Mizzou Century: No. 10 – George Williams

George Williams, the big center ironically nicknamed “Shorty,” remains the only player in Missouri history to be named national player of the year, an award bestowed on him by the Helms Foundation for his play in the 1920-21 season. Williams, who also collected All-America honors for 1919-20, starred for conference champions in both of his years on the varsity as the Tigers posted a cumulative 34-2 record. Regarded as the finest center in the early years of the Missouri Valley, Williams led the conference in scoring in 1921 at 17.2 points per game. The 311 points he tallied that year stood as a Missouri single-season record for over 30 years. After leaving Mizzou, Williams led two different teams to AAU national championships, and earned places on three AAU All-Tournament teams. Truly one of the era’s great players.

Mizzou Century: No. 11 – Bill Stauffer

Bill Stauffer, a 6’4” guard-turned-center from Maryville, Missouri, was the best rebounder in Missouri Tiger history. Despite typically facing larger opponents, Stauffer led Mizzou in rebounding in all three of his varsity seasons, and his per game averages in his junior and senior years (14.9 and 16.5, respectively) ranked first and second in Missouri’s first century of basketball. His career average of 13.6 rebounds is nearly two per game more than his closest competitor. In addition to rebounding, Stauffer developed into a prolific scorer, setting a Tiger season record as a senior with 368 points, and a career record with 807 points in 72 games, an average of 11.2 per contest. Stauffer twice made the All-Big Seven team, and earned All-America recognition for his play in the 1951-52 season. He then became the first Tiger to be drafted into the NBA when the Boston Celtics selected him in 1952. Stauffer, however, never played for the Celtics. Instead, a higher duty called, and he turned the Andrews Air Force base team into the world’s best military squad. His 43 was the first basketball number to be retired by Mizzou, and he remains one of only six Tigers to receive that honor.

Mizzou Century: No. 12 – Al Eberhard

Strong as a horse, smart as a whip, bigger than most, but small for his position, hard-working Al Eberhard helped power the Tigers to their first two 20-win seasons. He also combined with John Brown to give Mizzou its best frontcourt tandem in decades, maybe ever. As a sophomore, Eberhard established himself as a force, earning the first of his three MVP trophies at the Big Eight Holiday Tournament (he scored 33 to help defeat Kansas State in the final) and finishing second on the team in scoring and rebounding behind Brown. Big Al (he stood 6’5” but defended men a half-foot taller) was even better as a junior, averaging 17.0 points and 9.3 rebounds. As a senior, Eberhard stepped out of the departed Brown’s shadow. He was named first team All-Big Eight while averaging 19.7 points and 12.0 rebounds per contest. With 16.8 points and 10.1 rebounds per game (third-best all-time), Eberhard is one of only four Tigers ever to average a career double-double.

Mizzou Century: No. 13 – Melvin Booker

Little fanfare accompanied Melvin Booker’s arrival in Columbia. Norm Stewart discovered the unassuming point guard from Moss Point, Mississippi, while recruiting a more heralded peer. Good thing he did, because Booker spent the next four years maximizing his ability as well as any player in the Stewart era. A starter as a freshman, Booker deferred to Doug Smith and Anthony Peeler on the court. But he began to come into his own as a sophomore, averaging 11.6 points and 3.9 assists. With Peeler’s departure after the 1991-92 season, Booker assumed leadership of the team. His 15.8 points per game led the club in his All-Big Eight junior season. But it was Booker’s remarkable senior season that sealed his place among Mizzou’s all-time greats. His averages of 18.1 points and 4.5 assists per game do not begin to tell the story. On his way to becoming the Big Eight Player of the Year and a second team All-American, Melvin Booker imposed his will on each game, hitting every clutch shot in a season that saw the Tigers go a perfect 14-0 in the Big Eight and advance to within one game of the Final Four. Though his career began in virtual anonymity, it ended with Booker ranking among the greats in Missouri Tiger history.

Mizzou Century: No. 14 – Kim Anderson

Despite being one of the smallest centers in the conference, Kim Anderson played a key role for Missouri teams in his sophomore and junior seasons when he averaged 14 points and 8 rebounds per game, and helped the Tigers to the 1976 Big Eight championship and a run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. As a senior in 1976-77, however, he became Mizzou’s leader when he propelled the Tigers to a 21-8 record and was named Big Eight Player of the Year by UPI. That season, he scored a career-high 38 points in a win over Kansas, and he led the league in scoring with 22.1 points per game in conference play, while averaging 18.3 points and 7.9 rebounds overall. Anderson later became an assistant coach on Norm Stewart’s staff, and is currently the head coach at Central Missouri State.

