SPRINGFIELD, Missouri (KY3) – Missouri State University has announced its next Voice of the Bears following the retirement of Art Hains.
According to a university press release, Corey Riggs will take over after Art’s final game on September 13, 2025.
Hains announced in August that he would retire after the Bears’ game against SMU on Sept. 13; Hains graduated from SMU in 1977.
“My first college broadcast was an SMU basketball game in 1976,” Hains told Ozarks Sports Zone. “So my last one will be an encore game when SMU comes here next year to play the school I’ve loved since 1977.”
Riggs recently assumed the role of Director of Broadcasting at Missouri State Sports Properties and will serve as co-commentator for the football team’s home games and live commentator for all seven away games this fall.
His responsibilities as broadcast director also include partner relations, script writing, sponsorship management, production duties and public relations. In addition, he will be coordinating the weekly radio shows and reviving the Missouri State Athletics podcast in the coming weeks.
This season, Hains will be the live commentator for all five home games.
“Corey has earned this role,” Hains said. “He started as one of our studio hosts (for the radio network) and stepped in when I got sick in 2022. He is always well prepared and takes the time to get to know the players and coaches, which is so valuable to our listeners. I’m excited to pass the baton to him.”
In September 2022, while returning from a Bears football game in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Hains began to feel the effects of what was later identified as West Nile virus, one of several mosquito-borne diseases that can be transmitted to humans, including Zika virus, chikungunya virus, dengue fever and malaria.
To this day, Hains has no idea where he might have contracted the disease, but what he does know is that he is one of only 700 people worldwide who experience a severe reaction that causes paralysis each year.
Art’s spinal cord was affected and he was no longer able to breathe on his own. After his family was initially told that Art would not survive, he defied the odds, although there have been many complications and scary moments since then.
After rehab stays in Kansas City and Nebraska, Hains continued to improve after returning to Springfield.
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