Athletics
Murray State's men's and women's athletic teams are known as the Racers, with the exception of the baseball team which is known as the Thoroughbreds. All of MSU's athletic teams compete in the Ohio Valley Conference, whose conference roster includes 10 other regional public universities.
Murray State is particularly renowned for its men's basketball program, which has made 15 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, most recently in 2012. In 2010 as a 13-seed, Murray State won their second ever NCAA tournament game on a buzzer beater against 4th-seeded Vanderbilt. Former Alabama head basketball coach Mark Gottfried coached the Racers to three Ohio Valley Conference Championships, all three years he coached there, the only OVC coach to accomplish such a mark. The Racer men's basketball team was also led to the 2012 OVC championship by Coach Steve Prohm. The basketball program has been recognized as one of the top 30 basketball programs in modern history by ESPN.
Murray State also is home to one of the nation's top rifle programs. The Racers claimed national championships in 1978 (NRA), 1985 (NCAA) and 1987 (NCAA) and have produced six individual NCAA national champions, including two-time national titlist and 1984 Summer Olympics gold medalist Pat Spurgin.
The football program has become a steppingstone to major-college coaching success. Frank Beamer, the current Virginia Tech head coach who built that program into a national power in the 1990s and early 2000s, and formerOle Miss head coach Houston Nutt are both former Racers head coaches. Former Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen is a former Racers assistant under Beamer, and formerIllinois head coach Ron Zook was an assistant under current ESPN college football analyst Mike Gottfried, who was Beamer's predecessor as head coach.
Read more about this topic: Murray State University