HARDWOOD Mizzou Wheelchair Basketball team returns to action in Columbia by Paul Newton | pnewton@ruralmissouri.coop he coaches shout instructions and the players respond, despite the clamor of metal clanging and banging in the gymnasium. There's the distinct smell of burned rubber that fi lls the air as the intensity of the game mounts. The Tigers are excited; this is their fi rst game in nearly two years. The Mizzou Wheelchair Basketball team returned to the court for the fi rst time since early 2020 during a tournament in late January. The team has been around for nearly two decades and is one of just more than a dozen intercollegiate wheelchair basketball teams in the world. The sport offers an opportunity for athletes to pursue competition that previously might not have been available to them. The basketball program was the brainchild of the late Chuck Graham, a Columbia politician. He served as a representative and senator in the Missouri State Capitol. An accident as a teenager left him in a wheelchair. " He was a Missouri kid who had to go to the University of Illinois to study journalism and play wheelchair basketball because there were no programs here, " says Ron Lykins, head coach of the Mizzou Wheelchair Basketball team. " He made a vow that if he was ever in a position to help kids in Missouri, he would. " The Mizzou Wheelchair Basketball team exits a huddle after a timeout during a game in Columbia. When Mizzou was looking for money to help build a new basketball arena in 2001, the state representative was able to lobby for resources for a new wheelchair basketball team, according to Ron. With the funding in hand, the team was placed in the university's recreation department and Steve Paxton was hired as a coach in 2004. The Tigers' inaugural season began in 2005 with fi ve athletes. " Those fi ve guys had to play every minute of every MARCH 2022 | RURAL MISSOURI 25 T