On a blistering hot July afternoon in 1981, what turned out to be the Founders of the Mid America Games, were helping a Cerebral Palsy athlete, Dick Hosty, qualify for the National United States Cerebral Palsy Games in Texas. It was our job to conduct some individual track and field trials for Dick and then certify the results to the offices of The National Association of Sports for Cerebral Palsy. (This organization later reorganized and changed its name to the United States Cerebral Palsy Athletic Association or USCPAA, and, then to its current name, the National Disability Sports Alliance (NDSA). Its website is www.ndsaonline.org.

While helping Dick, we decided that we would petition the National Office to sanction us as the organizers of a regional sports event that would qualify athletes for the National Games. We applied and were sanctioned to conduct a regional athletic competition for athletes with Cerebral Palsy and related head injuries from Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska.

Because of our geographic location, we named our games the Mid America Cerebral Palsy Games. With the help of funding from the Saint Agnes Elementary School students, the facilities Saint Agnes Elementary School and Bishop Miege High School and the help of hundreds of volunteers, we conducted our first regional games in May,1982, climaxing the celebration of the International Year of the Disabled.

The first year of the Games we hosted six teams from three states who competed "by ability, not disability". Since that first year, we have organized twenty-six more regional games, with our largest competition hosting over three hundred athletes.

By 1984 we had incorporated as the Mid America Cerebral Palsy Games, Inc. In 1991 we changed our corporate name to The Mid America Games for the Disabled, Inc., which is our current legal name. At the same time we renamed our competition the Mid America Games.

The Mid America Games grew each year. Athletes from ages 5 to 55 have come from over ten states to compete in a three-day competition that includes thirty events. Several athletes from the Mid America Games have gone on to National, International and Paralympic competition.

In addition to conducting the regional games, it has been a goal of our organization to train Board members, coaches and officials. 

Since the beginning of the Mid America Games we have expanded to include athletes with a variety of disabilities. The future of the Mid America Games looks bright as we adapt to the challenges of the changing landscape of sports for athletes with disabilities.