Success starts here.
Some of the greatest professional athletes, Olympians and even two astronauts were educated and played at OVC institutions. Our OVC schools provide quality education to all students, and provide opportunities for success at the highest levels in the athletic arenas and fields, but the fields of astroscience and biology.
The OVC has produced numerous Olympians, including Morehead State’s Brian Shimer who competed in five Winter Olympics in bobsled (winning a bronze medal in 2002) and coached the 2010 United States bobsled team to its first gold medal since 1948. Former Morehead State football and Eastern Kentucky track and field athlete Dallas Robinson competed with the U.S. bobsled team during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Additionally, some of the greatest players in professional sports were educated at OVC institutions. The list includes former stars such as football’s Phil Simms (Morehead State) and Tony Romo (Eastern Illinois), basketball's Clem Haskins (Western Kentucky) and Kenneth Faried (Morehead State) and two-sport star Steve Hamilton (Morehead State), as well as present-day standouts including basketball players Ja Morant (Murray State), Robert Covington (Tennessee State) and Chelsey Perry (UT Martin), quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (Eastern Illinois) and baseball player Alec Mills (UT Martin), who threw a no-hitter for the Chicago Cubs in 2020. Hamilton is the only athlete to ever play in the NCAA Basketball Championship, a Major League Baseball World Series (New York Yankees) and an NBA Championship Series (Los Angeles Lakers).
Continue reading below for more detailed information on many of the OVC athletes listed above as well as other OVC stars who continued to shine bright for many years after their time in the OVC.
Football
A sampling of former OVC football stars, some of whom were All-Americans during their collegiate careers before achieving stardom at the professional ranks, include Jim Youngblood and Larry Schreiber (Tennessee Tech), Phil Simms (Morehead State), Virgil Livers and Dale Lindsey (Western Kentucky), Myron Guyton and Chad Bratzke (Eastern Kentucky), Cortland Finnegan (Samford) and Tony Romo and Jimmy Garoppolo (Eastern Illinois). In 2008, former Tennessee State standout Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie became just the fourth NFL First Round draft pick in OVC history when he was selected 16th overall by the Arizona Cardinals. He would break into the starting lineup halfway through his rookie season and started at cornerback for the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII.
In 2013 Eastern Illinois repeated as OVC Champions behind Walter Payton Award winner Jimmy Garoppolo. The quarterback became just the second OVC player to earn the National Player of the Year Award, joining former EIU signal caller Tony Romo (2002). Garoppolo passed for 5,050 yards (second most in NCAA single-season history) and 53 touchdowns (fourth in NCAA history) in leading the Panthers to a 12-2 record and berth to the quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs.
Garoppolo was drafted by the New England Patriots in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft, becoming just the fifth OVC player selected in that round and just the fifth OVC quarterback ever selected (and first since 1998). Garoppolo was a part of Patriots teams that won Super Bowls in 2015 and 2017. In 2020 Garoppolo became just the eighth quarterback who played in the FCS (which began in 1978), to start a Super Bowl, taking the snaps for the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs would win, preventing Garoppolo from becoming only the fourth FCS quarterback to start and win a Super Bowl.
Mike Shanahan took a career ending injury and turned it into a 20-year coaching career and 2 Super Bowl rings. The former Eastern Illinois University Panther played as quarterback for two years before having to abruptly end his football playing career, but he faced adversity and turned it into a career. Before making his way to the NFL, Shanahan was the Offensive Coordinator for the Panthers in 1978 when they won the Division II National Championship.
Basketball
During the 2010-11 year, Kenneth Faried, the nation’s leading rebounder during the season, became the NCAA’s Modern Era (since 1973) career rebounding leader, totaling 1,673 rebounds which passed Tim Duncan for the record (he is 11th all-time in NCAA history). Faried also finished his career with 86 double-doubles, second all-time to only Duncan. At the time he was one of only six players in NCAA history to finish with 2,000-plus career points (2,009) and 1,600-plus career rebounds. Faried was drafted 22nd overall by the Denver Nuggets in the 2011 NBA Draft, becoming the first OVC player selected in the first round since Tennessee State’s Carlos Rogers in 1994.
Murray State guard Isaiah Canaan, a first-team All-American in 2011-12, capped his illustrious career in 2012-13 by becoming just the 17th player in OVC history to score 2,000 or more career points. Canaan, who was a key part of Murray State NCAA Tournament victories in both 2010 and 2012, earned a pair of OVC Player of the Year honors (2012 and 2013) during his career as well as being named OVC Freshman of the Year (2010), OVC Tournament MVP (2010) and OVC Male Athlete of the Year (2012). He was drafted by the Houston Rockets with the 34th overall pick (No. 2 pick of the second round) of the 2013 NBA Draft.
In 2014-15 Murray State became just the fifth OVC men’s team to complete a perfect Conference season (16-0). The Racers were led by sophomore Cameron Payne who was named OVC Men’s Basketball Player of the Year, OVC Male Athlete of the Year and earned third-team All-American honors. Following the season Payne declared for the NBA Draft, becoming the first sophomore in OVC history to do so and one of just four OVC players all-time to enter and stay in the draft with eligibility remaining. Payne was selected in the lottery by the Oklahoma City Thunder (pick No. 14 overall), making him just the ninth First Round NBA Draft pick in OVC history.
