Who was the first person elected to the Baker University Athletic Hall of Fame?
Who was responsible for the construction of the football stadium and track at Baker?
Which former basketball player and coach is a member of both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame?
Which former football player and coach held the record for the most wins in program history for 50 years until the record was broken by Charlie Richards in 1992?
Which former baseball player and coach played professional baseball for eight years?
Which former athletic director founded the NAIA?
If you answered Emil Liston to all six questions you are a winner. Here is his story.
EMIL S. LISTON 1890-1949
Emil Smith Listpon was born August 21, 1890 in Cedar County, Missouri to George McClellen and Ella Smith Liston. Emil always said he was from Stockton, Missouri, but the family home was probably closer to Eldorado Springs, Missouri. Emil’s father, George, was a physician, but also served as the superintendent of schools in Eldorado Springs and was postmaster of the Filley post office south of Eldorado Springs. In 1907, George moved his family to Baldwin City and he setup his medical practice there. Emil had two brothers and a sister. His older brother, Virdon, attended Baker, graduating from the Baker Academy in 1907 and from Baker University in 1911. He was superintendent of schools in Waverly and Oswego before serving for a long time as superintendent in Fort Scott. Virdon’s son, Max, became a world-famous engineer, scientist and inventor. His younger brother, Merrill, Merrill and his wife, Ann Wellshear Liston, attended Baker, graduating in 1931. He became a physician in South Bend, Indiana.
Emil followed in his older brother's footsteps, graduating from the Baker Academy in 1909 and from Baker University in 1913. While at Baker he earned 11 letters in football, basketball and baseball and was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon. Emil began his coaching career while still at Baker leading the Baldwin City High basketball squad from 1911 to 1913 and his 1912 team won the Kansas High School Invitational Tournament. During the summers from 1911 to 1919, Emil played minor league baseball, including for the El Dorado Crushers in the Class D Kansas State League in 1911, for the Emporia Bidwells in the Kansas State League in 1914 and for the Wichita Witches/Colorado Springs Millionaires in the Class A Western League in 1916 and 1919.
After graduating, from 1913 to 1915, Emil was the director of physical education and basketball coach at Fort Scott High School. Under his leadership, Fort Scott reestablished the basketball program and won the District and Southeast Kansas Tournament championships. In 1916, he served as head basketball and baseball coach and assistant football coach at Kemper Military School guiding his basketball team to the military school championship. Later that same year, Emil was hired by the Michigan College of Mines in Houghton (which is now known as Michigan Technological University) as Director of Athletics. During the next two years he restored the school’s basketball program and founded an Upper Peninsula basketball tournament for high schools. On December 26, 1916, Emil was married to Marie Thogmartin of Fort Scott in an elegant ceremony at the bride’s home. In 1918, he became the head football coach at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He also coached basketball and baseball at Wesleyan. In his two years as Wesleyan’s football coach, he compiled a record of 10-3
In April 1920, he announced his resignation from Wesleyan and indicated that he intended to leave coaching to move to Kansas to work on his father-in-law’s farm.
His retirement from coaching didn’t last long. In the fall of 1920, he was hired by his alma mater, Baker University, to coach football, basketball and baseball. From 1920 to 1942, he coached the Baker football team to 97 wins, a record that stood until 1992 when it was broken by Charlie Richard. Along the way his teams won 7 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference championships in 1922, 1927, 1928, 1934, 1937, 1941, 1942. Baker University appeared in 21 consecutive football games without defeat from the 1926 through 1928 seasons. His Baker basketball teams also had a winning record and won conference titles in 1935 and 1937. Baker University's baseball squads consistently produced winning records under Emil's direction. He became the athletic director, and, in that role, he established intramural athletics, instituted a Department of Physical Education with a coaching major. The Wildcats took eight KC track and field titles in nine years (1928–1936) and started the annual Baker University Relays. In addition to his other duties, Emil usually spent summers in the Baker University Public Relations Office contacting prospective students and raising money from alumni. He did take a couple of summers off to teach football at Harvard University in the summers of 1928 and 1929, and he received a master’s degree in education from Harvard in 1930.
When Emil came to town, Baker’s athletic facilities were less than ideal. The six-acre Cavaness Athletic Park (later expanded to 10 acres) was a gift from Alpheus Cavaness in 1901. In 1920, the park included a dirt running track which became muddy with rain and a wooden grandstand that was deteriorating. In 1928, The Board of Trustees proposed that a permanent fence and a worthy stadium for spectators be erected with an appropriate entrance in memory of Baker men who had sacrificed their lives in the World War. The following year the Great Depression hit, and no progress was made raising the funds needed for the improvements. Finally, in 1934, Emil took on the responsibility of making something happen. He came up with the idea of paying students to do the work and asking alumni to pay for the student labor allowing them to pay their tuition. From the Baker News-Bulletin of September 1935: “The funds from the alumni have helped Baker in her three-point program: furnishing students' employment, enabling the college to balance its budget and erecting a stadium. Coach Liston working untiringly during the hot summer months securing money, seeing friends for material, borrowing tractors and cement mixers, and gathering all things required for the work. George Dalton, an alumnus and former football star, was present to oversee the pouring of the cement. The students have quarried the rock north of town, have hauled it to the field, crushed, mixed and poured it into the forms.”
In addition to being an outstanding coach and athletic director, Emil proved to be an effective organizer in the broader sports community. He organized the Kansas conference Coaches Association and served three years as its president. He represented the Kansas Collegiate Athletic conference at four American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national meetings, and he helped form the AFCA National Membership Committee in 1931 and was an AFCA District Representative in 1934.
Emil chaired the Missouri Valley AAU Records Committee (1935–1937) and participated on the National AAU Records Committee (1936–1937). In 1937, he had gained national prominence by establishing the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball (NAIB) with the help of his longtime friend James Naismith, the inventor of the basketball. The NAIB organized and administered small-college basketball at the national level, drawing up rules and standards for district and national competition. The group also sought to provide uniformity and equity in policies and practices and conducted workshops and clinics for basketball coaches. The annual NAIB basketball tournament began at Kansas City, Missouri in 1937 and expanded from an eight-team field to a 32-team field the next year. The NAIB basketball tournament rapidly became one of Kansas City's biggest sports attractions. In 1940 became the first NAIB executive secretary-treasurer and served in that capacity until his death in 1949. In 1945 he resigned his position at Baker University to devote full time to the NAIB. In 1952 the NAIB became the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
Emil suffered a severe broken knee when refereeing a high school football game in October 1943 and had a heart attack in Colorado the next year. He died of a heart attack at his home on October 26, 1949. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Fort Scott, Kansas.
Emil was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1974. From the HOF website: “With sheer initiative, drive, and foresight, Emil Liston fought for uniformity and equality in college athletics. A dedicated administrator, Liston envisioned a small college national tournament and organized the NAIB (now known as the NAIA). The first NAIA Tournament was played in Kansas City with an eight-team field in 1937. Liston and James Naismith were close friends, and the game's inventor was a primary force in the development of the NAIB tournament. Naismith also authorized that the championship award be given in his name. Liston, who resigned from his position at Baker University in 1945 to work full-time for the NAIB, was the organization’s first executive director until his death in 1949. Liston’s legacy, the NAIA basketball tournament, now plays with 32 teams and is an exciting all-day, all-night showcase of small college basketball that attracts hoop enthusiasts from around the country.” In 1977, Emil was the first person elected to the Baker University Hall of Fame. In 2006, he was elected to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in their inaugural class.
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