Dr. Pat Lipira is the winningest coach in Missouri Southern State University history (total wins across all sports). Lipira coached the Lions’ softball team from 1982-2000 and the volleyball team from 1981-1987. She has a 632-275 (.697) overall record as a softball coach, but compiled a 439-162 (.730) mark while Lions were a member of… Read more »
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Team: Missouri Southern State University
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 »
Missouri Southern State University Women’s Cross Country and Track & Field Programs
Looking back at 1998, Sonia Eudy can’t help but break into a smile. That year, she and the women’s cross country team of Missouri Southern State University won the first conference championship in program history. And she still marvels about the roster, full of hidden gems. “I wasn’t a first- or second-place finisher even at… Read more »
1972 Missouri Southern State University National Championship Team
They’ll forever be one of college football’s most cherished rags-to-riches stories, a team that rose from almost nowhere and is still talked about among the old-timers in Joplin. In 1972, the Missouri Southern State University Lions hit two-a-days in August following a four-year stretch of struggles. At season’s end? They were atop NAIA Division II.… Read more »
1992 Missouri Southern State University Softball National Championship Team
In the spring of 1992, on the way back from a tournament in Florida, Missouri Southern State University softball coaches and players sensed something special in the works. The Lions had won eight of nine games, continuing a trend of the previous two seasons in which they had shown remarkable success after jumping up to… 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 »
Tom Rutledge
Tom Rutledge came to Missouri Southern in 1988 as an assistant football coach and in 1989 became the first head cross country and track and field coach for both the men’s and women’s programs. Since that time, Rutledge has been named MIAA Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year five times and Indoor Coach of… Read more »
Roderick “Rod” Smith
Rod Smith was a first team All-American at Missouri Southern State University, finishing with conference records in career receiving yards and touchdowns. Smith holds the Denver Broncos’ franchise records for career receptions, receiving yards, touchdown catches and touchdowns. With 2 Super Bowl rings, Smith is the first player from the MIAA to score a touchdown… Read more »
Betsy Taylor
The first time she picked up a tennis racket was when her teenage sister took to the courts in Carthage and, soon, Betsy Taylor fell in love with the sport. Unfortunately, the high school didn’t offer tennis for girls when she arrived as a freshman. “We didn’t have any sports for girls when I was… Read more »
Warren Turner
Warren Turner is the winningest baseball coach in the history of Missouri Southern State University in Joplin. From 1977-2007, his Lions went to five NAIA or NCAA national tournaments, never finishing lower than seventh. His 852 wins rank him 15th all-time in NCAA history. Turner was named NAIA National Coach of the Year in 1978. … Read more »
Patty Vavra
In the immediate years following passage of federal Title IX legislation – the 1972 law which created athletic opportunities for girls and women in public schools and universities – one thing was abundantly clear: Much work remained for competitors to be taken seriously. Fortunately, Patty Vavra was among those who led the way. When she… Read more »
2022 Class – Wynn Awards
CLASS of 2022 Neely Burkhart — Joplin High School/Missouri Southern State University) Teri Steer Cantwell — Olympic shot putter and former University of Missouri track & field assistant coach Julie O’Dell Griffith — Logan-Rogersville High School/Evangel University Chelsea Dirks-Ham — Missouri State University Amanda Hoenes — Branson High School/United States Marines Corps/Colorado State University Kim… Read more »
2020 Class – Wynn Awards
CLASS OF 2020 Sandy Rippee-Hammers (Hillcrest High School/Drury University) Amy Russell McNew (Branson High School/Missouri State University) Cindy Russell Rear (Branson High School/College of the Ozarks) Tina Keller Montez (Carl Junction High School/Missouri Southern State University) Kelly Richardson (Willard High School/Evangel University) Virginia MacKenzie Sparks (Festus High School/Jefferson College/Southwest Baptist University)