Hall of Fame video
She has been a person who has strived to avoid the spotlight as much as possible. That is hard to do given the public nature of her career. But Barb Cowherd was about as successful as possible in getting that accomplished. However, like it or not, today the spotlight shines brightly on Barb Cowherd as she is being inducted into the Drury Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2019. For nearly 40 years Barb helped make the Drury athletic program a better place. Whether as coach, mentor or administrator, her dedication, insight and competitive nature helped make the Drury athletics program one of the best in the nation.
“I do not know how we could have done it without Barb,” stated then Drury Director of Athletics, Bill Harding. Fortunately, “we” did not have to find out as Harding hired Barb in 1980 as the program’s head women’s volleyball coach, head women’s tennis coach and a professor in the physical education program. “In those days there was no staff and whoever was on staff had four, five or more duties,” he said. “But Barb was a talented, bright and hard working young lady and it was not long before we knew she was the perfect person to help us get to where we wanted to go,” Harding concluded.
As a coach, Barb was exceptional. Lost in the past two decades is the fact that Coach Cowherd led the Drury women’s volleyball program for 20 years (1980-1999), far and away the longest tenured volleyball coach in Drury history. Her 487 wins is 300-plus more than any other Drury volleyball coach. She was named the NAIA District 16 Coach-of-the-Year in 1988 following that 43-11 season. Even more lost is the fact that Barb coached the women’s tennis team for four years (1981-84) with her teams finishing in the Top Three in the NAIA District 16 each year and her 1981 team placing 14th in the NAIA National Tournament. But that was before women’s athletics made its move. And it was the patient leadership of people like Barb Cowherd who helped take Drury’s athletic program as a whole, and the women’s program in particular, into the new world of intercollegiate athletics.
Barb led the volleyball program from the AIAW to the NAIA in 1981, and then to the NCAA-II in 1994. In 1999 she became the Assistant Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator and was soon elevated to Associate Athletics Director (2003). Barb was instrumental in the start of the Lady Panthers basketball program that launched in the 2000-2001 season and has helped sustain its national prominence since its inception. She played a key role in making the O’Reilly Family Event Center a reality. But as with most everything she did, she diverted any and all credit to others.
Over her nearly four-decade career, Barb helped Drury’s athletics program grow its women's sports from just two teams to 11 NCAA-II programs. The athletic program went from six sports in 1980 to 26 in 2019-20. After nearly 40 years of service to Drury University, Associate Athletics Director & Senior Woman Administrator Barbara Cowherd retired on May 31, 2019.
She has been a fixture on the Drury campus for nearly 40 years. While she has successfully avoided the spotlight for much of that time, today it shines as brightly as possible on one of the program’s biggest stars. It is most fitting that the Drury Community, on this day, Saturday, January 11, 2020, along with family and friends proudly enshrines forever Barb Cowherd as a member of the Drury Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 2019).
NOTE:
A native of Texas, Barb (Lawson) graduated from East Newton High School. She was a four sport standout athlete at Missouri Southern in Joplin (basketball, softball, track and volleyball). Inducted into the MSSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993, Barb was named MSSC’s Outstanding Female Student-Athlete her junior year. She was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2016. Barb and her husband, Gene, have resided in Purdy, Missouri for years...quite a “daily”commute to Drury!
