Nyander Receives Filbert Five Award
Suzanne Nyander Sutton receives the Filbert 5 Award from Gordon Kinne, chairman of the board of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, during the 2018 Basketball Luncheon held on Dec. 12 at the Oasis Hotel and Convention Center in Springfield.
In the early 1980s, a four-year run of the girls’ basketball team at McDonald County High School made history, both at the state level, but even more so among the basketball fans of the county.
The team won two state championships, one state runner-up and four district titles in a fouryear span. The players and coach Jerry Davis received many awards and honors while winning over 120 games and losing just a handful in those four years.
The team was led by three players that became known as “The Triplets” (Suzanne Nyander Sutton,
Sue Thomas Buttram and LaDonna Wilson McClain), a trio of classmates that began playing together in the fifth grade at Southwest City.
None of the three were more honored than Sutton. She remains the only player in Missouri history to be named first team all-state all four years of her high school career. After her senior year, she was also named an All-American and remains the schools’ leading scorer with 2,018 points.
After graduation from MCHS, she played at Missouri Southern State College in Joplin, where she was named the conference Freshman of the Year in 1984 and named first team all-conference three times (1984-1986).
The awards did not end after her playing career did. In 2000, Sutton was named Player of the Decade for the 1980s by the Springfield New-Leader.
Most recently, on Dec. 12, Sutton received the Filbert Five Award, presented by the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame at its 2018 basketball luncheon, which included the induction of Tony Armstrong, Jacky Payne and Antony Peeler.
The Filbert Five Award is named in honor of the late Gary Filbert, a former basketball coach, Missouri Sports Hall of Fame inductee and a Missouri Sports Legend. Filbert won 260 games at Mexico High school before taking the head position at Missouri Western State College where the team won another 210 games, including national tournament appearances.
“It was very exciting to receive the award at such a very special event,” Sutton said. “It was awesome to be honored and to be included among all those great athletes.”
Joining Sutton as this year’s female honorees were Melissa Grider (Marion C. Early High School and Marshfield High School), Jeni Burnett Hopkins (Greenwood Laboratory School), Jenni Lingor (Missouri State University) and Addy Roller (Purdy High School and Drury University).
Sutton noted that, though it was her on the stage receiving today’s award, she wouldn’t have been there without the support and help of many others.
“This isn’t anything you could do by yourself,” Sutton said. “All of my teammates and coaches are a huge part of this.”
Sutton said that she and her teammates didn’t understand at the time just what they had accomplished and how it would be remembered years later. Sutton said it is at times like these when she thinks back to the glory days of the early 1980s.
“We were just playing for fun,” Sutton said.”We didn’t realize what it a big deal it was.”