The longtime voice of Missouri State University Athletics has announced his retirement. Art Hains says the next season – his 44th with MSU – will be his last.
Hains plans to work home football, men’s basketball and baseball games during the 2024-2025 season before closing out his career on September 13, 2025 when the Bears host Southern Methodist University at Plaster Stadium – their first in the FBS program. Hains graduated from SMU in 1977.
Soon after graduating from SMU, Hains came to Springfield to work as sports director for radio station KGBX, according to a news release from Missouri State. He also took over the assignment of radio broadcasts for Missouri State football and men's basketball that same year and added MSU baseball down the road. He left Springfield in 1981 for a job with Dallas station KRLD but returned to MSU in 1985, where he has been the school's sports voice ever since.
Hains has announced more than 3,000 Bears events. He was forced to step back in September of 2022 when West Nile Virus left him paralyzed, with respiratory challenges and at times fighting for his life. Hains beat the odds and returned as pregame and postgame host for the Kansas City Chiefs Radio Network in August of 2023 before announcing four home football broadcasts for the Bears last fall. And he resumed broadcasting home men’s basketball games last winter.
Hains was inducted into the Springfield Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2003, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2017, and the Missouri State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022 before receiving the John Sanders Spirit of The Valley Award in 2023.
He said he decided to retire because his physical limitations have made it more difficult for him to prepare for and describe the games the way he used to.
In a statement, Hains said, "I would like to thank all the great people with whom I've worked at the university, but most of all the great Bears fans who have been amazing with their support of me and my family," Hains said proudly. "I have been blessed to still be around for these last two years and blessed to still be on the air. Looking ahead, I'll still be around Missouri State games, cheering from the stands and looking forward to a bright future for the Bears!"
He plans to spend more time with his wife, Lisa, and two children, Chris and Kathleen, as well as two grandchildren.
