Kickapoo High School boys basketball coach Dick Rippee has fond memories of watching the Greenwood Blue and Gold basketball tournament as a kid.
The tournament enters its 70th year the day after Christmas. It will be about the 40th year that Rippee has followed the high school hoops action on the Missouri State campus.
“Coming from a guy that grew up in southwest Missouri and attended all the Blue and Golds with my dad, growing up in McDonald Arena and Hammons Center, and now JQH — there just haven’t been many of those since the mid-70’s that I have missed,” Rippee said.