Mizzou Century: No. 15 – Larry Drew

Larry Drew was Missouri’s first great modern point guard, a leader, playmaker and scorer without peer at his position. After becoming the first freshman at Mizzou to be a regular starter in the modern era, Drew helped lead the Tigers to an improbable NCAA berth as a sophomore, earning admittance by winning the Big Eight Tournament despite a losing overall record. Steady throughout his career, Drew shone as a senior, earning all-league honors and rallying a group of underclassmen to a Big Eight title and a run to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen, including an upset of ninth-ranked Notre Dame, a game in which Drew dished a then-school-record 12 assists. At his career’s conclusion, Drew was number two on Mizzou’s all-time scoring list, and he held career records for assists, steals, field goals, games played, starts and consecutive starts.

Mizzou Century: No. 16 – Herb Bunker

One of the true giants of Missouri athletics. In addition to being Mizzou’s only three time basketball All-American, Herb Bunker is one of only two Tiger student-athletes ever to letter in four sports (basketball, football, baseball, track and field). Though not much of a scorer, the massive Bunker (an offensive and defensive lineman for the football team) was a stellar defender and a peerless rebounder who played for the 1921 and 1922 Missouri Valley champs, teams rated as the nation’s best by at least one historian. Known for his gentlemanly demeanor, the native of Nevada, Missouri, went on to earn a Ph. D. and lead the MU Physical Education Department for years. He is enshrined in the Helms Basketball Hall of Fame, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and the University of Missouri Athletics Hall of Fame.

Mizzou Century: No. 17 – Arthur Johnson

At 6’9” and at least 275 pounds, Arthur Johnson combined impressive size with surprising mobility and became one of the most productive players in Mizzou history. Blessed with soft hands and a deep arsenal of post moves, Johnson surprised on-lookers in his freshman year by becoming the most prolific shot blocker ever at Missouri. In fact, he holds the number one, two, three and six positions for single-season blocked shots in Tiger history. But Johnson could do far more than swat shots. In his first season, he made the Big 12 all-freshman team, and as a sophomore, Johnson was a key player in Missouri’s late-season surge. He recorded 18 points and 14 rebounds in a win over 12th-ranked Oklahoma State that helped the Tigers sneak into the NCAA Tournament field, and later he posted 14 points and 14 boards in MU’s Sweet Sixteen triumph over UCLA. As a junior, with Kareem Rush and Clarence Gilbert gone, Johnson became a full-fledged star, averaging 16.1 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, and capping the season with a 28-point, 18-rebound effort against Marquette in the NCAA Tournament. In his final year, the team struggled, but Johnson continued to shine, especially late the year as the Tigers tried to resurrect their season. He tallied 29 points and 13 rebounds in a crucial win over sixth-ranked Oklahoma State, and he later scored 37 points in his final home game, a heartbreaking two-point loss to Kansas. Johnson holds Missouri’s all-time records for rebounds (1,083) and blocked shots (245), and he ranks fifth in points scored (1,759).

Mizzou Century: No. 18 – Charlie Henke

Charlie Henke, a 6’7” center from Malta Bend, Missouri, surely would enjoy greater stature in the memories of Tiger fans had he played on better teams (Mizzou compiled a 29-45 record during his career, which spanned from 1958-59 to 1960-61). After a solid sophomore year, Henke dominated in his final two seasons. A two-time All-Big Eight first team choice, Henke led the Tigers in scoring and rebounding as a junior (19.3 points, 11.5 rebounds per game), and was second in the conference scoring race to Wayne Hightower of Kansas. He was even better as a senior, winning the league scoring title (Hightower finished second). In the process, Henke established new Missouri season records for points (591) and scoring average (24.6 ppg, now second all-time), and passed Bob Reiter to become the Tigers’ all-time leading scorer with 1,338 career points. (he currently ranks 18th) He is one of only two Tigers who rank in the top five in career scoring average (18.1 ppg) and career rebounding average (9.8 rpg).

Mizzou Century: No. 19 – John Lobsiger

Gary, Indiana’s John Lobsiger was the finest player in the twenty seasons that George Edwards led the Missouri program (1926-46). The rough equivalent of a modern point guard, the 6’3” Lobsiger made potent use of a one-handed set shot and guided Missouri’s offense with his superior ball handling and passing. All-Conference and All-America each of his final two years, Lobsiger captained the Tigers to shares of the Big Six crown in 1939 and 1940 – their last league titles for 36 years.

