Coach Cal Luther Highlights Hoopalooza Speakers

A group of five former Murray State basketball coaches and players will be highlighted speakers at RacerHoopalooza (Aug 7-8) at the CFSB Center in Murray, Ky.

Former MSU coach Cal Luther (1958-75) will speak as the event honors his 1964 team that was the first NCAA team from Murray State. Other speakers include Bennie Purcell, assistant coach on the 1964 team and Jim Jennings, a 1964 player. Racer greats Isaiah Canaan (2009-13) and Popeye Jones (1988-92) will also speak. Both are in the NBA as Canaan just completed his first season with the Houston Rockets and Jones (played 11 seasons in the NBA) is an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers. Jennings, Jones and Canaan have a combined five OVC Player of the Year awards.

RacerHoopalooza gets underway (Aug. 7) with a reception and banquet in the CFSB Center. Other activities include a Friday morning golf scramble (Aug. 8) at the Murray Country Club and time for former Racer players to play pick-up games in the CFS Center.

MSU head men's basketball coach Steve Prohm made the announcement of featured speakers for the second event that follows on the inaugural RacerHoopalooza last summer.

"When you look at the first NCAA team at Murray State and go through the years and see the positives, you get a real sense of how special a program Murray State has," Prohm said. "The Hoopalooza event just reminds us of the great coaches and players that have been a part of it. This a great opportunity to celebrate this program and I invite all of our fans to come out to this special event. We also want to reach out to as many of our former players, coaches and managers so that they can come back and enjoy it."

RacerHoopaLooza, sponsored by CFSB (Community Financial Services Bank), is a gathering of Murray State basketball alumni and fans to celebrate the tradition which has made Racer Basketball the best in the Ohio Valley Conference and one of the top programs in the nation. The Racers boast 27 consecutive winning seasons and just capped their fifth consecutive 20-win season with the CollegeInsider.com tournament championship.

MSU teams have made 15 NCAA Tournament appearances with the first one coming at the end of the 1963-64 season when Cal Luther's team won nine straight OVC games to end the season. MSU played Loyola-Chicago to a close game and lost 101-91 in Evanston, Ill.

Fans, former players, coaches and mangers wanting to attend can call Steve Harrell, Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs, at (270) 809-3430. Or the reservation cards can be mailed in. The deadline for reservations is July 25.

Click here for the events schedule.

Click here for the registration of the banquet and golf.

CAL LUTHER
Speaking from his home in Martin, Tenn., Luther said he is thrilled to get his team back together.

"It has been a long time," he said. "Some I haven't seen since our last game of that season in 1964 in the NCAA Tournament. They're all enthused about it and we're excited to get the team back together. Bennie Purcell wrote a letter to the team that stated he's 85 years old and I'm is 87 and that basically this might be our last shot. We've lost some from that team. We all loved our days at Murray State and we're going to have a great time."

Luther led MSU to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 1964 and guided the Racers through 17 seasons; matching the program record he shares with MSU's first coach Carlisle Cutchin (1925-41). Luther's 251 wins is only four behind Cutchin for tops all-time with the Racers. Luther is one of six MSU coaches that have led the Racers to multiple trips to the NCAA's. His came in 1964 & 1969.

"My introduction to Murray came in 1952 when I was scouting for Illinois and made the trip to MSU for the North-South All-Star Game," Luther said. "There aren't many places that could put together an event like that. After that, I knew Murray had an interest in basketball. Then of course the fan base is there and going D-I and becoming eligible to play in the NCAA's helped move it along. Once we had some success that really expounded the interest factor. That's the basis of building tradition."

Under Luther's leadership, the Racers won three OVC regular season titles and one tournament title. During his tenure, the Racers had a run of five straight seasons (1967-71) in which they won the OVC championship or finished runner-up. Luther was named OVC Coach of the Year each time the Racers went to the NCAA's and he had 17 players named All-OVC. He coached four OVC Player of the Year winners: Jim Jennings (1964), Claude Virden (1969) and Les Taylor (1971 & 1972).

JIM JENNINGS
He showed up at Murray State and left as its No. 3 career rebounder and the No. 18 scorer with 1,370 points.

This power forward from Dayton, Ohio did it in three seasons, at a time when freshman weren't allowed to play on the varsity team.
Jennings revered Coach Cal Luther then and now.

"Cal was one of the most organized coaches around, from film to game preparation, we felt like we could beat anyone in the nation when we went into a game," Said Jennings, who was a three-time All-OVC selection and the OVC Player of the Year in 1964 . "When you have a coach like Cal, you respect him and play hard for him. Coach Cal has been in touch with me all these years. He's my coach and my friend."

The 1963-64 team had to stare down some adversity to even have a chance to get to the NCAA Tournament. They started OVC play 1-3 and lost those three games to Tennessee Tech, Eastern Kentucky and East Tennessee by a total of only eight points. Luther's boys circled the wagons and responded by winning nine straight games to end the season and earn the OVC championship and a trip to the NCAA's where they lost to Loyola-Chicago.

