Art Hains Announces Plans for Retirement as Legendary Career Comes to a Conclusion

After over four decades as the “Voice of the Bears” legendary broadcaster Art Hains is revealing when he will be stepping away from the headset.

Hains, who took over as the Bears play-by-play voice from 1977-1981, then again from 1985 to the present, says his final game will be when Missouri State hosts SMU to kick off next season on September 13, 2025.

It will be the Bears first game as an FBS football program. He is also an SMU alum, graduating in 1977.

Hains has been a mainstay in the press box of Plaster Stadium and Hammons Field, as well as courtside at Great Southern Bank Arena. However, a diagnosis of West Nile Virus in September of 2022 has led to a difficult road back.

One that he admits has taken its toll.

In a release from Missouri State Thursday, Hains said:

• “As Ricky Ricardo once famously said ‘The time has come.’ And so it is for my time as Voice of the Bears, a title I have cherished for the last 44 years. Unfortunately, due to my physical limitations, it’s become more difficult to prepare for and describe the games the way I once did. The time comes for everyone, and this being our last year in the MVC, I’ll just go out with The Valley.”

Hains says he will still frequent Missouri State University sporting events, and other activities, and looks forward to a “bright future for the Bears.”