Mizzou Century: No. 20 – Arthur “Bun” Browning

Younger brother of George “Pidge” Browning (number 52 on the list), Arthur “Bun” Browning played sparingly as a sophomore, but he dominated the next two seasons, earning All-America acclaim each year on teams that posted a cumulative 31-4 record. The Missouri Valley Conference’s leading scorer with a 15 points per game in 1923, Bun’s shooting ability was the stuff of legend. He was known to make shots from mid-court that “dropped through the net without getting on familiar terms with the ring.” With that kind of touch, Browning was especially valuable at a time when one player was allowed to shoot all his team’s free throws. Perhaps the finest forward in the Valley’s first 20 years.

Mizzou Century: No. 21 – Craig Ruby

James Craig Ruby may have been the greatest winner in the history of Missouri Tigers basketball. The forward from Kansas City’s Westport High was an All-American in 1918 and 1919 and a first team All-Valley performer all three of his varsity seasons. A good defender and a favorite among fans as well as his coaches, Ruby was one of the few Tigers to play two years for legendary coach Walter Meanwell. When Meanwell returned to the University of Wisconsin in 1920, the recently graduated Ruby assumed Missouri’s head coaching duties for two years. In his five seasons at Missouri, Ruby’s teams went 81-7 (48-5 as a player, 33-2 as coach) and won four Missouri Valley Conference titles. Those four champions posted the four highest winning percentages in school history, going 17-1 in 1918, 1920 and 1921, and 16-1 in 1922. Ruby went on to coach at the University of Illinois for 14 seasons, and he served as president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches in 1929.

Mizzou Century: No. 22 – Kareem Rush

Perhaps the most elegant offensive performer in Missouri’s history, Kareem Rush, a 6’6” swingman from Kansas City, possessed a picture-perfect left-handed jump shot and an effortless style that made him one of the Big 12’s most dangerous scorers. The league’s Freshman of the Year in 1999-2000, Rush went on a scoring binge in conference play, including a 31-point effort in a win at Texas Tech. The next season, Rush missed half the league slate with a thumb injury that required surgery, but he still earned a spot on the All-Big 12 team, and he garnered national recognition by scoring 29 points against Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament despite wearing a specially-made cast on his shooting hand. Then, as a junior, Rush again made the all-conference team and led the Tigers to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Rush left school after his junior season for the NBA, but his career scoring average of 18.9 points per game ranks fourth in Missouri history.

Mizzou Century: No. 23 – Curtis Berry

Selma, Alabama’s Curtis Berry, a 6’7” forward, emerged as a star as a sophomore in the 1978-79 season, when he averaged 13.5 points and 9.0 rebounds for a team that went just 13-15 overall, but tied for second in the Big Eight with an 8-6 record. The next year, as the Tigers added all-time greats Ricky Frazier, Steve Stipanovich and Jon Sundvold, Berry continued his tremendous play, averaging 14.4 points and 7.5 rebounds and earning all-conference honors for the Big Eight champs before a knee injury ended his season in the league tournament. But he returned in top form as a senior and helped Missouri to its second straight conference title. Berry finished his career with 1,328 points and 811 rebounds (then sixth and second, respectively, on the all-time list; now nineteenth and eighth), and his 55.6% field goal percentage still ranks fourth in Mizzou’s history.

Mizzou Century: No. 24 – Thornton Jenkins

The effect of the second World War on the college game is illustrated by the career of Thornton Jenkins. In 1942-43, his first varsity season, Jenkins made the All-Big Six team and was the league’s second-leading scorer with 14 points per game in conference play. Then after two years of military service, he returned for three more years, making him the rare player to (1) play four seasons, as eligibility was extended for veterans; and (2) have a career that spanned six years. In his first season back (coach George Edwards’s last), Jenkins scored more points in conference play – 66 – than any other Tiger (including 18 in his debut against Kansas State) despite playing in just five games. Jenkins then captained Sparky Stalcup’s first two Tiger teams and helped Mizzou return to winning ways after the struggles of the final Edwards years. Jenkins led the Tigers in scoring each of those two seasons and made the All-Big Six team as a senior. He went on to have a brief but successful AAU playing career before becoming an assistant coach on Stalcup’s staff. Later, Jenkins became one of the nation’s top college basketball officials.

