Missouri State

In 2022, Art Hains becomes the fifth recipient of the Don Payton award, an Athletics Hall of Fame honor established  in 2017 to recognize individuals whose contributions to MSU athletics were in areas other than as a coach or student-athlete. Payton was Director of Information Services at MSU from 1956 to 1985 and he was followed in receiving the award by long-time faculty athletics representative Dr. Bruce Johnson in 2018, director of bands Jerry Hoover in 2019 and Greenwood Laboratory School coaches Paul Mullins and Larry Atwood in 2020.

Hains graduated in 1977 from Southern Methodist University and came immediately to Springfield to work as sports director for radio station KICK. He also  took over the assignment of radio broadcasts for Missouri State football and men's basketball. Hains is the Bears' longest-running sports play-by-play announcer ever. His 45 seasons with Bears football and 44 years with men's basketball eclipse the noted tenures of legendary MSU Hall of Fame broadcasters Dick Bradley and Vern Hawkins.

Hains' early years at MSU saw him broadcast alongside Hawkins, and he did some coverage of Bears' games on television in addition to his work on radio. Originally from Marshall, Mo., Hains began broadcasting football and men's basketball in 1977, and later added baseball. He left Springfield in 1981 for a job with station KRLD in Dallas and returned to MSU in 1985, where he has been the school's sports voice ever since. Hains has been the play-by-play voice for all four of Missouri State's NCAA FCS playoff appearances (1989, 1990, 2020-21, 2021), nine NIT basketball appearances, six men's basketball NCAA Tournament trips (1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992 and 1999 Sweet Sixteen), and 12 NCAA Baseball Tournament appearances (1978, 1987, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018) including three Super Regionals and the 1978 Division II World Series from Springfield, Ill., and the 2003 College World Series from Omaha, Neb.

During his career, he brought fans the play-by-play for 463 Bears football games, 1,286 men's basketball games, 967 baseball games, 39 softball games and 10 women's basketball games during his tenure at Missouri State for a total of just under 3,000 broadcasts.

Hains hosted sports talk shows on a variety of local radio stations for his years in the Springfield community. He was inducted into the Springfield Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2017 and has been the studio host for Kansas City Chiefs broadcasts since 2008.