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CALLING ALL RACERS Proud To Be A Racer Publications, Inc. is compiling a database of former Racer basketball players, coaches, managers and trainers. This will allow us to keep you updated on our book titled BANNER YEARS: Chronicling Murray State Basketball 1925 - 2012. Click here to fill out the form. The passion for basketball is legendary in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, where success is expected and often demanded. These facts must have resonated in 1923 with Judge Rainey T. Wells, the founding father of Murray State University, and Dr. John W. Carr, the school’s first president, only months after the state’s General Assembly awarded the city of Murray a college whose academic focus would be on training elementary teachers. For certain, Murray State has carved its niche in the lore of Kentucky basketball, while also earning a place on the national stage. Coach Billy Kennedy’s 2009-10 Racers won a school record 31 games, including a 66-65 thriller against Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament. Is there a hoops junkie who hasn’t heard about MSU’s win over Jim Valvano’s North Carolina State team in the 1988 NCAA Tournament, the Racers’ near upset of eventual champion Kansas two days later, or this year’s 54-52 loss to Butler, which advanced the Bulldogs rather than the Racers to the tourney’s Sweet 16? And what university excelled on the hardwood with Popeye Jones, pro-claimed “The Round Man of Rebound” on TV by Dick Vitale, as its center? MSU basketball got its start in the 1925-26 season and has passed the test of time, establishing itself as one of America’s best mid-major programs. Its fans are among the most supportive anywhere, sometimes to the extreme; its natural rivals savor every victory and some now avoid scheduling MSU if they’re asked to play a game in Murray, where the Racers seldom lose. All things mentioned above are expounded in Banner Years: Chronicling Murray State Basketball, a 272-page book that tells in words and pictures the history of Racer basketball (an Ohio Valley Conference-best 36 championships, 14 NCAA tournaments, 5 National Invitation Tournament invites and 24 consecutive winning seasons, a mark surpassed only by Syracuse, Kansas and Arizona). The book profiles many of the school’s coaches and players, including Carlisle Cutchin, Joe Fulks, Johnny Reagan, Bennie Purcell, Howie Crittenden, Cal Luther, Stewart Johnson, Dick Cunningham, Lamont Sleets, Steve Newton, Jeff Martin, Popeye Jones, Marcus Brown, Mark Gottfried and Isaac Spencer. The book also has colorful anecdotes that readers will find interesting and worthy of reminiscing. Who remembers when coach Luther was hung in effigy on campus and his comments at the Murray Rotary Club? Read about both happenings in Banner Years: Chronicling Murray State Basketball. The book will be a keep-sake for your office, library or coffee table. We guarantee it!  |
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