Missouri State

JOE WHIPPLE
Football, 1937-38; Athletic Letterman Alumni Association secretary-treasurer
Inducted January 25, 1992

Joe Whipple came to Missouri State from Girard, Kansas, and was a football letterman for the Bears in 1937 and 1938. Whipple was a running back who played on Coach Andy McDonald’s final MSU team in 1937, and was a member of the 5-2-2 team put together in 1938 by Coach Howard Blair in his first year at the MSU helm. Following his graduation in 1940, Whipple remained an active supporter of Bear athletic programs, and became involved in the MSU Athletic Letterman Alumni Association when that organization was formed in 1960 by athletic director Aldo Sebben. Whipple was involved in a project through which hundreds of MSU athletic lettermen were located and their names and addresses were catalogued for the formative stages of the letterman alumni group. For many years, the Letterman Alumni Association elected a new president and vice-president each year, while Whipple stayed on as secretary-treasurer in a permanent capacity. In that post, he maintained the records of the organization and contact with many former Bear athletes, as well as working on the project through which the MSU Athletic Dormitory was built in the early 1960's. Whipple was involved in leadership roles in many of the association’s activities over the years, until the time the financial and administrative aspects of the association were merged with the MSU Development and Alumni office in the 1980's.