OPINION |
We’re a few days away from Missouri State kicking off its most-anticipated football season in 32 years. If you don’t believe me about the high expectations, ask the man who’s watched more Bears football than anyone.
Art Hains begins his 43rd season as Missouri State’s football play-by-play voice next Thursday night as the preseason (Stats Perform FCS) No. 5-ranked Bears play at Central Arkansas.
“The only one that would be close would be 1990 when we were coming off the first playoff appearance, and a win, and had DeAndre (Smith) back at quarterback,” Hains said.
Bears find bizarre ways to lose
The Bears did return to the playoffs in 1990, but then fell off the Football Championship Subdivision map for three decades, with five winning seasons over a 27-season stretch. Through it all, Hains was in the booth and calling the action.
Missouri State often found creative, if not downright bizarre, ways to lose. A missed extra-point from an All-American kicker in 1997 against Northern Iowa on homecoming; Indiana State’s “Globe of Death” deceptive kickoff return in the final seconds of a game in 2014; scoring 59 at Murray State in 2010 — but allowing 72 points.
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”Maybe the low point was also at Indiana State, back in the early teens,” Hains said, recalling the Sycamores ending a multi-year losing streak at the Bears’ expense. It came on a cold day before a few hundred fans at Memorial Stadium, a venue with all the ambiance of Alcatraz.
Hains was then required to get a sound bite from opposing coaches for his post-game show, no easy task in football where the hike from press box to locker rooms is long and on this day was also joyless.
“You’d have thought they won the national championship,” Hains said of the Sycamores. “I had to go into their locker room in the midst of all that and get a sound bite with their coach, who won about three games in his career there. That was maybe the lowest example of many low moments over the years.”
Win or lose, the job doesn't change
But now, as Missouri State’s football program has enjoyed a remarkable turnaround in a short time under coach Bobby Petrino, perhaps no one is enjoying it more than Hains. While he’s always the consummate professional in describing the action accurately, no matter the sport, Hains admittedly bleeds maroon.
In the unique spring season of 2021, Hains called a football playoff game for the first time in 31 years. He did so again six months later, at home for the first time since 1989.
“You do the same job whether you’re 10-0 or 0-10,” Hains said. “You do the same preparation and, you hope, show the same level of professionalism, but a lot more people are paying attention when the team is good. And it’s just a lot more fun.
“Dennis (Heim) has been working with me for a number of years. We are Bears fans, in addition to being broadcasters. We want to tell an honest account of the game, but we want things to go well for the team. It makes the drives or flights back a lot more pleasant after a win.”
Ready to make more memorable calls
While he never stopped believing he would have a championship-worthy football team to call while his voice still worked, Hains marvels at the turnaround that Petrino has orchestrated. He’s been able to do what other good coaches, who previously won at the FCS level, were unable to do.
“They were good coaches, too,” Hains said of former Missouri State coaches Randy Ball and Terry Allen. “I think the easy answer and the best answer is recruiting. Bobby Petrino’s national reputation and his network of contacts around the country — and that of his staff — have enabled us to recruit a level of player that we’ve never done before.
“And what is maybe taken for granted is, he’s a hell of a football coach,” Hains said of Petrino. “Terry and Randy certainly were, too. But he’s just a really, really good coach. It’s third and whatever, he has a play in his back pocket that is gonna work.
“He has a strong staff with a lot of national connections and has been able to get to the playoffs.”
The next order of business, of course, is for the program to win in the postseason. Hains considers his call of Chris Potthast’s game-winning field goal to beat Maine in the 1989 playoffs — the school’s lone postseason football victory — his top football call to date.
“We’ve had some great ones in the last two years,” Hains said of memorable calls.
Could the 1989 call be supplanted for No. 1?
“I would hope,” Hains said.
Missouri State football schedule
Sept. 1 - at Central Arkansas, 7 p.m.
Sept. 8 - Tennessee-Martin, 7 p.m.
Sept. 17 - at Arkansas, 6 p.m.
Sept. 24 - South Dakota State, 2 p.m.
Oct. 1 - at North Dakota, noon
Oct. 8 - Southern Illinois, 2 p.m.
Oct. 22 - at Northern Iowa, 4 p.m.
Oct. 29 - Western Illinois, 2 p.m.
Nov. 5 - at South Dakota, 1 p.m.
Nov. 12 - Youngstown State, 2 p.m.
Nov. 19 - at Indiana State, noon
