Murray State two-time All-America Walter Powell is our guest on episode 104 of the Runnin' with the Racers Podcast. Powell, from St. Louis, Mo., was one of the first recruits for head coach Chris Hatcher. Powell was a star for the MSU football team from 2010-13 and turned it into a four-year run as a player in the National Football League.  Now a member of the Murray State Hall of Fame in the class of 2020, Powell closed out his standout career as the Racers all-time leader in receiving yards, touchdowns and 100-yard games, while ranking second in catches. His career after football led Powell into entrepreneurship and the development of the app called Politiscope.

On episode 103, we continue to feature the 2020 class to the Murray State Hall of Fame with women's basketball great Jackie Mounts. She arrived at MSU in 1975 as the first woman to receive a full scholarship when she was recruited by hall of fame coach Dew Drop Rowlett. The native of Springfield, Ohio, Mounts was part of the inaugural season (1978-79) of women's basketball in the OVC. Now 41 years after she played her final game for the Racers, Mounts is still MSU's all-time rebounder. Since her graduation from MSU, Mounts has spent a successful career as an educator and the leader of a non-profit organization (HOPE) in her hometown that gives young people the confidence to succeed in life.

2007 Murray State hall of famer and the first from women's golf, Jessica Grace, is our guest on episode 102 of the Runnin' with the Racers Podcast. A native of Wisconsin, Jessica Grace was part of setting Coach Velvet Milkman on a path of producing 12 Ohio Valley Conference championships with three in a row from 1997-99. Grace (her maiden name is Widman) was a three-time first team OVC All-Conference selection and the first player in the MSU program to be selected for the NCAA Regional Tournament. Grace teaches in the Henderson County school system in Henderson, Ky., and has quite the story about how she found Murray State and how she desires a return to competitive golf after she beats breast cancer that was discovered in the spring of 2020.

2020 Murray State Hall of Famer, John Beaton is our guest on episode 101 of the program. Playing for MSU legend, Coach Johnny Reagan from 1965-66, Beaton was part of a pitching dominant decade of the 1960's for the Thoroughbreds. He was part of a pair of OVC regular season west division titles and one OVC championship series title. His top season was 1966 when he was honored as Co-OVC Player of the Year. A hard-throwing right-hander from Paducah’s Lone Oak High School, Beaton was a workhorse in compiling 64 innings on the mound with a league-high 12 appearances and five wins. He was selected in the Major League Baseball Draft in the seventh round (137th overall) by the San Francisco Giants in 1966 and played three minor league seasons, including a 1967 campaign that saw him win 11 games with an ERA of 1.69 in 177 innings with 176 strikeouts and only 71 walks.

It's the 100th episode of the Runnin' with the Racers Podcast and it's time to celebrate all of the great guests that have been featured on the program since late August 2018. We have selected some of the best stories that have been told by current student-athletes and Racer legends including some from the Murray State Athletics Hall of Fame. You'll enjoy these recollections about some of the formative decisions that have been made about the growth of collegiate athletics at Murray State as well as stories from some of the Racers' biggest wins. Some of these stories will make you shed a tear and others will make you laugh. So enjoy the program, the 100th of the Runnin' with the Racers Podcast.

Amber Guffey has been a student-athlete and a coach at her alma mater, Murray State University in women's basketball and is a member of the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame after her induction in 2018. Arriving from Clinton County High School in the fall of 2005 with her twin sister, Amber Guffey proceeded to have a collegiate career that exceeded her amazing prep career. From 2005-08, she helped the Racers achieve the program’s only OVC regular season championship (2008-09) and the Racers' only NCAA appearance in 2008. When she finished, Guffey was in the top-4 of every record category in the MSU program, including the distinction of becoming the first MSU player to have 300 career made free throws and 300 assists. Today she is an assistant coach with the Racers under head coach Rechelle Turner. Guffey's work ethic still shines through as she continues to shape the lives of Racer student-athletes into successful adults.

Terry Love was a one of a kind talent who was a two-time All-America (1979-80) for the Murray State football team where he was also the 1979 OVC Defensive Player of the Year. Love was a part of one of the greatest teams in Racer history as they made head coach Mike Gottfried a conference champion. After playing briefly in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, Love found his way to the Boston Breakers and Memphis Showboats of the USFL where he was once roommate to the great Reggie White. After his playing career, Love was true to his hometown of Bellwood, Illinois where he returned to his alma mater, Proviso East High School, where he coached football and taught young people for 25 years. Love is a member of the Murray State Hall of Fame, inducted with the class of 2016.

Coach Joe Pannunzio is our guest on episode 97 of the Runnin’ with the Racers Podcast. Out of Pueblo, Colorado, Pannunzio was a quarterback at Southern Colorado in 1981 and after his playing days were finished, started his career at Mesa College as offensive coordinator. This was the beginning of a long career that would take him to the highest level of college and pro football. When Pannunzio was a graduate assistant at Kansas, former Murray State coach Mike Gottfried got him interested in the Racer Football job. After arriving in 2000, Pannunzio's Racers delivered the OVC championship to Racer Nation in 2002 on that famous 52-yard field goal by Shane Andrus against Eastern Illinois. After leaving MSU in 2005, Pannunzio was part of the rise of Alabama Crimson Tide program led by Nick Saban. Three national championships later, Pannunzio is now a part of the front office with the Philadelphia Eagles as Director of Team Development.

Shawn Witherspoon, Murray State men's basketball great if our guest on the Runnin’ with the Racers Podcast, No. 96. Spoon competed for three coaches with the Racers, Tevester Anderson, Mick Cronin and Billy Kennedy. Witherspoon's legacy is winning an OVC regular season championship and he and teammates made two trips to the NCAA Tournament.  He became a member of the MSU 1,000 point club and was named All-OVC in 2007. Also on the show today, a look at how close the Racers have gotten to making the NCAA Sweet 16 and the beginning of the unveiling of the Murray State Hall of Fame class of 2020.

In 1973, Mike Thieke was early into his baseball career with the Murray State Thoroughbreds when he struck gold and tossed a no-hitter against Purdue. He later became a graduate assistant coach to legendary coach Johnny Reagan. After leaving MSU to coach at the University of Memphis, Mike returned Murray State as head coach when Reagan retired in 1993. Part of Thieke's 10 seasons with the Breds' included the 2003 team that became a true Cinderella story by winning the OVC Tournament at Brooks Stadium in Paducah, Ky. Today, we talk baseball roots and how playing and coaching at Murray State are two of the major accomplishments in Thieke's life, just behind being Grand Dad to Madison, Spencer, Colton and Clayton.