Tom Mast
Take Pride Springfield, You Now Truly Have a Field of Dreams
In my thirty plus years of living in the Ozarks, I've seen a lot of great facilities added to the sports landscape.In my first year here in 1976 the Hammons Student Center debuted on the Missouri State campus. Later would come a major upgrade at the university's football stadium, now called Plaster Stadium. Hammons Field in downtown Springfield opened in 2004, then came JQH Arena to replace Hammons Student Center and then just last year the impressive O'Reilly Family Event Center was unveiled on the Drury University campus.
Yup, a lot of really neat, really outstanding things have gone up while I've called Springfield home.
Drury University, Cuonzo Martin, Nyla Milleson, Steve Hesser, Steve Harold -- Win 20 Times
Win 20 Times and We Think You’re Pretty Special
Article from the March/April 2010 Issue
20 wins.
It’s not necessarily the sign of greatness in college basketball, but posting 20 victories in a season has become the standard when evaluating success and failure on the collegiate level.
In the minds of fans, it truly is amazing what the difference in winning just 19 times versus finding that extra victory to push your total to 20 can mean to them. Win 19 and you’re just average, but get your hands on a 20th win and you’ve accomplished something.
Tom Mast, Jerry Alexander, Drury University Basketball, Drury Pantehrs -- Remembering "J.D."
This Season Shouldn't Begin Without Once Again Remembering "J.D."
Article from November/December 2009 Issue
Anytime I see a basketball player pull up with a left-hand jumper from about fifteen feet out, I remember seeing him do it so well, so many times.
It’s impossible for me to see someone drive the lane, take it to the hoop and reverse two-hand jam the ball without remembering they way he did it during a memorable game at the 1978 NAIA National Tournament in Kansas City.
Even though it’s been several weeks sense his sudden passing, I find myself still remembering Jerry Alexander. Remembering how he played the game and how fortunate I was to not only get to see him play, but to get a little closer than most to what I felt was one of the most gifted athletes I’d ever been around.
Big Sports, Tom Mast, Newspapers, Sports - .Com Threatens Your Sports News and My Morning Routine
.Com Threatens Your Sports News and My Morning Routine
Article from September/October 2009 Issue of Big SportsWhen it comes to getting my news and sports information, I suppose I would be what you could call a traditional consumer. I still like getting the facts the old fashioned way. I like my newspaper in the morning with my bowl of cheerios and before I close my eyes at night I use the “tube” to tell me what happened in the world during the day.
As we go to print with this September issue of Big Sports, we’ll embark on our thirteenth year of dabbling in our little world of sports journalism. And we still do it the old fashion way. Notice I said, “go to print.” We still print our information for you to read and although we’ve been offering on-line for the past couple of years at bigosports.com, we still think of ourselves as a print first operation.
Sadly that’s not the case everywhere and with many that have been printing far longer than us. Unless you’ve been dwelling in a cave the past few years, you must certainly be aware of the demise of the daily printed piece across the nation. One major newspaper after another is tumbling under the pressure of the difficult economy and there’s no telling how far and how deep the cry to “stop the presses” will go.
Big Sports, Tom Mast, Price Cutter Charity Championship - Some Thought it Would Never Last
Some Thought It Would Never Last, But It Has... PCCC Marks Number 20!
Article from July/August 2009 IssueIn 1989 when the PGA’s Ben Hogan Tour event came to Springfield to compete for the first time at the newly opened Highland Springs Country Club, I remember wondering to myself, I wonder how long this will last?
As someone that absolutely loves the game of golf, I was thrilled to see our little piece of the world popping up on the big time sports map by hosting the event. It’s just that I’d been in the Ozarks long enough to know that we sometimes enjoy new things for awhile and just like a child on Christmas morning, we’re ready to play with the next toy that’s opened.
And you know that quite easily could have been the fate of the annual golf visit the PGA makes here. Fortunately it hasn’t happened.
During the past nineteen summers, local golf fans and just sports fans in general have religiously marked their calendars and made the trek to the southeast corner of the city to watch the up and coming players on the professional circuit. And for their part the players we’ve watched haven’t disappointed us. We’ve been able to see the next great ones during the early stages of their careers and then followed them as they marched up the PGA ladder, first and often contending, then eventually winning tournaments and allowing us to boast that we saw them “before they were somebody”.
