He had emerged as an intriguing football talent at a small high school outside of Chicago, didn’t get recruited by major NCAA Division I programs but did catch the eyes of a couple of Mid-American Conference schools and others in the Football Championship Subdivision. With that, anyone could have assumed that, for Clay Harbor, the… Read more »
News
Team: Missouri State University
Jason Hart
Being a big-bopper seemed pretty cool to Jason Hart. Well, until his freshman year of college when one afternoon Missouri State University coach Keith Guttin (MSHOF 2015) decided to throw him batting practice. He’s still laughing about it. “He didn’t throw BP that often. But the next thing I knew, he whizzes one over my… Read more »
Dennis Heim
Looking at his resume, you would assume he was born the size of a football defensive lineman: All-State in high school, all-conference in college and drafted into the National Football League. However, Dennis Heim emphasizes that that wasn’t quite the reality. As a sophomore at Monett High School, he had played as a 5-foot-10, 150-pounder. But the summer before his junior year, he hauled hay and, three… Read more »
Cindy Henderson Snead
The unfairness of life didn’t derail her even though it could have. You see, public schools didn’t field women’s sports teams during her childhood and teen years, and her only shot to earn a college softball scholarship was, well, old-school. In fact, this was the scene for Cindy Henderson Snead back in 1971: She and… Read more »
Holly Hesse
She has spent her career living a dream. Of coaching college softball. Of the sun often anchored above her shoulders. Of readying young women for the real world. And compiling wins. Yes, good luck ever trying to pull Holly Hesse away from the game. “I like to say that when I was 18,” Hesse said,… Read more »
Barry Hinson
He remembers it as if it was yesterday. The note handed to him by a campus security guard, with instructions to call the athletic director at Missouri State University just up I-44 in Springfield. This was way before the general public carried cell phones, and Barry Hinson wondered what it could be. At the time,… Read more »
Bruce Hollowell
Back in 1949, long before he beat a future 13-time PGA Tour winner and owner of a Master’s green jacket – and years before he himself would win the Kansas Amateur, Missouri Amateur and Missouri Senior Amateur – Bruce Hollowell found his calling. Or, more accurately, golf found him. You see, when his dad was… Read more »
Ryan Howard
He was the longshot who didn’t just make it but made it big. Who drew only mild interest from an NCAA Division I Power 5 school. Who ended up being a scholarship-less walk-on at Missouri State University. And yet who smashed his way straight to the top of the big leagues. Of course sports fans,… Read more »
Kay Hunter
Kay Hunter learned at an early age to make the most of life’s opportunities. Whether they came in the form of honing her athletic and competitive skills on the recess yard or taking advantage of a limited slate of girls athletic options as a high schooler, the Mount Vernon native wasted few chances to build… Read more »
Rick Jester
He’ll never forget the moment. All of 20 years old and having grown up in Springfield where basketball had long been the premier sport, Rick Jester walked into his family’s kitchen one Saturday and there was his old high school coach, Larry Atwood, enjoying a cup of coffee along wtih Jester’s dad. “Sit down here,”… Read more »
Rich Johanningmeier
Rich Johanningmeier has taken some unrelated steps along the path of his professional career in college athletics, and he’s excelled at all of them. A native St. Louisan whose first sports love was – and will always be – football , Johanningmeier has been a coach, athletics administrator and a valued staff member within the… Read more »
Jim Klousia
Talk about destiny. Because that may be the only way to describe Jim Klousia and the sport of tennis. You see, initially, he turned down a college scholarship to play at Southwest Baptist University before having a change of heart. And then, after graduating and heading out into the real world, the sport just kind… Read more »
Tom Ladd
In March 2001, years after setting foot in sports broadcasting, Tom Ladd found himself immersed in an amazing story – that of the Missouri State University Lady Bears basketball team. A team, that is, that reached the NCAA Final Four with the legendary Jackie Stiles (MSHOF 2002), and did so in St. Louis not from… Read more »
1992 Lady Bears Final Four team
The poet Maya Angelou once said, “If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” It’s a quote that seems fitting about the Missouri State Lady Bears that reached the 1992 Final Four. Ask any player, and you’ll hear inspiring stories about the journey along the way.… Read more »
2001 Lady Bears Final Four team
A team of destiny. That’s arguably the only way to describe the Missouri State Lady Bears of 2000-2001 basketball season. Put it this way: The team’s jersey numbers added up to 314, which as many know is the area code of St. Louis. It was the site that March of the Final Four. “We thought,… Read more »
Jean Larrick
She arrived at Springfield in 1968 and, after helping the tennis team at Missouri State University to success, realized she didn’t want to put away her racquet for good. Jean Larrick loves to tell this story, just as she loves tennis. In 1980, she was hired by Jodie Adams (MSHOF President’s Award 2017) to be… Read more »