SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Twenty-five years ago this fall, Jackie Stiles left Claflin, Kansas, (pop: 700-ish) for what was then-Southwest Missouri State — the school she chose over Connecticut and Tennessee, among other elite programs around the nation.
"It was a miracle that she came" to what is now known as Missouri State, then-coach Cheryl Burnett said on Wednesday.
The miracle wasn't merely that she could have gone anywhere but chose to come here. Or that she became the NCAA's career scoring leader (21 years ago on Tuesday, as a matter of fact) and led the school to the 2001 Final Four in St. Louis amid a run that was something akin to Beatlemania.
It also was that the effervescent and indomitable spirit of someone who arrived here with a too-good-to-be-true tale lifted from a Norman Rockwell canvas never was spoiled or tarnished or darkened or diminished in any way.
Not by the pressure or attention or the series of heartbreaks to follow.
At a time it's easy to get lost in the meanness of the world, it's nice to be reminded of the sheer goodness, isn't it?
You could see that in any number of ways on Wednesday at the Gillioz Theater before, during and after the premiere of a documentary about her life produced by Springfield native Brent Huff.
No spoilers here about the movie ("The Jackie Stiles Story: Anything Is Possible") that will have limited engagements while Huff makes the rounds of film festivals and producers reps.
But safe to say it's both a stirring reminder of one of the great adventures in college basketball history and a very real look at the arc of her life almost a full generation later.
In fact, her story is as inspiring for its resounding peaks as for how she's contended with its crushing lows since being named WNBA rookie of the year in 2001.
Consider, for instance, the way she spoke before the movie of her ongoing battle with ocular melanoma diagnosed about four years ago: While she is generally healthy, she says, she has suffered some vision loss lately that has led to receiving injections in her eye.
"But I can't complain," she said. "I've been very fortunate."
For that matter ...
"I wouldn't wish cancer on anyone, but I can honestly say cancer has made me a better person," said Stiles, who received thousands of cards and messages of support as she underwent surgery in 2018. "And I was so inspired by the tremendous support when I was diagnosed that I vowed to do at least one small act of kindness every day. And I challenge others to do it as well. Because you just don't realize what a text or a card ... could mean to people."
So here she was on Wednesday afternoon, personally greeting nearly every one of the approximately 400 people who came to the first of two showings of the movie.
The group included Burnett, who brought flowers for her former protege.
Then the woman who more than once honored requests to meet Lady Bears fans as they were approaching death stayed afterwards to pose for pictures with young girls that she continues to inspire even all these years after her playing career started to unravel through 13 surgeries.
She knows that the very dynamic that made her a revelation, a relentless work ethic encapsulated in her daily determination to make 1,000 baskets and fearless play on the court, was part of her downfall with injuries.
But she'd do it all again if she could, and that mindset speaks to the very way she's attacked cancer (even having an exercise bike brought into her hospital room soon after the surgery) and how she has come to see her broader sense of purpose now.
"I look back at the first half of my career, and I was so selfishly focused on 'how can I be the best basketball player I can become?' " said Stiles, who has left collegiate coaching and now is focusing on personal training and basketball camps and lessons as found on jackiestiles.com. "Now I realize the second half of my career is 'how can I help the most ... people?'
"The first half it was more about success. Now I want it to be more about significance and using my platform to best help and serve people. Because so many people did that for me."
Huff had long wanted to do this for her. Having grown up here before going off to Mizzou and then Hollywood, where he has been an actor, writer and director currently appearing in "The Rookie," he was implored by family to come home to see Stiles play back in the day.
He was awed by what he saw and, finally, three years ago began to pursue it.
Asked what compelled him, he said, "I've read a lot of biographies of successful people because I want to see what they did that I can take away from them ... So why not about her?"
Jackie being Jackie, she couldn't believe anyone would want to make a movie about her and at first wondered, "Is this guy for real?" Turned out he was.
Just like her. Somehow after all this.
Something we might all be grateful for.
As she was about to see the movie for the first time, I asked her what she hoped people might take from it.
"If it could help just one person be more and do better and truly believe that anything is possible," she said, "then it was well worth my time."
Twenty-five years after she arrived here, she still has that impact on people. Not just because of how she played the game but because of something more enduring and endearing: the sincerity and grace and resilience as a person that distinguish her more than anything else.
