To hear the old-timers tell it now, it sounds almost too good to be true. And former standout guard Bill Thomas says as much. He’s speaking of the then-Southwest Missouri State Bears, who won the 1952 and 1953 NAIA national championships in men’s basketball. In the ’52 national semifinals, the Bears forged a tie at… Read more »
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Team: Missouri State University
Bill Mueller
Bill Mueller was a standout baseball player for nearly a decade in Missouri, starting at De Smet Jesuit High School in Creve Coeur and then spending four years at Missouri State University in Springfield. The accolades achieved in Missouri paved the way for an 11-year career in Major League Baseball, which included winning a World… Read more »
Paul Mullins
Known as “Moon”, Mount Vernon native enjoyed an outstanding football career at two Missouri colleges, and went on to become a legendary coach. Mullins lettered in football, basketball and track for three years each in high school, then lettered as a freshman football player for the then-Southwest Missouri State Bears of coach Fred Thomsen in… Read more »
Johnny Murdock
More than a dozen players who donned the maroon and white of the Missouri State University men’s basketball program moved on to play professional basketball during the past 40 years. There were even a few, like Blake Ahearn, Alize Johnson and Winston Garland, who landed in the NBA. There were some with NBA G-League experience… Read more »
Howard Quigley
Talk about having a destiny to coach. As a teen, Howard Quigley kept books on ways to play baseball, football and basketball – and you could find his nose buried in them just before the start of every season. Eventually, as a baseball player at Missouri State University, Quigley realized the obvious, that the game… Read more »
Karen Rapier
The recruiting letter still remains a favorite memory all these years later — the motivational words written by then-Missouri State Lady Bears assistant coach Cheryl Burnett, the envelope postmarked in the summer of her high school freshman year. Certainly, it changed Karen Rapier’s life – and arguably the direction of Lady Bears basketball program –… Read more »
Lynnette Robinson
In August 1987, despite having never visited the Missouri State University campus, Lynnette Robinson pulled into Springfield with only a U-Haul and a dream. Truth is, others might have gasped and high-tailed it back home, given that her new boss, recently hired Lady Bears basketball coach Cheryl Burnett, needed an assistant coach to help carry… 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 »
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 »
Aldo Sebben
Aldo Sebben has cast a long shadow across the face of Missouri State University athletics with his close involvement in all phases of the program and related activities over some three decades. His service to the University as a coach and administrator made him a respected figure in both regional and national circles and brought… Read more »
Cindy Shook
Whenever Cindy Shook drives by the Branson RecPlex – a 40-acre sports complex on the city’s north side – she cannot help but beam. It’s here were hundreds of youth baseball and softball teams from all across the country play in tournaments, and where locals use the basketball gyms and more. “It fills me with… Read more »
Reba Sims
Reba came to Missouri State University in 1969 as head coach of the women’s basketball, softball and field hockey teams and, in addition, was a full time instructor in the Health, Physical Education and Recreation Department. Her various teams won several Missouri Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women state tournaments in each sport. Under Sims,… Read more »
Charlie Spoonhour
“Spoon” was one of a kind. There are those who believe Charlie Spoonhour remembered every person he ever met, every conversation he ever had and every basketball game he ever saw. He loved basketball, he loved people, he loved life and was passionate about the St. Louis Cardinals. Spoon had a world class sense of… Read more »
Jan Stahle
A little bit of miscommunication – and perhaps some cultural misunderstanding – helped lead Jan Stahle on a journey which resulted in one of the more fascinating sports careers in the history of our state. The year was 1974, and Stahle was arriving in Springfield as an exchange student from Sweden. Before he set foot… Read more »
Chris Stark
His days shooting a rifle date back to when he was 6 years old and his dad handed him his Model 1928 Daisy BB gun. A few years later, his dad gifted a .22 long rifle from his days on a Navy shooting team. Soon, Chris Stark joined an NRA junior rifle club at the… Read more »
Jack Steck
Drury University’s head swimming coach from 1968-1983, Jack Steck set the stage for what is today one of the most respected programs in the nation. His 1968 team was little more than a club team, but within 10 years the Panther swimming team was finishing regularly in the MAIA’s Top 10. The 1981 and 1982 teams… Read more »