Murray State University Athletics
Former Racer Howie Crittenden to be added to Kentucky Sports Hall
9/7/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
In a career that spans 56 years as an athlete and educator, former Murray State basketball star Howie Crittenden is again receiving a much-deserved honor. This Thursday, Crittenden will be inducted into the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. The event takes place at the Executive Inn West Hotel in Louisville, with a reception at 6 p.m. ET.
Long before playing for the Racers became a thought, Crittenden was reared in Pilot Oak, Ky., in Graves County.
"I loved the game of basketball from the very first time I picked up the ball," Crittenden said. "Growing up on a small farm as the youngest of 10 children, we didn't have much, so basketball was a way to a better life."
In 1947, Crittenden's first coach in the eighth grade was Jack Story, who was a visionary of sorts in the way the game should be played.
"Coach Story taught us how to play up-tempo and to play defense so that we controlled the game," Crittenden said. "I believed him and did everything he told me, and then one day, he asked me to run to a tree and come back as fast as I could.
"Then, Coach said, 'Now I want you to dribble and go just as fast as you just did. If you want to be a great player, you've got to move with the ball just as fast as you do without it.'"
Story told the youngsters that if they played the game the way he told them to, people would be lining up to get in to see them. Story was right, because by the time Crittenden was in high school at Cuba, they were averaging 85 points a game (unheard of at the time), and folks from Graves County packed the gym. Crittenden was the cornerstone of Cuba's 1951 Kentucky state runner-up team and championship team in 1952, and he was an all-state selection as a junior and senior.
As you can imagine, Howie Crittenden was heavily recruited to play college basketball. He was wooed by many schools, but the choice to come to Murray State was always in the forefront.
"My parents were ready for me to go anywhere," he said, "but I knew to play close to home where they could see me would be the best, and it couldn't have worked out any better."
Crittenden started for the Racers as a freshman along with Cuba teammate Charles Floyd. The coach of the Racers at the time was Harlan Hodges. Crittenden played two seasons in Carr Gym before Racer Arena opened in 1954.
"I'll never forget the opening game," Crittenden said. "I had 38 points against Tennessee Tech when coach took me out because we were blowing them out. Then, someone told Coach Hodges that I was three points from breaking the MSU single-game record and he put me back in."
Crittenden said he was very nervous and missed his next four shots before breaking the record at the free-throw line to finish with 41 points. That record stood until Herb McPherson scored 44 against Middle Tennessee State in 1966. Marcus Brown set the record at 45 points against Washington (Mo.) University in 1995, and it stands today.
Keep in mind when considering Crittenden's career at Murray State, he played without the three-point shot. By the time Crittenden left the Racers, he was not only the all-time scoring leader at Murray State, but in all of Kentucky with 2,109 points, which is saying something, considering the talent that played for the Wildcats at the time. Crittenden scored those points in 104 games, good for a 19.4 per-game average. Crittenden's Murray State scoring mark stood until 1989, when Jeff Martin surpassed it.
"After Jeff broke my record, they asked me to come down and meet him," Crittenden said. "I presented Jeff with the game ball, and it was a tremendous honor because Jeff was such a great player and a great kid."
When people talk about Howie Crittenden as a player, they always mention his ball-handling first, even though he was a scoring machine.
"I wasn't a player who played in the paint," Crittenden said. "My job was to get up and down the floor, and I worked on my dribbling all the time."
Crittenden is so revered at Murray State that his jersey, No. 19, hangs retired from the rafters at the Regional Special Events Center, and he is a member of the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame.
There aren't many basketball players from the '50s whose talent level compares with today's best players. Murray State fans who saw Howie Crittenden play say his style was years ahead of his time. He was extremely quick, was an excellent ball handler and had a natural mind for the game, which made him a terror for opponents. Crittenden was named All-OVC three times.
However, college basketball was just beginning for this country kid from Kentucky. The New York Knicks drafted him in 1956 as the fifth overall pick, but big-city life wasn't for him.
"I just didn't want to go to New York," he said. "I was hoping the St. Louis Hawks would draft me, but the Knicks beat them to the punch."
After refusing to play for the Knicks, Crittenden's only option was to sit out and wait for the draft in 1957.
"I'm sure some people still think I was crazy for not going to New York," he said, "but I was just a Kentucky kid who didn't want to go far away from home."
Beginning in 1957, Crittenden played professionally, but not in the NBA, but instead in the NIBL (National Industrial Basketball League). He played for the Peoria Caterpillars until the league folded and the teams were absorbed into the ABA.
In 1958, Crittenden was part of the first United States team to play in Russia.
"I was afraid, we all were," he said. "The USA government told us the Russians were free to search anything, and we would be under 24-hour surveillance. It was intimidating."
Team USA won all six exhibition games in Russia, and in the end, Crittenden realized one thing. "They are just like us, very good people who loved basketball just like us."
After basketball, Howie Crittenden carved a wonderful career as an education administrator. He served as principal at Calloway County for eight years and 21 years at Henderson County. He was named the Courier-Journal Model High School Principal in 1978 and Kentucky Secondary School Principal of the Year in 1990.
Even though he is retired, Crittenden is currently working with the Allen County school district.
"When I was playing, that is something that never enters your mind," he said of entering the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. "It is a tremendous honor, and I'm humbled to be going in with all of the great athletes who have also called Kentucky home."
Howie Crittenden and his wife of 10 years, Dr. Meg Crittenden, live in Bowling Green. He has one son, Howard, and two grandchildren, Austin and Taylor.
