Class of 2024 included Anthony Bonner, Lavar Miller and more
Earl Austin Jr. already had something to celebrate in 2024. This year marked his 30th as Sports Editor for The St. Louis American.
And on Sunday (November 24th), before a capacity crowd in the Chase Park Plaza’s Khorassan Ballroom, he was enshrined in the Class of 2024 Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.
Nearly 30 individuals and programs were celebrated for their contributions to statewide athletics.
With his acceptance speech, Austin thanked those who paved the way that ultimately led him to the podium – particularly the giants of Black sports journalism.
“People like Mike Claiborne, Larry Whiteside, Charlie ‘Tuna’ Edwards, Art Thompson III and Rich Gray,” Austin said. “They were my predecessors and if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have been standing up there.”
An extra special person on Austin’s list was a man he never had the privilege of meeting. Morris Henderson was Sports Editor for The American in the 1970s. He passed away when Austin was in high school.
“As a sportswriter for The St. Louis American for the past 30 years, I still feel like I am carrying on his legacy,” Austin said in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame program booklet.
Fellow Missouri Sport Hall of Fame Class of 2024 honoree Lavar Miller proves Austin’s words true.
“The articles that were shown up there, that was Earl’s work,” Miller said. He entered for his stellar prep sports and college track career, which began at Berkeley High School – where he was a two-sport athlete in basketball and track and field.
Miller won a total of eight state championships (three in both the high jump and triple jump and two in the long jump). He won two silver medals at the 1994 Junior Olympics and two golds at the 1995 Junior Olympics.
Austin named Miller The St. Louis American Athlete of the Year in 1996.
“It’s been almost 40 years, and I just enjoy what I do,” Austin said.
The list of student athletes featured in The St. Louis American in stories written by Austin who went on to become sports superstars is seemingly endless. Among them are Napheesa Collier in women’s basketball, Ryan Howard in baseball, Ezekiel Elliot in football, Olympic Gold Medalist Dawn Harper in track and field and Bradley Beal in Basketball. There have even been cases of generational reporting – including Justin Tatum and his son, current NBA superstar Jayson Tatum.
“You don’t get into the business to get these kinds of awards, but when it comes your way you feel blessed and humbled by it,” said Austin, who is also in the Hall of Fame for his alma maters McCluer North High School and Lindenwood University. “Especially with the group of people that I received this award with. It is a very special group of people.”
God’s plan
NBA veteran Anthony Bonner is a part of the group.
“There were no grand plans of making it into the NBA or doing anything special,” Bonner said during his acceptance speech. “I was just a kid playing basketball. But God’s grace and his plan had something great for me.”
That plan put Bonner in the path of legendary coach Floyd Irons.
The very first year he walked the halls of Vashon lost. His brother was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1981.
“It took me a whole year to wrap my head around that,” Bonner said. “And find something that gave me meaning, so that I could keep going.”
One day as he roamed, God’s plan was activated when Coach Irons approached him.
“He said, ‘Son, you are tall – and I don’t know if you can play – but if you come for the team, here’s what I promise you: you are going to go to college,’” Bonner said.
Irons nodded his head in agreement from the audience.
The idea of becoming the first in his family to attend college motivated Bonner to take Irons up on his offer.
He made the team, but he made the mistake of coming to practice five minutes late.
“He said, ‘Try again next year, son.’”
Bonner sat out his whole sophomore year and came back his junior year.
“That year infused a hunger in me,” Bonner said. “It allowed me to stay focused and want to fight for something. To change my circumstances. To make my deceased brother proud as well as my mother and father. Basketball for me became something more than a game. It was my way out. It was a lifeline.”
That lifeline led him to an iconic collegiate career at Saint Louis University and a respectable run in the NBA. A special recognition from his former team, the New York Knicks, was included in the program. And now his name rests among the best in Missouri Sports.
Bonner said the lesson he learned and the values that were instilled in him through Irons at Vashon are with him to this very day.
“I was just trying to make them good men,” Irons said as he was flanked by Bonner and his family following the ceremony.
Miller also showed love to Irons. He couldn’t wait to share with Irons that they were now fraternity brothers. They posed for pictures representing Omega Psi Phi.
“When you are doing or accomplishing something, you’re doing it because you love it,” Miller said. “And then to get rewarded for it and recognized by the whole state, it’s just an unbelievable feeling.”
Mikala McGhee Bass, Angie Carr, Jonathan Griffin, Tim Holloway and Joe Wiley were also recognized as part of the 2024 cohort of Filbert Five Awardees.
Miller was moved beyond words by the thought of getting inducted alongside people he looked up to – namely Austin and Bonner.
“We are linked forever now,” Miller said. “And I can’t even tell you how amazing that feels.”