In 2016, former Belmont All-American and 2012-13 OVC Co-Player of the Year Ian Clark became the first former OVC player to advance to the NBA Finals since former Tennessee State star Anthony Mason played for the New York Knicks in 1994. Clark was part of a Golden State Warriors team that won an NBA record 73 regular season games but lost in Game 7 of the Finals. A year later, Clark was part of the Warriors team that topped Cleveland to win the 2017 NBA Championship, becoming the first OVC player to win the crown since 1970-71 (Murray State's Dick Cunningham and Western Kentucky's Greg Smith with the Milwaukee Bucks).
Murray State guard Ja Morant put together arguably the greatest season in League history in 2018-19, earning first-team consensus All-American honors (only the third player in OVC history to achieve that feat joining WKU’s Clem Haskins in 1967 and WKU’s Jim McDaniels in 1971) while becoming the first player since the NCAA began officially tracking assists (1983-84) to average 20-plus points (24.5) and 10-plus assists (10.0) in the same season. Morant, who won the Bob Cousy Award as the nation’s top point guard, finished the year with 331 assists, the sixth-most in NCAA single-season history. During the year he had three triple-doubles (including just the ninth in NCAA Tournament history) and became the first Division I player in 20 years to record 40 points, 11 assists and five steals in a regulation game.
Morant was picked No. 2 overall by the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2019 NBA Draft, equaling the highest-ever draft pick in OVC history (tied with Eastern Kentucky's Jim Baechtold who went No. 2 in 1952). Overall he was just the third NBA Lottery Pick (which began in 1985) in OVC history. Belmont senior Dylan Windler was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers No. 26 overall in the 2019 NBA Draft, giving the OVC two First Round picks in the same draft for only the second time in history (Western Kentucky's Tom Marshall and Jack Turner were selected with the seventh and eighth picks of the First Round in 1954). Overall Morant and Windler were the 10th and 11th players in OVC history to be First Round NBA Draft Picks.
Morant was named the 2019-20 NBA Rookie of the Year after averaging 17.8 points, 7.3 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 0.9 steals per game in 67 contests. He hit 47.7 percent from the field and 77.6 percent at the free throw line in leading the Grizzlies to more wins and a ninth place finish in the Western Conference (after the team finished 12th the previous year). Dating back to 1983-84, he is one of just three players to attend a non-Power 5 college to win the award, joining Damian Lilliard of Weber State (2012-13) and Larry Johnson of UNLV (1991-92).
During the 2020-21 season, Austin Peay’s Terry Taylor became just the fifth player in OVC history with 2,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds. In addition, Taylor is the only player in OVC history to rank in the Top 10 in both career scoring and career rebounding. Taylor was named OVC Player of the Week 17 times during his career, establishing an OVC record.
Over its 75 years, OVC teams have garnered national championships and bowl games in football, along with national team or individual titles in the sports of rifle, cross country, track and golf.
Women’s Basketball
Pat Head Summitt is a name synonymous with greatness in the world of basketball. She is known for her legacy at the University of Tennessee, but Summitt’s story started before she ever got to Knoxville. A member of the UT- Martin Women’s Basketball Team from 1970-1974, she also played for the red, white, and blue in four international tournaments leading up to the 1976 Olympics. She is the first person in USA Basketball history to lead the US to an Olympic medal as a player and coach.
In 2012-13 the UT Martin duo of Jasmine Newsome and Heather Butler finished fifth and sixth nationally among NCAA scoring leaders. Newsome, the 2012 and 2013 OVC Player of the Year, averaged 22.6 points per game on the way to All-American honors while Butler averaged 22.4 points per contest. Butler set a NCAA record during the season by connecting on a 3-pointer in her 80th-straight game.
In 2013-14 Butler and Newsome capped their brilliant careers by ranking first and second in scoring in OVC history. Butler, the 2013-14 OVC Female Athlete of the Year, finished her career with 2,865 points, which ranked first in OVC and 16th in NCAA history. She also finished her career with 392 career 3-pointers (which was tied for the most in NCAA history following her career but now ranks second) and scored in double figures in all 129 career games, which ranks fifth in NCAA history. Following the season Butler was signed by the WNBA’s San Antonio Stars where she became the first OVC player to make an active WNBA roster. Newsome capped her career with 2,566 points, second only to Butler in OVC history.
UT Martin’s Chelsey Perry, a two-time OVC Player of the Year, was selected 26th overall by the Indiana Fever in the third round of the 2021 WNBA Draft. It marked the highest-ever selection for an OVC player and the first UTM player selected in the Draft. Perry would end up making the Fever’s roster and appear in regular season games.
Golf
In April 2016 Danny Willett won The Masters Championship in Augusta, Georgia. The former Jacksonville State standout, who was the 2006 OVC Freshman of the Year and the 2007 OVC Championship Medalist, entered the final round tied for fifth, three shots behind 2015 champion Jordan Spieth after rounds of 70-74-72. In the final round Willett fired a 5-under par round of 67 to finish at 283 (-5) and top the field by three shots. He became just the eighth player in Masters’ history to win the event in his first or second start and just the second Englishman to win the event.
Baseball
In 2020, former Belmont standout Matt Beaty was on the 28-man active roster for Los Angeles as the Dodgers topped Tampa Bay four games to two to capture the World Series Championship. In the process he became the first former OVC player on an active roster for a World Series champion.
In 2021 Eastern Illinois shortstop Trey Sweeney was selected in the first round of the MLB Draft by the New York Yankees while Southeast Missouri pitcher Dylan Dodd was selected in the third round. Sweeney was just the third first round pick in OVC history, and he had Dodd were two of just 11 top three round selections from the league all-time; it marked the first time the league had two top three round picks in the same draft.
Sweeney was also named a second-team CoSIDA Academic All-American, making him one of only two players nationally in 2020-21 to be a first round draft pick and an Academic All-American.