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 »
News
Year: 2016
1979 & 1992 Three Rivers Community College basketball teams
They lived in an old dorm in downtown Poplar Bluff and, because they didn’t have a gym on campus, had to practice either at area high schools or at a state youth correctional facility. And yet from those humble beginnings rose the 1979 Raiders of Three Rivers Community College, the school’s first men’s basketball team… 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 »
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 »
Eric Williams
He was introduced to organized football at a Kansas City Boys Club on 43rd street in the 1960s. That is, despite his mom’s fears of an injury, which were understandable, given Eric Williams was basically 5-foot-nothing, 100-and-nothing. By the time he graduated high school, he was a 6-foot-2, 225-pound wrecking ball. “I always played in… Read more »
Gregg Williams
Longtime National Football League defensive coordinator Gregg Williams certainly hasn’t forgotten his roots. Over the years, his foundation has gifted millions of dollars to school and youth athletics in his hometown of Excelsior Springs. “I always wanted them to know they can do anything in life,” Williams said. Williams is a prime example, having parlayed… Read more »
Brad Wittenborn
For some coaches, barking orders gets results. For Brad Wittenborn, that was never his style in coaching soccer and basketball at Notre Dame High School in Cape Girardeau. “My philosophy was to treat the athletes with respect and concentrate on what they could do,” Wittenborn said. “I wouldn’t take them out right away if they… Read more »
Dr. Rick Wright
There is one man in the state of Missouri who in the past 20-some years has pulled this trifecta – working as a pro in the National Hockey League, National Football League and Major League Baseball, too. Yes, the Sikeston kid who was an OK athlete – his own words – made it to the… 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 »