Haley, Wildcats to enter state's Sports Hall of Fame

New Bloomfield baseball program will be inducted Jan. 29 in Springfield

The New Bloomfield High School baseball program and its longtime coach, the late Rod Haley, will be inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame next month in Springfield.

Haley - who died in March 2015 - turned New Bloomfield into a perennial power from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The Wildcats won six Class 1 state championships during that span (1986, '89, '91, '92, '93 and '96), finished third in 1985 and '87, tied for third in '95, and placed fourth in 1988.

Haley compiled a 409-105 career record at New Bloomfield, an 80-percent winning percentage that is fourth-best in state history. He was inducted into the Missouri State High School Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1998.

The Wildcats also captured a Class 2 state title under Brandon Talbot in 2011 and were the Class 2 state runners-up under Justin Forsythe in 2015.

Also to be inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame will be:

former St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Vince Coleman;

former Kansas City Royals outfielder Amos Otis;

former Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Bill Kenney;

Missouri football and basketball radio play-by-play man Mike Kelly;

Houston Astros owner Jim Crane, who played baseball at Central Missouri;

former Missouri football head coach Warren Powers;

Missouri State volleyball coach Melissa Stokes;

Missouri head trainer Rex Sharp;

B.A.S.S. champion Rick Clunn;

motocross champion Jeff Emig;

former Missouri state basketball player Kelby Stuckey;

Missouri State radio play-by-plan man Art Hains;

NFL official George Hayward;

Berkeley High School head track and field coach Rod Staggs;

Hamilton-Penney head football coach David Fairchild;

Glendale soccer coach Jeff Rogers;

the University of Central Missouri baseball program.

Induction activities will begin with a reception at the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame at 11 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 29. A second reception will be at 4 p.m. at the University Plaza Convention Center, with the dinner and enshrinement to follow at 5.

For more information, go to MoSportsHallofFame.com.