Society

As we look at the current team and wonder if these players could go on to professional basketball careers, it’s worth taking a look back to see where some of the Racer legends of the past have ended up. Murray State is no stranger to basketball success, as one of the top mid-major programs in the country. But in the history of the program, only nine players have gone on to play in the NBA. Gary Pitts spoke with a couple of those players to talk about their experience, and a top NBA official to find out what pro-scouts are looking for in college players.

The Racers have re-written the record books this year, and as Murphy ’s Law would dictate that has thrown a wrench in the operation of Racer Basketball Legend Bennie Purcell and former MSU Sports Information Director Jimmy Wilder, who are behind a book called “Banner Years” Chronicling the Racers 85 year basketball history. WKMS' resident sports buff Tracy Ross speaks with Purcell and Wilder about the book and some of the Racers greatest ball players.

My grandmother was the quintessential American pioneer. In 1891, when she was 17, her family left the comfort of their home and heritage in Marietta, Ohio to seek their fortune on the American prairie. Her father, Frank D. Booth, was the son of Horatio Booth, a boat Pilot on the Ohio River, and the grandson of the first Mayor of Marietta, James Mather Booth, an 1804 immigrant from Manchester, England. For over 23 years, Frank Booth was a pilot of the 138 ton J. H. McConnell a side-wheeler passenger steamboat that ran from Parkersburg, West Virginia to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

This is a family story, a story of loss and exile, and of the intersection of personal history with large historical events.  It is also a quintessentially American story of arrival, and of a second chance.  This is a story so close to me I seem always to have known it.  It is the story of how my father came to America.