"We didn't have any big egos on that team," Jennings said. "What was beautiful about our offense was the ball really moved and we had lots of cuts and picks. The defense determined what we could do and we played off of that. It was a thing where on any given night, anybody could score and it kept everybody focused."

Jennings says he has many stories to tell at RacerHoopalooza, including winning in his final trip to rival Western Kentucky's Little Red Barn and the day his dying mother told him that watching him play a game during his senior season at Murray State was the happiest day of her life.

"When you're playing in the moment, you don't think about 50 years down the road," Jennings said. "Now that I'm older and look back, I know that I got to experience this game with a great bunch of guys. The MSU fans were great even way back then. You loved representing Murray and I've always kept an eye on the team to see how they're doing."

BENNIE PURCELL
Mr. MSU, Bennie Purcell, has been associated with Murray State since he came here from Mt. Vernon, Ill., as an all-star basketball player.

Purcell was assistant coach on the 1963-64 team and proved to be a valuable partner with Coach Luther.

"Cal and I worked together and never had one argument," Purcell said. "When you and work alongside someone under those circumstances, you can do great things. My life in Murray has just been great and I'm happy to be a part of it. I want to thank Cal for bringing me back to work with him. We've been dear friends since."

Purcell knows a thing or two about winning championships. He coached Murray State's men's tennis team to 10 straight OVC titles in the 1980's.
As a player, Purcell helped the Racers' win their first OVC title in 1951 and was the first to reach 1,000 points. Like Isaiah Canaan. Purcell was named an All-America, in 1952.

The 1963-64 season is etched in his mind.

"We had a tough loss in January at ETSU by a point, but that seemed to bring us together," he said. "Everything went our way after that. We ran off nine straight wins to get the OVC title. We were balanced with Stewart Johnson, Jim Jennings, John Namciu, Scott Schlosser and Al Varnas. We had Bennie Goheen and Gene Pendleton coming off the bench and they could score too. Pendleton and Schlosser were our best defensive players. Schlosser was the first one to use that wrap around defensive move to poke the ball out from behind. We called it a wrap-around steal"

"We're all looking forward to Hoopalooza. It will be great to see the men you haven't seen in years and see what they've been doing with their lives. I think it's a great event and I'm happy Steve Prohm has put this together."

POPEYE JONES
Another Racer great was Popeye Jones who is still a legend today in his hometown of Dresden, Tenn., and of course Murray State.

"I'm honored to speak at Hoopalooza," Jones said. "I'm very happy to share a piece of my story at Murray State. The thing that always sticks out in my mind about Murray is the people, they just made me feel like I was at home and I still feel that way today."

Jones helped the Racers to four OVC regular season championship teams at MSU and three NCAA trips. He ranks first at MSU in career rebounds and led the nation in the 1991-92 season at 14.4 per game. Jones was a great scorer as well ranking No. 4 at MSU with 2,057 points. He is the only player in MSU history to score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds.

Jones finished his career as a three-time All-OVC selection and was named OVC Player of the Year in 1990 and 1991. Jones was also named the OVC Athlete of the Year in 1991 and 92.

Popeye was drafted by the NBA's Houston Rockets 21 years before Isaiah Canaan was and Popeye ended up playing 11 seasons with six different teams.
He's now an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers and is carving out his career in coaching.

"I'm in a good situation in Indy," Jones said. "The guys are very coachable and I enjoy being a student of the game. Someday I want to be a head coach in the NBA. I'm just working hard and waiting to have chance to move down on the end of the bench to be a head coach."

ISAIAH CANAAN
"Little Sip" is the youngest speaker of the five that will step to the microphone at RacerHoopalooza.

As a representative of the Racers' most recent trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2012, Canaan says his teammates and coaches are still making his Murray State experience special.

"I think about my time at Murray State every day," said the native of Biloxi, Miss., who just completed his first season with the Houston Rockets. "I keep in contact with my guys and that's easy to do these days. I caught up with Isacc Miles out in Kansas the other day. I still talk to Ivan, Ed and stay in touch with Stacy, Donte and Brandon, although he's been overseas and it's hard to catch him. There is nothing like your teammates and it's great to stay in touch with them."

Canaan was All-America and two-time OVC Player of the Year while basically putting his name in nearly every record category at MSU including as the No. 5 scorer with 2,050 points. Canaan teamed with Ed Daniel and Jordan Burge to win 106 games, a Murray State record for one class. As an NBA rookie, Canaan split time with the Rockets D-League team and big club during the 2013-14 season and has a bright future.

"My first season in the NBA was fun," Canaan said. "I'm doing exactly what I did when I came to Murray as a freshman, I'm learning from the older guys with the Rockets. I played well in the D-League and got some experience with the Rockets and now I'm working very hard to get better. I like the NBA lifestyle. I get up every day and now it's my job to play basketball and be the best I can be."

As for the stories he'll tell at RacerHoopalooza?

"Coach Prohm has given me some guidance," Canaan said. "I'll talk about those two 30-win teams we had and what that was like. I'll talk about the guys I played with and what it means to play at Murray State."

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