Truman State University Athletics

Russ Sloan lettered in four sports at Columbia-Hickman High School and then played for the University of Missouri-Columbia, earning All-Big Eight recognition and All-American honorable mention recognition in 1959. Mr. Sloan was a member of the 1959 Mizzou team, which played in the Orange Bowl and was a participant in the 1960 Hula Bowl All-Star game. He signed with the old New York Titans, but a chronic hamstring pull in the 1960 exhibition season ended his professional career. Mr. Sloan began a coaching career as an assistant at Columbia-Hickman and later served as head football coach at Centralia, Higginsville and Carthage High Schools. In 1968 he joined the university football staff as an assistant coach and was tapped as head coach the following year. During his tenure at the helm of the Bulldogs, his teams tied twice for the MIAA championship, won the conference title outright and posted a cumulative record of 22-5-1. Mr. Sloan's 1971 team was only the third Bulldog squad to win nine games in a single season. Mr. Sloan resigned as Bulldog coach in the spring of 1972 to enter the race for U.S. representative from Missouri's sixth congressional district. He won the three-man Republican primary but lost a close race in the general election. He spent the next four years as director of Motor Vehicle and Licensing for the Missouri Department of Revenue and director of finance for the Republican State Committee. He was athletic director at Southeast Missouri State University, executive director of the Bulldog Foundation at Fresno State (Calif.) and then athletic director at Fresno State. He helped create and served as executive director of the California Bowl. He then became executive director of the Fresno County and City Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Sloan then served as president of the Muncie Delaware County Chamber of Commerce.