Art Hains, Missouri State's beloved play-by-play voice, sets date for final call. Here's why.

Art Hains, the beloved radio voice of Missouri State athletics, has set a date for his final call.

The 2024-25 athletics season will be Hains' final full year calling play-by-play for home Bears football, men's basketball and baseball games.

Hains will have one final call on Sept. 13, 2025, the Bears' first home football game as a Conference USA program when they host SMU, his alma mater, at Plaster Stadium.

"The time has come, as it does for everyone," Hains said. "I would have probably gone a few years longer if it weren't for my circumstance but it's more difficult now to do the prep. I'm way less than I once was and I know it. It's probably time to make this move."

Hains, who first became Missouri State's play-by-play man as a 21-year-old in 1977, is still recovering from the effects of West Nile virus that he wasn't supposed to survive. He's in good health as he continues to rehab, hoping to one day regain the use of his legs.

More: 10 of Art Hains' favorite memories as a play-by-play voice as he prepares for retirement

After falling ill and, soon after, into a coma during the 2022 football season, he fought to survive hoping to return to the booth. Hains returned to Springfield near the end of the 2023 Missouri State baseball season and was on the call for Bears football's season opener later in the fall. He exclusively called home games, which he'll do again in 2024-25 with the possibility of select men's basketball road contests.

Missouri State's upcoming move to Conference USA played a part in Hains' decision, noting how difficult it would be to learn a new conference. He once heard former national sportscaster Curt Gowdy speak of how he started to get "jaded" about doing a broadcast. Hains isn't "jaded," saying he gets just as fired up about doing a Bears game but doesn't look forward to road games like he once did.

"I think I'll be alright with this once I'm completely out of it a year from now," Hains said. "I did have one caveat and that's going to be me calling the game when SMU comes here. Everybody agreed that I would absolutely be on the broadcast. That's kind of a dream game."

Hains graduated from SMU in 1976. A year later, Hains became "The Voice of the Bears" until a four-year stint in the Dallas area from 1981-85. He had an opportunity to become the play-by-play voice of the Texas A&M Aggies but the Marshall native elected to return "home" to Springfield instead. The Bears becoming a Division I program and some convincing from the late Charlie Spoonhour made the decision easy and one he doesn't regret.

More: Inside the fight to keep Art Hains, beloved voice of the Missouri State Bears, alive

From then on, Hains was behind the microphone for nearly every high and low for every Missouri State football, men's basketball and baseball event. Highlights include Winston Garland's heroics in the 1987 NCAA Tournament, the Bears' run to the Sweet 16 in 1999, Matt Hall's one-hitter against Arkansas in the 2015 Super Regional, the football program's resurgence under Bobby Petrino and countless memories in between.

Not much could keep him away from doing his job either, despite what his wife might have advised.

During the 1996 football season, Hains had squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal septum, a form of cancer. The two-year recovery required reconstructive surgery but no radiation or chemo. He missed three football games and returned to the booth in the same season.

In November 2021, Missouri State football was set to host its first playoff game in 31 years. Hains visited the emergency room that morning with a kidney stone. He didn't pass it but told everyone there was no way he was missing the game and was on the call that evening.

The only thing stopping him was his fight against the West Nile virus which he was hospitalized in the days after Missouri State football threatened to beat Arkansas during the 2022 season. A lengthy battle saw him see specialists in Springfield, Kansas City and Lincoln, Nebraska, with one of the two Lincoln hospitals he visited giving up on him. By May 2023, he was back in a Springfield rehabilitation facility. Four months later, he called Missouri State football's win over Utah Tech with his family around him.

"It's what I do," Hains said. "That was my job and I was going to do my job. I'm not going to take time off if I don't have to because I love doing these games. I wasn't going to punish myself by not doing them."

Hains isn't going anywhere. He plans on being at every Missouri State home game and will continue to be just as excited for the Bears' biggest moments as he is when he screams "bang" into the microphone after every made 3-pointer. He's talked to legendary Missouri State athletics director Bill Rowe about the transition, noting he'll be the same age as Rowe was when he retired. Hains knows sitting in the stands will take some getting used to.

Hains is thankful for those who have supported him over the years and those who helped him live out the dream he had when he was a child calling play-by-play for Strat-O-Matic baseball games with his friends. One of the greatest Missouri State Bears ever will be proud of what he accomplished when he signs off one last time.

"When people that I don't know come up to me and say 'I've listened to you since I was a kid' or 'My dad listen to you and he really enjoys your work,' that really touches my heart," Hains said. "That's very, very humbling when people go out of their way to say that.

"I think the thing I'm most proud of is that people have accepted me and embraced me through all these years and have enabled me to do what I love to do."

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Art Hains, Missouri State's beloved play-by-play voice, sets date for final call. Here's why.