In his 40 years covering and writing about college athletics, 2016 Missouri Sports Hall of Fame inductee Mark Stillwell steered a different course from his fellow sports information professionals. Working as Sports Information Director at Missouri State University, Stillwell shared his Bears’ weekend sports competition assignments with active participation in the U.S. Navy Reserve. From… Read more »
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Team: Missouri State University
Melissa Stokes
Back in her tucked-away office hangs a display that reads, “I learned to win by learning to lose – that means not being afraid of losing.” For Missouri State volleyball coach Melissa Stokes, it’s a reminder of her third season on campus. Of her 21 seasons on campus, that was the only time the Bears… Read more »
Kelby Stuckey
Sometimes, Kelby Stuckey just sits back and shakes his head in amazement at how his basketball career unfolded. There he was in the summer of 1984, readying for his senior basketball season at Soldan High School in St. Louis, and one day in walks an assistant coach from then-Southwest Missouri State to recruit someone else.… Read more »
Jeanette Tendai
These days, it’s hard to imagine that girls basketball in southwest Missouri wasn’t a big deal in the 1970s as it is now. But that was the reality. In fact, long before she starred for the then-Southwest Missouri State Lady Bears, Jeanette Tendai had no team to call hers until the eighth grade. Think it… Read more »
Bill Thomas
Bill (Jinx) Thomas carved one of the notable records in the entire history of Missouri State University athletics, with involvement in the basketball program which spanned nearly three decades. Coming to then-Southwest Missouri State University in 1950 as a transfer from Westminster College, the Buffalo native was a three-year starter for the Bears at guard.… Read more »
Brent Thomas
In the summers in Marshfield, about 25 minutes east of Springfield, Brent Thomas and his brother, Craig, would ride their bikes to the fairgrounds and offer to be fill-ins for summer league baseball teams. “We also organized our own baseball league with teams from the east side, west side and south side of Marshfield,” Brent… Read more »
Don West
What a way to start a career – and without really meaning to. For Don West, his sports broadcasting career basically began over a game of poker. You see, he and a friend, not long after their 1985 graduation, decided while playing poker to do a next-day mock broadcast of an American Legion baseball game… Read more »
Nora Cagwin Whitcomb
The interest from NCAA Division I softball programs came in in the mid-1990s to a suburban Kansas City pitcher, and some folks probably assumed that she would choose one from the soon-to-be Big 12 or Big 10 Conferences. Instead, Nora Cagwin Whitcomb threw everybody a curveball – with pinpoint placement. You see, her heart fell… Read more »
Jason Whittle
Talk about living a dream. In 1998, three games into an improbable National Football League career, Jason Whittle found himself in a New York Giants uniform and about to play his boyhood team, the Dallas Cowboys – all on ABC’s Monday Night Football. “There’s no way I should have been playing in the NFL,” said… Read more »
Jimmy Wright
If you think about it, he is perhaps one of the most trusted folks within Springfield’s rich basketball tradition. After all, for more than four decades, Jimmy Wright has been asked every year to work the shot clock for NCAA Division I basketball games, or handle the scorebook or scoreboard for the city’s most historic… Read more »
Dr. Mary Jo Wynn
Dr. Wynn retired in 1998 after 41 years at Southwest Missouri State University (now Missouri State University), including nearly a quarter century as a senior athletics administrator. A native of Hartville, MO, and 1953 SMS graduate, Wynn organized women’s athletics competition in 1958 with volleyball and tennis teams. She coached volleyball until 1972, guiding the 1969… Read more »
2016 Class Wynn Awards
CLASS OF 2016 (Inaugural Class) Marjorie (DeMarino) Bankovich — Missouri State University Monique (Willcut) Begley — Camdenton High School Angie (Bullock) Homeyer — Springfield Catholic High School Angela (Beckett) Johnson — Monett High School Julie Martin –– Springfield angler Kerry (Speaker) North — Lebanon High School/University of Missouri Jamie Vest — Stoutland High School/Missouri State… 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 »
2021 Class – Wynn Awards
CLASS OF 2021 Denise Buchanan (Glendale High School/University of Kansas) Val Sauer Crawford (Rolla High School/University of Missouri) Lindsey Bourne-Green (Joplin High School/University of Oklahoma) Lynne Miller (Grand Island, Nebraska High School/Missouri State University) Chealsey Russell (Kickapoo High School/Rice University/Tulsa University/McKendree University) Amy Lodes Witte (Lindbergh High School/Columbia College) Callie Newton-Woods (Republic High School/Drury University
2017 Class – Wynn Awards
CLASS OF 2017 Tara Bailes (Springfield Catholic High School/Missouri State soccer) Teresa Baird Beshore (Springfield Catholic High School/University of Tulsa tennis & basketball) Chelsea Taylor Corp (Sarcoxie High School/Missouri State-West Plains) Aleah Hayes (Ozark High School/Texas Tech University/Columbia College volleyball) Tonya Choate McCall (Mount Vernon High School/Drury University/Cactus Tour golf) Amanda Newton Plotner (Republic High… 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)