Eric Hosmer, Tom Watson lead Missouri Sports Hall of Fame honors in Kansas City
The 2024 Missouri Sports Hall of Fame class, announced Wednesday at Union Station in Kansas City, covers the Chiefs, Royals and area college and high school coaches, athletes and teams.
It also elevates a past inductee to legend status.
Golf icon and native Kansas Citian Tom Watson, winner of eight major championships — including five British Opens — will have a bronze bust on display at the Legends Walkway outside the Hall of Fame in Springfield. Watson was originally inducted in 1984.
The enshrinement ceremony is set for May 19 at Union Station.
Casey Wiegmann played nine of his 16 NFL seasons with the Chiefs, starting at center for all 143 games he spent with KC’s potent offense of the early 2000s. Coached by Dick Vermeil, those teams featured Trent Green at quarterback, NFL rushing and scoring leader Priest Holmes at running back and future Pro Football Hall of Famers Tony Gonzalez at tight end and Will Shields at guard.
“I’m a small-town Iowa boy who doesn’t expect anything like this,” Wiegmann said Wednesday. “We had a really special thing in the early 2000s, and we had a lot of fun on those teams.”
Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer was a cornerstone of the teams that won the 2015 World Series and 2014 American League pennant. He spent seven of his 13 seasons in Kansas City and announced his retirement last month. Hosmer follows teammates Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain as recent Hall of Fame inductees from the Royals’ title teams.
Basketball standout Betty Lennox, who attended Fort Osage High, won an NCAA championship with Louisiana Tech and played 12 seasons in the WNBA. She was MVP of the WNBA Finals while playing for the Seattle Storm..
Northwest Missouri State basketball coach Ben McCollum has won four NCAA Division II championships in his 15 seasons in Maryville. The Bearcats, who dropped a heartbreaker to Minnesota State in a regional championship game Tuesday, went 38-0 in 2019. McCollum owns a career 394-91 record.
In his four decades as an award-winning sportswriter at The Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times, Mike DeArmond covered the University of Missouri, the KC-Omaha Kings of the NBA and the Royals in addition to eight Olympic Games. He also worked as an editor, assistant city editor and assistant sports editor at the newspapers.
Dr. Vincent Key is in his 14th season as medical director and head team physician for the Royals. Two years ago, Key served as president of the Major League Baseball Team Physicians Association.
William Jewell baseball coach Fred Flook follows his team into the Hall. Flook’s squads won 740 games over 34 seasons, with his 1968 team capturing the 1968 NAIA championship.
Dr. Ashley Wysong was a five-time state champion at Nevada High and six-time All-America in the 800 meters at Missouri. She won a silver medal at the Pan-American Games.
High school teams that will be honored include: the Pembroke Hill boys’ tennis program and its former coach, Dale Eshelbrenner, who died in 2016; the Platte County High wrestling era of 1999-2010 and coach Phil Dorman; the Plattsburg High 1979 football state championship team; and the Hickman Mills girls basketball teams from 1977-80.
Chiefs assistant running backs coach Porter Ellett will be presented the Art Hains Inspiration Award. Ellett lost the use of his right arm in an accident when he was 4 and had it surgically removed at age 16. He’s been part of Andy Reid’s Chiefs coaching staff since 2017.
Also recognized at the ceremony were the Diamond 9 Awards, presented to former Missouri high school, college baseball and softball players who have made positive contributions to the sports:
Anthony Caenepeel (Willard High/Northwest Missouri State)
Tim Dougherty (Rockhurst University)
Greg Kastner (Christian Brothers High/Missouri Western State)
Ali Jo Rogers Locher (University of Central Missouri)
Sarah Baldwin Miller (Chillicothe High/Evansville/Northwest Missouri State)
Jeff Niemeier (Oak Park High/University of Kansas)
The late Haley Pypes (Platte County High/U.S. Military Academy/Missouri Southern)
Amanda Self (Blue Springs High/Emporia State)
Jeremy Strack (William Jewell)
