If you haven’t seen the front page of this week’s issue of The Chart, you missed the Spotlight feature on former men’s basketball player Skyler Bowlin.

If you didn’t see Bowlin play the last four years, you missed one of the best athletic careers in the history of Missouri Southern.

Bowlin finished his senior season with the Lions last spring, when he led them to a 26-5 record, a regular season MIAA Championship, and a second-round showing in the South Central Regional tournament.  

Bowlin was named MIAA Player of the Year, MIAA Co-Defensive Player of the Year, South Central Regional Player of the Year, MIAA Championship All-Tournament team, a national Division-II All-Star, and an All-American by three different agencies.

He broke the all-time school record for 3-pointers in his senior campaign. He is fourth in all-time scoring at Southern with 1,664 points, third all-time with 568 assists, and second with 265 steals. He also ranks second in free-throw percentage with a 82.8 percent clip.

Perhaps his biggest individual achievement, because he would refuse to compare them to his team’s, is the contract he signed after his final game in the green and gold was over.

At the end of the season, Bowlin was contacted by the coach of a professional basketball team based in Augsburg, Germany.

The newest member of the BG Lietershofen/Statdbergen Red Kangaroos, Bowlin is currently residing in Germany, where he is playing on a one-year contract, the terms of which provide him with all-expenses paid lodging, German classes, a vehicle, two round-trip flights to Germany and back, health insurance, a membership to a local gym, and a monthly salary.

If the Red Kangaroos can take care of Bowlin so handsomely, we at Southern should do the same.

The number 12 should be untouchable in our men’s basketball program.

Not because of the statistics, the championship season or any of his other accomplishments on the floor.

Skyler Bowlin is, and forever will be, an ambassador for the University, someone Southern can truly be proud of.

Someone who should, forever, be welcome here. If he’s such a point of pride for us, we should make him proud himself.