The St. Louis track and field community lost a pair of legendary people in the past week.
Rick Stovall and Vince Bingham were just awesome individuals in the sport. Stovall was a superstar sprinter at Berkeley High in the mid-1980’s. Bingham was a tremendous coach who was respected at the local, regional and national levels during his career. Both gentlemen passed away just a few days apart.
Stovall was the linchpin of Berkeley’s powerhouse program from 1984-87. The Bulldogs were one of the great high school sports dynasties in St. Louis prep sports under the direction of Hall of Fame coach Rod Staggs.
Stovall was instrumental in helping create that dynasty as he led the Bulldogs to four consecutive state championships during his stellar career. He was the most decorated athlete in the history of the program as he won 12 state championships. He won four individual state titles in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. He was also a member of eight state championship relay teams.
In the 1987 Class 3 state meet, Stovall won the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. He also anchored the 4×100- and 4×200-meter relay teams to state titles as the Bulldogs held off their rivals from New Madrid County Central to win the overall team state championship. That was the first state championship meet that I attended as a media member. Stovall put on a show that day.
“He was fast, but he also had so much heart and grit,” Staggs said. “He was unbelievable.”
Stovall also ran some memorable anchor legs for the Bulldogs’ sprint relay teams. One race in particular that Staggs remembers was the 1987 Sectional meet at Clayton in the 4×200-meter relay.
There was a dropped baton in the final exchange of the race that put the Bulldogs way behind the field. Stovall got the baton in last place and ran a tremendous anchor leg to get the Bulldogs into third place and qualifying spot for the Class 3 state meet, which was the following week.
“I clocked him in 19.8 seconds on his split,” Staggs said. “It was unreal. When you had him at the end of the relay, you were never out of the race. It turns out that we won the 4×200 the following week at the state meet and got the 10 points. We ended up winning the team state championship by 10 points.”
Stovall was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2019 as part of the Berkeley High Track Program.
Vince Bingham is a member of the Missouri High School Cross Country/Track Coaches Hall of Fame. He has had tremendous success at the high school, junior college and collegiate levels. His greatest success as a head coach came at Missouri Baptist, where he led the program to two NAIA outdoor national championships and one indoor national championship.
He also had coaching stints at Lindenwood University, Mizzou, Kansas, Northern Illinois, Maryville, Southern Illinois and Lincoln University among others. He also coached a number of high schools in the St. Louis area. At every stop, he has helped mentor and develop some talented athletes into becoming national champions.
Bingham has travelled the country and world throughout his career, but he is a true son of Jefferson County, where is one of the area’s greatest sports legends. He was born and raised in Crystal City. During the summers, he coached with the Jefferson County Jets Track Club.
In addition to being a Hall of Fame coach, Vince was also a Hall of Fame person. He was a man who was also beloved by everyone who knew him. If you talked with him for 10 minutes, you felt like you were talking to a lifelong friend. He lived his life to help young people and he helped scores of kids fulfill their dreams and realize their potential. He was just an amazing man.
Track and field is one of my favorite sports and Vince was one of the people who I loved talking track with. During the 1990’s, I made it a point to visit the annual Jefferson County track meet each year. After the meet was over, Vince would take me to a place called Squeakers, which was his favorite spot in Crystal City. We would spend the rest of the night talking track and eating chicken wings. It was the best time. But then, Vince was one of the best people.
Rick Stovall and Vince Bingham are two St. Louis stars that will never be forgotten.
Services for Rick Stovall will be held on Friday, September 26 at Shalom Church (Berkeley Campus), 6136 Garfield in Berkeley. Services begin at 10 a.m.
Visitation for Vince Bingham will be held on Saturday, September 27 from 8:30 to 10 a.m. at Grace Life Chapel, #1 Victory Drive in Pevely. There will also be a celebration of life to honor Vince Bingham on Friday night at halftime of Crystal City’s home football game against Gateway STEM.