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COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Mizzou athletics department added six people to its hall of fame this week, including four former athletes and two former administrators.

Former athletics director Mike Alden, men’s basketball’s Kareem Rush, football’s Brock Olivo, women’s basketball’s Sophie Cunningham, volleyball’s Alyssa Munlyn and former sports information director Bob Brendel make up MU’s 2025 Hall of Fame Class.

“This group represents the very best of Mizzou Athletics,” current AD Laird Veatch said in a statement. “In their own ways, each honoree contributed significantly to the success and tradition that define our department and our university. We are thrilled to celebrate their accomplishments and welcome them into the Hall of Fame.”

The six new inductees will be enshrined during a September ceremony, bringing the MU Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame up to 262 members and four inducted teams.

Alden’s tenure as athletics director included some of the most transformational decisions in the recent history of Mizzou sports. He spearheaded the Tigers move from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference in 2012, plus the construction of Mizzou Arena and other MU facilities.

Alden also hired Gary Pinkel to coach Missouri’s football team, which wound up producing 118 wins in 15 seasons, making Pinkel the program’s winningest coach.

Within administrative circles, Alden is also recognized for having produced “Alden’s Army” — a diaspora of sorts made up of administrators who worked under him at Mizzou. Veatch is among that group.

Alden’s 17-year tenure as Missouri’s AD is the second-longest in school history to only the 28 years spent in the big chair by Don Faurot, the coach and administrator for whom MU’s football field is named.

Rush, a lefty sharpshooter who played for the Tigers from 1999-2002, still holds the program record with a career 3-point percentage of 43.9%. He wrapped up his collegiate career with 1,584 points, 456 rebounds, 174 assists and 201 steals — plus a streak of 40 straight games with at least one made triple.

With Rush on the floor, Mizzou made it to the NCAA Tournament three times, including a run to the Elite Eight in 2002. Rush was the Big 12’s co-freshman of the year in 2000 and first-team all-Big 12 the next two seasons.

Olivo, a Borgia product who ground his way to a spot in MU’s gridiron lore, finished his four-year career as the Tigers’ leader in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. From 1994-97, he amassed 3,026 yards on the ground and 27 scores while famously playing on four special teams units despite the workload — at least in part due to his legendary intensity during workouts.

Mizzou retired his No. 27 in 2003. After coaching in the NFL and Europe, Olivo took a job on coach Eli Drinkwitz’s staff. He’s now listed as a special teams assistant.

After consulting on the Tigers’ women’s basketball coaching search, Cunningham cemented her place in the school’s hall of fame with her playing career still going. As an MU legacy and hometown product, she spent four seasons leading the women’s hoops program to four NCAA Tournament appearances.

After scoring a school-record 42 points in her debut, she went on to pour in 2,187 over the course of her career, making her the all-time leading scorer. She cracked the All-SEC first team three times and was a third-team All-American in 2019. The WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury drafted her that year, and she was traded to the Indiana Fever earlier this year.

Munlyn was a four-time All-American at Missouri from 2015-18, setting program records in blocks and hitting percentage, plus several defensive single-season marks that have yet to be touched. She returned to the program after playing, working as an assistant coach from 2019-22.

Brendel, a St. Louis native who was a sports information director at MU from 1980-2000, helped found the athletics department’s hall of fame — and is now in it. He ran point, from a media and records standpoint, for the men’s basketball and football programs at various points in his tenure and expanded the department’s collection of records. He has since returned to the press box and office part-time as a historian and archivist.

�ZOU to You’ Tour coming to town

Mizzou’s offseason fan caravan will stop in the greater St. Louis area next week, bringing a group of coaches and athletes to town in an annual offseason fixture. Missouri will host the event from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday at Chicken N Pickle in St. Charles. The tour stop is free and open to the public, though MU has asked attendees to register through the athletics department website.