Show-Me Sports Legacies

Matt Stewart played football for the love of the game as a walk-on at Northwestern University in the 1990s and has authored an excellent  book about his experience,  "The Walk-On" . Matt endured the hard work and hard path of someone who wasn't recruited at all, trying the earn respect and playing time.  By persevering he became part of one of the greatest turnarounds in college foo...

Kayleigh Campbell, new General Manager for the 25 year old Chillicothe Mudcats Baseball Team joins the podcast to talk about her path to helping lead a collegiate summer wood bat baseball franchise.  Growing up in Trenton, she learned to love the game while devoting most of her efforts to education and band activities.  She attended the University of Central Missouri and earned a Bachelors in Publ...

Missouri's two professional baseball franchises have stirred the passion of baseball fans since the St. Louis Cardinals' founding in 1892; when Kansas City was awarded an expansion franchise in 1969, Ewing Kauffman's Royals sought part of the spotlight and allegiance of Missouri baseball fans.  St. Louis is a storied franchise from Rogers Hornsby and Dizzy Dean through Bob Gibson an...

Jacky Payne, played for several Missouri coaching legends before becoming one himself!  At Skyline High School, Jacky played for Bill Barton and Dale Kimberling and was a 2x All-State Selection and 2x All-Ozarks Team Member.  He went to Trenton Junior College in 1973 and played for Coach Gary Garner, then finished his college playing career with Coach Gary Filbert at Missouri Western State College...

Adrian Cox of Trenton, Missouri, fresh off his win at the National Farm Machinery Show Championship Tractor Pull in Louisville, Kentucky  joins the podcast with stories of travel, competition and achieving your dream.   Adrian has been highly successful as a 7 time winner of the Pro Pulling League , and now as the champion of the "Super Bowl" of tractor pulling in the Limited Pro Stock D...

Two 2026 inductees into the North Central Missouri College Athletics Hall of Fame, Diane Lowrey and Coach Steve Richman join us for a lively look back full of stories of NCMC basketball and softball.  Along the way we hear great stories of bus rides, boosters and the impact of grandmas sitting right behind the team's bench!  Diane, as a longtime newspaper editor, booster and trustee, and Stev...

Coach Gary Garner joins us to talk family and basketball, his playing exploits and long and highly successful coaching career that includes 562 victories as a college head coach.  A two time All-State player from West Plains, Missouri,  Coach Garner then played three years at Missouri University and began a lifelong relationship with legendary Coach Norm Stewart.  One of Coach Garner's early...

In 1929, the Grand River Six was born and the long storied history of the Grand River Conference (GRC) began.  The original six, Albany, Stanberry, Grant City, Bethany, Maysville and King City, began playing football and basketball in 1930.  Along the way membership changed until a 16 team megaconference of small schools enticed Jeremy Benson to start covering all of it.  What began as a small hob...

A lively panel and lots of audio clips from podcasts past!  Chad Boyd, fresh off winning the 2025 KTTN Fearless Forecasters football competition in his 15th year on that broadcast and Brian Upton, All-Time Winningest Girls Basketball Coach at Trenton High School (Missouri) step into the studio prepped and ready to share highs and lows in sports in 2025.  The panel chooses favorite episode clips fr...

A lively review of the creation of the North Central Missouri College Foundation Holiday Hoops Classic.  Since 2005, 266 teams from 3 states have participated in the annual event in Trenton, MIssouri.  Highlighted by David and Goliath matchups where small schools challenged quality teams from much larger schools and non-traditional matchups of teams from different conferences.  Committee members B...

In 2009 Newtown-Harris broke through and capped a 4 year era of success with a run to the Missouri Show-Me Showdown Class 1 Basketball Final.  Stymied in the quarterfinals two straight years, the Newtown-Harris team continued to develop their skills and chemistry and kept focused on their ultimate goal to play for a state championship.  Coach Tim Cool, with 574 Missouri High School Wins and curren...

Greg Stahl went from an outstanding high school and college wrestler to successful coach and administrator to Missouri State High School Activities Association Assistant Executive Director in his career long passion for creating opportunities for kids.  Each step was fueled by a desire to help students find their niche and feel part of their high school community.  From his experience as a state m...

From a program restart in 1990, Trenton Lady Bulldogs Golf, quickly rose to the top of Missouri programs with a 1997 State All-Class Championship.  They maintained a standard of excellence, placing within the top 10 in state tournaments 15 times in 20 years.  Competing against the largest high schools in the state plus the top private school programs, they took their love of golf and one another t...

