Rural Missouri - March 2011 - (Page 29)

on scoring. In the late minutes, when the Tigers had obviously sewed up the victory, the question of whether Scott could set the new record became paramount. He hit the convincer with 39 by Jim McCarty seconds left in the game.” jmccarty@ruralmissouri.coop “As far as I remember, no one was thinking about the record,” recalls larence Gilbert couldn’t do it. Henke, who now calls Concordia his Neither could Anthony Peelhome. “We were just playing and er. Doug Smith came close, trying to get ahead of them and stay but no cigar. For 50 years, ahead. He was just hot, and he was no one has been able to top what Joe very much on target.” Scott did on March 6, 1961. Joe actually set two records that On that day, Joe set the singlenight and helped on a third. His 46 game scoring record for the Univerpoints were two more than the previsity of Missouri basketball team with ous record set by Lionel Smith in 1957 46 points. For 50 years, it has stood, against Marquette. Joe’s 18 ﬁeld goals despite the best efforts of some of the were one more than the previous Tiger’s greatest scoring machines. record, also held by Smith. With Hen“Somebody asked me, ‘When did ke chipping in 21 points, the team set you know you were on?’” says Joe, a scoring mark versus Big 8 opponents who at age 71 is still practicing law in the 97-76 win. in Poplar Bluff. “I said, ‘Well, I knew Today, only the single-game scorpretty early,’ and they said, ‘How did ing mark still stands. Doug Smith’s 19 you know?’ I took a couple of bad ﬁeld goals in 1990 is the current ﬁeld shots and they went in. So I knew goal record. And the Tigers scored 119 something was up. It was just one of points against Iowa State in 1988 to those nights.” eclipse the team scoring record. Joe had many more of those kind Doug Smith came the closest to of nights as a 6-foot-4-inch guard making Joe a footnote. In 1990, also playing for Gainesville High School. playing against Nebraska, he scored His best high school effort netted 44 points. Clarence Gilbert, Anthony 58 points, and he led Gainesville to Peeler and Willie Smith each had 43 fourth place in the 1957 state champiwhile wearing the black and gold. onship. Joe is amazed the mark, set in his “We got to the state tournament senior year, still stands. Today’s Tigers and won two and lost two. That’s play almost twice as many games when they started recruiting me at as the 1961 team. They have a shot Missouri,” Joe says. clock, which keeps opponents from Joe was born at home on a hardstalling. Then there’s the 3-point shot. scrabble hill farm in Ozark County. Today, Joe Scott is an attorney in Poplar Bluff. But 50 years ago, when the photo Asked about the record at a 50-year He electriﬁed the small community, above left was taken, he set the University of Missouri’s single-game scoring mark reunion of his teammates, Joe had this which turned out in force to see him with 46 points, a record that still stands. to say: “I said if there’s one 3-pointer, play. “Basketball still is a big deal in it don’t count,” he says with a laugh. Field House, he became the fourth “You may say I was ahead of my those schools,” he says. “Everyone Adds Henke, “Well, 46 points is Tiger in history to score more than time, or maybe I was just stupid,” Joe goes to the games.” a tough row to hoe. You can’t miss 1,000 points. He would sink 300 free says. “But it seemed to me that if you He came to the University of Mismany, and you’ve got to get lots of throws and currently ranks 30th in got the ball to the other end before souri in 1957. At the time, freshmen shots. Even with the 3-point and the career scoring, just behind his freshthey got there, you got a better shot. were not allowed to play for the var35 second (shot clock), it’s still going man coach, Norm Stewart. And if you got more shots than they sity team. “You had to go to class and to be quite a challenge for someone to But it was for that one game 50 did, you didn’t have to shoot as high make your grades before they would get to.” years ago that The Gainesville Gunner a percentage. And if you got more let you wear the colors,” Joe says. “I Both Scott and Henke played prois still remembered by Missouri fans. points than them, you won every hated it at the time, but it was an fessional basketball after college in the Nebraska was in town to play the time.” emphasis on the fact that you were American Basketball League, which Tigers, hoping for a repeat of their vicJoe scored 248 points for the Tigers there to get an education.” folded after a year. Joe played for the tory over the Tigers earlier in the seain his ﬁrst season, averaging 9.9 While proud of his scoring mark, Chicago Majors, while Charles played son. During that game, Mizzou’s big points per game. He broke loose in Joe likes to point out for the Kansas City man scored 41 points, his junior year, combining with what he and his teamSteers. so the Husker’s game Charles Henke to form one of mates accomplished off Joe left basketball plan was to shut Charles the best inside/outside comthe court. Every player after his pro stint and Henke down. binations in Tiger hisearned a degree, and seven To see video of Joe Scott’s returned to college, aimNebraska forgot Miswent on to earn master’s Poplar tory. With Henke, a record-setting game, visit ing for a career as a lawsouri’s scoring came 6-foot-7-inch center degrees. One even got his Gainesville Bluff the online edition at yer. He moved to Poplar in pairs. Starting slow, from tiny Malta doctorate — and that was • • www.ruralmissouri.coop. Bluff where his wife, Joe quickly picked up Bend, scoring with his “The Gainesville Gunner.” Judy, was from, and the pace. At one point, hook shot, Joe shot away Joe earned the nickname went to work for his father-in-law. he hit seven shots in a row. Scratchy from the outside. at Mizzou, where he became known A successful lawyer with his own black-and-white ﬁlm of that game In a game against Oklahoma, the for his freewheeling shot selection ﬁrm today, Joe looks back on his time shows a virtual smorgasbord of scortwo accounted for 60 points. Joe that would ﬁt in better with today’s at Mizzou with fondness. “This was a ing from the skinny guard. “He hit would score 31 against Indiana and 26 “Fastest 40 minutes of Basketball” great experience. The only way back from almost every spot on the ﬂoor, while playing Washington. He scored than the game plan of Coach Wilthen I was going to college was on an and some of his shots were very 461 points while averaging 18.4 bur “Sparky” Stalcup. A disciple of athletic scholarship. Nowadays, I get long,” wrote Columbia Daily Tribune points per game as a junior. Oklahoma State’s Coach Henry Iba, aggravated at young people. There’s sportswriter J.P. Hamel. “The CornHe wasn’t quite as proliﬁc as a Stalcup ran a disciplined offense that no reason to not get a college educahuskers tried putting two men on him senior, but still managed a 16.5-point emphasized passing rather than the tion. There’s just no reason.” and knocking him down, but he went average. In a home game at Brewer run-and-gun style Joe preferred. C photo courtesy Walsworth Publishing The Gainesville After 50 years, Joe Scott’s MU Gunner scoring record still stands MARCH 2011 29 http://www.ruralmissouri.coop

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rural Missouri - March 2011

Rural Missouri - March 2011
Contents
Comments
Columns
Docent of the Walking Cane Dulcimer
Out of the Way Eats
Mail Bag
The No-Dig (And Less Sweat) Gardening Alternative
Grow a Delicious Landscape
A Recycled Craft
Hearth and Home
News Briefs
The Gainesville Gunner
Marketplace
Around Missouri
Top Apps for Rural Missourians
Neighbors
Just4Kids

Rural Missouri - March 2011