Mizzou Century: No. 25 – Dan Pippin

Playing four seasons over a span of six years, Jumpin’ Dan Pippin of Waynesville, Missouri, was the Tigers’ leading scorer and an All-Big Six pick as a freshman in 1943-44 – a season in which he played center at just 6’1” and led Missouri to a surprising NCAA Tournament berth despite a 9-8 record. Then, after two years of military service during World War II, he returned to score 17 points in Missouri’s 39-34 upset of Kansas (in Sparky Stalcup’s first trip to Lawrence, a game in which Phog Allen and the new Tiger coach nearly came to blows). The Missouri forward went on to make the all-conference team in 1947 and to lead the Tigers in scoring in 1949. A deadly fade-away jumper made Pippin a fantastic scorer, and spectacular leaping ability made him Missouri’s top rebounder. His 802 career points briefly stood as a Missouri record. After his collegiate career, Pippin was a key player on the United States Olympic team that won the gold in Helsinki in 1952. He also won several national AAU championships as a star for the famed Peoria Caterpillar squad.

Mizzou Century: No. 26 – Byron Irvin

A 6’5” swingman who transferred to Missouri from Arkansas, Byron Irvin joined the Tigers in 1987-88 as a junior, and took some time to find his way while playing alongside senior Derrick Chievous, the Tigers’ all-time leading scorer. Once he got his feet wet, Irvin came through in style, scoring 24 in a victory over 10th-ranked Iowa State, and hitting the game-winning free throws at seventh-rated UNLV after Chievous fouled out. Irvin averaged 12.9 points per game on the season, second on the team. As a senior, he was the dominant player on one of the most talented Tiger teams ever. On a squad that included Doug Smith, Anthony Peeler, Lee Coward, Nathan Buntin, Gary Leonard, Greg Church and Mike Sandbothe (among others), Irvin led Mizzou through a wild season that saw coach Norm Stewart leave the team at mid-year to battle cancer. Irvin’s finest performance came on February 25, 1989, sixteen days after Stewart collapsed on the way to a game at Oklahoma. In the rematch in Columbia, Irvin recorded 34 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists to propel the Tigers to a 97-84 triumph over the top-ranked Sooners, Missouri’s first-ever win over a number one ranked team. Irvin averaged 19.7 points per game on the year and earned a spot on the All-Big Eight team.

Mizzou Century: No. 27 – Jevon Crudup

As physically intimidating as any Tiger ever, the scowling Jevon Crudup was six-feet-nine-inches of chiseled granite. A starter from the get-go, Crudup averaged 12.0 points and 7.1 rebounds as a freshman until a broken wrist ended his season after 15 games. The superior defender returned for an outstanding sophomore season in which he averaged 15.3 points and 8.2 rebounds while leading the team in blocked shots and finishing second in steals to Anthony Peeler. He put up similar numbers as a junior, and as a senior he was the powerful yin to Melvin Booker’s fluid yang on the only Missouri team ever to finish a conference season undefeated. His presence made opponents think twice before entering the lane. Crudup’s play was more steady than spectacular, but the numbers reveal that he was one of the best all-around frontcourt players ever at Mizzou – he ranks twelfth in career points (1,498), seventh in rebounds (874), eighth in steals (154), and fifth in blocked shots (116).

Mizzou Century: No. 28 – Kelly Thames

Kelly Thames, a 6’7” forward from Jennings High School, was a freshman sparkplug on the veteran Tiger team that swept through the Big Eight schedule undefeated in 1994. The conference Freshman of the Year, his last-second game winner against Oklahoma State preserved Mizzou’s unblemished record. He also scored 24 in the Tigers’ NCAA Sweet Sixteen win over Syracuse. High expectations for Thames’s sophomore season were dashed when a terrible knee injury during a workout cost him the entire year. Though he never regained all of the explosive athleticism he demonstrated as a freshman, he battled on, twice leading the team in scoring and rebounding. Thames shares Mizzou’s record for career starts with Steve Stipanovich at 124, and ranks seventh in scoring and tenth rebounding.

Mizzou Century: No. 29 – Bob Reiter

After a limited role as a freshman (frosh were eligible for one year during the Korean War), Bob Reiter dominated for three seasons, leading Missouri in scoring each year and in rebounding at least twice (official rebounding statistics do not exist for Reiter’s junior year). A 6’8” center from Brentwood, Mo., the lanky Reiter rode a hook shot to a school record 411 points in his junior season, and his 1,188 career points stood as a Tiger best for six years. His 27-rebound effort against Kansas State on January 15, 1955, remains a Missouri single-game record, and his career average of 11.7 rebounds per game is second only to Bill Stauffer’s 13.6.