Does work on the farm and small town upbringing prepare people for success in sports and life? Allen Berry and Brad Tolson, longtime local farmers and sports officials, coaches and fans tell some stories about growing up on the farm developing work ethic, teamwork, communication and problem solving skills (mixed in with some mischief!).  Clips from previous podcasts with Dr. Andy Peterson (Directo...

KTTN's Fearless Forecasters show has been on the air since 1969.  It is Missouri's longest running radio program dedicated to forecasting college football and one of the oldest in the nation.  The term Fearless Forecasters is common now, but as of the program's launch in 1969 there was only a Fearless Forecaster Newspaper Columnist in North Carolina that predates that term (by just...

Mark Curp's story began in Polo, Missouri, (Population: 539 in 1980!).  A track athlete without a track, Mark ran to a 2 mile run State Championship, then became a 7 time NCAA DII All-American and 2 time NCAA DI All-American at the University of Central Missouri (then Central Mo State University) in the 10,000 meters.  He was just getting started!  He turned professional in 1983 and ran to gl...

Greg Groggel had an Olympic Dream that blossomed into a career as an Emmy winning Film Producer.  Currently VP Unscripted/Skydance Sports, Greg has won 5 Emmys, most recently as Producer for the Netflix hit "The Redeem Team". In this episode he shares how the story of the 2008 Olympic U.S. Men's Basketball Team winning a Gold Medal in Beijing came together!  Greg tells us stories of...

Women's Sports are growing tremendously and different sports are jockeying for position as the next big thing following in the path of women's basketball, soccer and softball.  Just this week (July 16-20) the NFL and ESPN are presenting a national Flag Football tournament highlighting both men's and women's competition and Flag Football will be included in the 2028 Olympics ! ...

A lively discussion of the joys and pitfalls of youth sports.  Coach Jeremy Esry, North Central Missouri College, Head Men's Basketball Coach, joins us to talk about his new Speed and Agility Club.  This program offered through Green Hills Recreation Association launches a broader discussion on skill development vs. games and the balance required to maintain youth enthusiasm and involvement. ...

A lively profile of the storied history of Gallatin (Missouri) Golf; with 6 state titles in 20 years, Gallatin (Population: 1854) became the winningest program in Class 1 History.  Brice Garnett , current PGA Tour Professional with 2 PGA Tournament wins in a 10 year career and Chad Sullenger , member of 5 State Champion squads as a player and coach join us to tell the story of a bunch of golf lovi...

If there is big game in North Missouri, Tom Johnson is likely on the call!  In the second part of this episode we have some of the great calls from Tom's career thanks to KTTN-FM permission rights.  Hear about the rise of the NCMC basketball programs to national powerhouses in women's and men's NJCAA tournaments, great moments from Trenton Bulldog basketball and softball, Mercer and...

If there is big game in North Missouri, Tom Johnson is likely on the call!  As Sports Director for KTTN-FM and KGOZ 101.7 he covers Trenton Bulldog Football, Basketball, Softball and Baseball.  During his 22 years in Trenton Missouri he has been the broadcast voice for Princeton Football and covered big games involving Lathrop, Bethany, Milan, Mercer, Braymer, Meadville and other North Central tea...

A profile interview with Carl Carpenter covers his arrival in Trenton in 1966 and the start of the Trenton High School Tennis program for boys and girls and the building of new tennis courts.   So began a 50 year love affair with tennis!  Carl's friend and protege, Mike Bosley took over the boys team in 1975 and led a team to a 16-1 dual match record and an amazing performance in a 21 team al...

Tonight we welcome Dr. Lenny Klaver, President of North Central Missouri College and long time Wayne State, Nebraska baseball coach and Athletic Director at University of Wisconsin-Parkside for a lively baseball discussion.  Along with podcast contributor and former Trenton Lady Bulldogs Basketball Coach Brian Upton we dig in on the outlook for the Kansas City Royals in 2025 then with a nod to Bob...

Sierra Michaelis started her basketball dream in the small town of Mercer, Missouri (population 263 as of 2020!).  Through youth basketball and high school she was an offensive juggernaut; scoring 3710 points to become the 2nd all-time leading scorer in Missouri girls high school basketball history!  Her team finally broke the "Mercer Curse" to make the Final Four in her senior year of 2...