The R-I Athletic Department is selling 11x14 prints of an acrylic painting of a Mules helmet commissioned to the Poplar Bluff school system last month as a fundraiser by a local Renaissance man.
Mike Shane, who retired as an Air Evac Lifeteam pilot following a storied military career, is the creator of the series housed at the Poplar Bluff Museum depicting Mules Football players through the ages.
“These Mules paintings are how I got involved with the museum,” Shane explained. “I would go there every Sunday for three hours, [thumb] through all the yearbooks and pull out pictures of old Mules uniforms.”
In getting to know the staff around that time in 2008, it was soon discovered that Shane was a veteran, and he was ultimately given free rein to renovate the Kanell Hall Veterans Hall. Shane joined the U.S. Army in 1974 “to go to art college with the G.I. Bill,” he said, but instead went on to become a paratrooper, and advanced all the way up to serving the 2nd Ranger Battalion.
“I fell backwards into loving the Army, serving the Rangers. I stumbled into flight school, and couldn’t stop,” Sgt. Shane recalled. “…After that, I kept flying as an EMS. Air Evac was putting helicopters in small towns, and that’s what brought me here.”
Several years after retiring in Memphis from a military career that spanned two decades, he began working as a pilot for Air Evac, helping to open the first landing base in Poplar Bluff in 2002. Shane retired from providing air medical transportation services two years ago, reportedly clocking 7,000 hours of flight time between both professions.
Since 2022, Shane has become increasingly more involved with the school district, substitute teaching. Junior High honored the veteran this year by naming its house system after lifelong first responders in the community, including Shane House, one of six teams of staff members and students who compete through service projects.
Raised in southern California, Shane has always dabbled in art, he noted, serving as an illustrator as well as a cartoonist across occupations, additionally having work published in the motorcycling magazine, Cycle News. His paintings are available on eBay and he also has a book on Amazon entitled “Tall Tales: Stories from the Poplar Bluff Museum,” a compilation of his Daily American Republic column series.
Unframed prints of the Mules helmet cost $20, with proceeds supporting all of the sports programming, according to R-I Athletic Director Kent Keith. To reserve a copy, email the quantity desired and contact information to [email protected] or call 573-785-6471, ext. 2.
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Cutline: A framed picture of a Mules helmet painted by Mike Shane hangs in the Athletic Department at Poplar Bluff High School.