When Jerry Myers \u201971 was a freshman at Central High School in St. Joseph, the vice principal \u00a0took a group of students to a St. Joseph Junior College basketball game. Since then, Myers says, he has been a Griffon.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom then on, there was no question that I was only going to go to the Junior College. I knew there was nowhere else I wanted to be,\u201d Myers said.<\/p>\n
And that is exactly what he did when he graduated from high school. He competed on the Junior College basketball and track teams, and the track team was undefeated his sophomore year. Myers returned to college when Missouri Western began offering four-year degrees and earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in physical education in 1971.<\/p>\n
As a high schooler at the Junior College basketball game, one of the players that Myers watched was Charlie Burri \u201955, who became Missouri Western\u2019s first athletic director in 1966. In 1973, when Burri was looking for a sports information director, the college\u2019s first, he called Myers.<\/p>\n
Myers took him up on the offer and remained in that position for six years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was fun. A lot of it was telling people what a Griffon was,\u201d Myers said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
His years at Missouri Western saw the first official women\u2019s teams, the development of more sports teams and the hiring of more coaches. Myers is credited with creating the Griffon logo in the shape of Missouri because he wanted to use it on letters to out-of-state players that the College was recruiting.<\/p>\n
Even after he left the sports information position, he remained a fan. His two children, Jay Myers \u201989 and Kelley Schenk \u201992, are Missouri Western alumni.<\/p>\n
His son played baseball as a student, and Jerry said he enjoyed going to those games and other sporting events. Even after Jay graduated, Jerry continued to attend baseball, football, volleyball and basketball games. In fact, he and his wife, Linda, often attended away games, and still do.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe watched when Jay was playing baseball and have just continued to be Griffons,\u201d Jerry said. \u201cThe best part is getting to know the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Jerry left Missouri Western, Dr. Marvin Looney, who was president at the time, made him a lifetime member of the Gold Coat Club, and Jerry served as president of the athletics booster club for several years. He had been a member of the Gold Coat Board for more than 30 years, and just stepped down last year. He remains on the Hall of Fame Committee for Athletics.<\/p>\n
In the mid-1990s, when a basketball coach told him they were having trouble finding someone to wear the mascot costume, Jerry stepped up and wore the costume for three or four years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him I would do it on the condition that nobody knew who it was. But a story in the newspaper blew my cover,\u201d Jerry said. \u201cIt was a fun thing to do, and just a part of being a black and gold Griffon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jerry said one of his greatest moments was being inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been a Griffon. I\u2019m so proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Jerry Myers \u201971 was a freshman at Central High School in St. Joseph, the vice principal \u00a0took a group of students to a St. Joseph Junior College basketball game. Since then, Myers says, he has been a Griffon. \u201cFrom then on, there was no question that I was only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,43,33,34],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4439,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions\/4439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}