Sports

Why did they wait so long to allow college athletes to make a few bucks on the side? Think of all the wildly entertaining shenanigans we’ve missed out on over the years. Let’s play the feud! Jimbo Fisher is downright livid at former boss Nick Saban for saying the Texas A&M coach bought himself the best recruiting class in the country after a free-forall broke out in college athletics going by the deceptively boring acronym of NIL — Name, Image and Likeness.

A crowd of local and area supporters of the University of Missouri-Columbia and fans of Tigers athletics mingle, schmooze, and visit during the May 18 Chillicothe stop on this spring’s and summer’s MU promotional “Come Home Tour.” Among the university delegation attending the event at the Blackwater Restaurant and Lounge in downtown Chillicothe was Desirée Francois-Reed (in background at far left, facing camera while chatting with long-time Chillicothe attorney Dave Macoubrie, whose son attended and played football at Mizzou in the late 1970s and early ’80s), who is nearing completion of her first year in the high-profile, high-pressure position of director of athletics. She made her first major coaching staff decision a couple of months ago, choosing to replace Cuonzo Martin as men’s basketball head coach and hiring Dennis Gates to try to revive the fortunes of the basketball Tigers. (Photo courtesy of Eric Turner)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.

Having journeyed there last night to officially debut them as new members of the MINK League, the Chillicothe Mudcats are scheduled to host the Carroll, Iowa, Merchants at 7:05 p.m. today in the home opener of the Mudcats’ 20th season of summer, college-level, wood-bat baseball.

With a roster which includes a recent Marceline High School graduate and might have a Meadville resident back with it for a second year, as well as three returning regulars from 2021, the opening game of the Chillicothe Mudcats’ 20th season of college-level, wood-bat, summer baseball action is set for this coming Tuesday with their home opener the following evening.

Missouri’s annual hunting season on gray and fox squirrels is open (as of Saturday) and will remain open through Feb. 15, 2023.

After having only one medal-winner – granted, it was a state champion – out of a 7-entries contingent a year ago, Chillicothe High School’s trackand-field teams will seek to bring back at least a couple of medals from this weekend’s MSHSAA Class 3 State Championships meet at Jefferson City High School’s “Pete” Adkins Stadium.