More than a centennial celebration of Missouri’s second-largest public university, Daring to Excel charts the history of Missouri State University through a tumultuous century of wars and peace, economic booms and busts, and the many cultural, political, technological, and media revolutions that have impacted the Ozarks, Missouri, and the nation as a whole. Some of the book’s subjects belong to the university uniquely: its stories of influential teachers and alumni, its triumphs and challenges in pedagogy, varsity sports, public entertainments and in community relations generally. In the research and writing of so expansive a history, Landon has relied on numerous essayist-contributors, including Robert H. Bradley, Robert Flanders, Albert R. Gordon, John H. Keiser, Arthur Mallory, Andrea Mostyn, Jon Moran, Don Payton, Mark Stillwell, Tina Stillwell, and Tom Strong.