From staff reports

sports@joplinglobe.com

Tom Rutledge, who has built Missouri Southern’s cross country and track and field programs into dominant forces in the MIAA, will be inducted this weekend into the Missouri Southern Athletics Hall of Fame.

Volleyball player Neely Burkhart and football player Terry Dobbs join Rutledge in this year’s class, raising the hall’s membership to 85 student-athletes and two teams.

Dobbs, Burkhart and Rutledge will be present at an alumni reception at the Spiva Art Gallery tonight from 6 to 8. They will speak at an alumni brunch that begins at 9 a.m. Saturday in Finney Hall, and they will be inducted during halftime of the Lions’ game Saturday afternoon against Washburn.

Rutledge, a coach for the Lions the last 19 seasons, has directed the Lions to conference men’s cross country championships the last three years and seven league titles since 2000. Last year on their home course, the Lions won the South Central Region title, finishing ahead of eventual national champion Abilene Christian, and has five runners finish among the top 12.

The Lions have qualified in seven of the last eight NCAA Division II national meets.

The Lions also won MIAA indoor track titles in 2004 and 2007, giving Rutledge nine league titles in the last eight years.

Rutledge has coached five All-Americans in cross country and 26 in track and field. In 2005, the Lions’ pole vaulters swept the top five places in the MIAA outdoor meet and the top three spots in the national outdoor championships.

Burkhart, a native of Joplin, was a four-year starter at outside hitter for the Lions’ volleyball team and a captain for two years.

She ranks first in school history in career digs (1,776) and is second in service aces ((211). She’s also fourth in kills (1,421) and hitting percentage (.268) and 10th in games played (445).

She earned all-MIAA honors three years, academic all-MIAA honors three years, and she was an academic All-American in 1996 (first team) and 1995 (second team). She was named MSSU’s outstanding graduate in 1998. She earned her master’s degree in physical therapy from Kansas, and she has worked as a physical therapist and athletic trainer at Freeman Health System.

Dobbs was the Lions’ placekicker and backup punter in the early 1980s.

He holds school records for career points by a kicker (192), extra points (102) and field goals (30 of 51). He also attempted a school-record 10 PATs in 1982 against Evangel, and his career-best 52-yard field goal is tied with Eric Jackson for second longest in school history behind Harvey Derrick’s 57-yarder in 1975.