Editor’s note: This is another in a series of brief profiles of the people who bring you the Morning Sun each day.
He is the dean of sports writing in the Four-States.
Jim Henry has been covering the regional sports scene for 46 years, at different times at the Joplin Globe and at the Morning Sun. After a 14-year stint as the sports editor at the Globe, Jim returned to the Morning Sun in 2021, when the new owners took over.
The seeds for his remarkable career were planted when Jim was in high school in Boonville, Mo.
“For years, I thought I was going to be a mathematics teacher,” Jim said. “But my junior year in high school, a friend, Gary Sharp, was the high school stringer for the local newspaper, and that sparked my interest.”
During his senior year in high school, Jim worked as the school stringer for the Boonville Daily News.
“Two days after graduating from high school, I was hired as the full-time sports editor,” Jim said.
Jim attended the University of Missouri for two and one-half years, commuting 25 miles between Boonville and Columbia. He continued as sports editor for the Daily News throughout that time. In 1976, he went to the Fort Gateway Daily Guide in Waynesville, Mo., and in 1978 was hired by the Joplin Globe.
Over the years, Jim has covered the highs and lows of small-college, and high school athletics in the region and is likely the only newspaper sports writer in the country who covered both the Little League World Series (Webb City) and the MLB World Series (Royals vs. Mets) in 2015.
It is a labor of love.
“I love telling stories,” Jim said. “And you never know for sure what is going to happen from day to day. Every day is different.”
