DON PROVANCE
Football, 1946-49
Inducted February 28, 1987

Don Provance came to SMSU from Aurora and played for three very successful SMSU football coaches as he lettered four times in a career which ran from 1946 to 1949.  Provance was a freshman in Coach Howard Blair’s final season of 1946 to 1949.  Provance was a freshman in Coach Howard Blair’s final season of 1946 and then played for Coach Tommy O’Boyle on the Bears’ 7-2-1 ballclub in 1947 and the 9-2 team of 1948.  SMSU was the conference runnerup in ’47 and gained a share of the MIAA title with Northwest Missouri State in ’48.  In 1949 Coach Fred Thomsen arrived on the SMSU scene and produced another MIAA runnerup club as Provance was an SMSU co-captain.  A standout and through his career, he was an MIAA all-conference first team selection on the league co-championship team of 1948.  Provance caught the winning touchdown pass in the Bears’ 12-6 conference win over Northeast Missouri in that title year.  After Provance graduated from SMS, he had a stint in the Army and then began a coaching career which took him to Lockwood from 1954 to 1958, at Springfield Parkview from 1958 to 1963 and at Springfield Glendale from 1963 to the present.  He was a football assistant for many years and has been Glendale’s baseball coach since the school began after having also coached baseball at Parkview.  Many of his former prep athletes went on to successful careers both at SMSU and other colleges, with former Glendale baseballers Steve Rogers and Mark Bailey going on to play in the major leagues.