was born January 22, 1937, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the son of Rev. Leonard and Marian Perkins VanDam. He married Jonell Willis on May 30, 1964. Dr. VanDam had a distinguished career as Head Athletic Trainer and Professor at the University of Central Missouri for 31 years. Following his arrival on campus in… Read more »
Tony Vanzant
If you can do an online search for his name, it’ll yield some jaw-dropping stories. Such as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch clip touting that he had been named to PARADE’s All-America High School Football Team. Or the UPI story in which his high school coach said, “The reason we’re 38-3 is having him in the… Read more »
Dick Vermeil
One of the most distinguished coaching careers in National Football League history officially concluded when Dick Vermeil announced his retirement from professional football in 2006. Vermeil spent 15 seasons as an NFL head coach and was a member of the league’s coaching fraternity for 19 seasons. In addition, Vermeil has had a prestigious career as… Read more »
Rick Vernon
Back in the late 1960s in the central Missouri town of Eldon, while football fans cheered as he became an All-State running back, Rick Vernon was doing double duty. That is, he kept taking mental notes from his high school coaches. “They were great influences,” Vernon said of football coach Bob Higbee and basketball coach… Read more »
Patty Viverito
At the time of her induction in 2014, Patty Viverito was in her 22nd year as senior associate commissioner at the Missouri Valley Conference and he 29th year as commissioner of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The league, which sponsored nine women’s sports and FCS football, saw its women’s programs merge with their MVC men’s counterparts in… Read more »