The Univ. of Missouri and Missouri Southern State Univ. “received permission from the NCAA to play a men’s benefit basketball game in tornado-ravaged Joplin on Oct. 30,” according to Mike DeArmond of the K.C. STAR. All proceeds from the game “will go toward the effort of Joplin and its residents to rebuild from the May 22 tornado that resulted in 141 deaths.” The game, the “One State, One Spirit Classic,” will be played at Missouri Southern's 3,200-seat Leggett & Platt Athletic Center. It will be sponsored by Leggett & Platt, one of “southwest Missouri’s largest employers” (K.C. STAR, 6/10). Ticket information and tipoff time "will be determined later, but the event will center around a moment of silence” at 5:41pm CT, the “time the tornado struck Joplin” (JOPLIN GLOBE, 6/10). Meanwhile, UM has sold 18,500 T-shirts to raise more than $200,000 for the school's Joplin Relief Fund. The school's athletic department worked with the bookstore to create specially designed "One State. One Spirit. One Mizzou" T-shirts with a Tiger logo and the date of the storms. The gray shirts sell for $14.95 on the school's athletic website, mutigers.com (Michael Smith, SportsBusiness Journal).
