ST. LOUIS -- Four former Missouri State University football players are part of the Missouri Valley Football Conference's (formerly Gateway Conference) Silver Anniversary Team, the league announced early Tuesday. The 67-player team is part of the MVFC's season-long celebration of its 25th season as Division I FCS league. 

Headlining the list for Missouri State is former quarterback DeAndre Smith (1987-90) who guided the Bears to their first NCAA playoff appearances in 1989 and 1990. The two-time all-conference standout was named Offensive Player of the Decade by the conference during its 10-year anniversary celebration in 1994 and was twice named the league's Offensive Player of the Year. The 1990 First-Team All-America quarterback holds the MVFC record for must rushing touchdowns by a quarterback (36) and accounted for 6,346 yards in total offense during his Bears' career.

The most-recent Bear to play in the NFL, Brad St. Louis (1996-99), was also on the Silver Anniversary Team. The former Cincinnati Bengals veteran was a first-team all-conference tight end his last three seasons at Missouri State and earned All-America honors his senior campaign.  He caught 93 passes for 1,074 yards at MSU which were both school records for a tight end prior to the emergence of the team's current All-America standout Clay Harbor.

Former Canadian Football League standout Adrion Smith (1990-93) is the conference's all-time leader in interceptions (24), and claimed All-America honors in both 1991 and 1993.  He was on the MVFC's first-team all-conference squad three times, from 1991-93. He played 12 seasons in the CFL and was a four-time all-star in the league while winning three Grey Cub Championships (1996, 1997 and 2004) with the Toronto Argonauts.

The other MSU representative on the Silver Anniversary Team is kicker Travis Brawner (1997-99). Brawner earned All-MVFC first-team honors three straight seasons from 1997-99 and was a First-Team AP All-America kicker in 1997.  He holds the Missouri State record for consecutive PATs kicked (51) and is the team's No. 3 all-time scorer (225) and scored in a school-record 33 consecutive games.

The team was decided by nearly 2,500 on-line votes to the league's Web site from July to October.

Plans are underway to recognize Missouri State's four Silver Anniversary Team recipients during preseason festivities next fall.

Missouri State (5-4, 3-3) hosts Indiana State at Plaster Field this Saturday at 1 p.m. The team's 10 seniors will be recognized before the game, and tickets are available by calling (417) 836-7678 or on-line at www.MissouriStateTix.com.