Murray State(KY)

leojames,

I don't know much about their baseball program but I know a little bit about the school and the town of Murray. I have family in the area and several of them are graduates of the university.

First, the school seems to be a good one based on the attention they pay to their facilities. I personally think you can learn a lot about a place by how well they maintain their campus. MS is always pretty much immaculate.

Second, the town of Murray is a nice little town. It does not have a lot of variety as far as the major chain businesses go, but that may not matter to you unless your son is a shopper! They do have a Hibbett's.

Our son actually played summer ball with a boy who is a pitcher at Murray. Seemed like a nice kid. He was always polite and handled himself well on and off the field, from what we saw when we visited our son during the summer.

I know this is not really very much related to the baseball team which is what you asked about. It does, however, pertain to the total college experience. Good luck to your son.

The Racers play in the Ohio Valley Conference. They are fairly centrally located in the conference which is good for them as far as travel goes! I don't know specifically what their baseball field is like, but overall they have pretty good facilities down there. I have been into their baseball locker room. It is so spacious that it is actually used for the football visiting locker room during the fall season.

Whether it is important or not, I will note that Murray is a "dry town." To each his own there. That is not something that bothers me, but for a college student that might be important..

Murray is also a little bit "out there." I'm sure you could see that by looking at a map.

Closer trips in the OVC include Southeast Missouri (Cape Girarduea 2 hours) and Tennessee-Martin (1 hour). It's two hours into Nashville which appears to be the largest "big city."

Thank you both. Great info.

Although I don't know much about their baseball program, I have a few additional tidbits to add. Murray is very close to Kentucky and Barkley lakes - which both offer great boating/fishing/hunting. Murray is also a short distance to Paducah, although not a major city, yet large enough to offer nearby entertainment. I concur with the others, Murray State has had nice sports facilities for many years.

One more thing I think should be mentioned. As a general rule Kentucky is a BASKETBALL state. Those folks live and breathe basketball.

It may be a basketball state, but you have 6 D-1 baseball schools in Kentucky, most notably Louisville,Western Kentucky and Kentucky.

Murray State, Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky are the other 3.

My Son played a game vs Murray State and he said the field and stadium were not that impressive.

However, I have heard that the school itself is a pretty good place.(My nephew really liked it there!)

The baseball team is unique in that their nickname is the "Thoroughbreds", or "Breds", and all of the other sports are the "Racers". I think the story is that when the school changed it's nickname, the baseball team had just bought new uniforms and they couldn't afford new ones, so they kept the name over the years?

gitnby, here's what wikipedia says...

quote:

Originally, Murray State athletic teams were known as the Thoroughbreds. Over time, sports writers and editors found the name Thoroughbreds to be too cumbersome for headlines, so they often shortened it to names such as "T-Breds", "Breds", "Race Horses", and "Racers". "Racers" began to grow in popularity through the late 1950s, and it was adopted as the official nickname in 1961. At the time the new nickname was adopted, the baseball team had just purchased new uniforms and equipment bags with the Thoroughbreds logo on it, so the team requested and received a one year extension before adopting the new nickname. Alumni and fans admired the team for keeping the original nickname, so the baseball team remains known as the Thoroughbreds to this day.

Thanks again to all for your input. Great info. I was wondering about the nickname thing. I noticed in perusing the athletic web site the two different names. Interesting story indeed.