KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On Thursday morning, Kent Glaser was fiddling around in his backyard; he was basking in the warm sunshine as he tended to his shrubbery. That’s when he heard the news.



“Hey!” his neighbor hollered from her back porch. “Did you hear?”



Glaser, an assistant principal at Shawnee Mission North High School in Overland Park, stood dumbfounded. Hear what? Was the ice cream truck coming?



“Bubba!” she yelled.



Of all the names that carry weight in Gardner, this one is an oversized truck. Glaser was Gardner Edgerton High School’s athletic director when a certain three-sport phenom rose through the ranks. That superstar athlete dunked on Wichita Heights High School, former Jayhawk Perry Ellis’ basketball team. He tore it up on the gridiron and signed with Nebraska to play quarterback. He attracted baseball super-agent Scott Boras’ services.



That phenom’s name:...