MSSU Athletics Hall of Fame
Terry Joyce played just one season for the Lions, but that one season was not only the best season ever by a punter at Missouri Southern, but he is also the career leader in kick average, as well.
Joyce was an All-American as both a punter and a tight end for the Lions in 1975. That year, Joyce led the nation in punting, averaging 43.4 yards per kick. He had 51 punts for 2,214 yards including a long of 72 yards.
Joyce went on to sign a free agent contract with the St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League where he made the team out of training camp and played the entire 1976 season and half of the 1977 campaign. Joyce went on to play for the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers.
After his NFL career, Joyce worked for the Rawlings Sporting Goods Company before later joining the Miller Brewing Company as a distributor and a salesman. He moved on to the Major Brands Company and became one of its top distributors and eventually was the General Manager, then Vice President, as well as part owner.
Joyce grew up in Northeast Missouri in Edina, and was a graduate of Knox County High School. He and his wife, Linda, had one son, Brandon, and a daughter Lindsay. Brandon went on to play college football at Indiana, as well as Illinois State, while Lindsay became a doctor. Brandon then went on to play in the NFL himself but was tragically killed in a robbery attempt in 2010. Terry would succumb to brain cancer the following year.
Terry and his son Brandon served together forever as legacy donors. The pair decided to become donors to help promote medical and scientific research for brain-related injuries. The pair fought for concussion advocacy, awareness, education, understanding, diagnosis and injury management and hoped to help protect players of all ages and make the game they loved much safer. Brandon was the first Concussion Legacy Foundation donated brain of a professional and former NFL player to be diagnosed without evidence of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) by the research team at Boston University.
