Runnin' With The Racers Podcast - Sheila Smith - Murray State University Athletics

Murray State Hall of Famer, Sheila Smith, is featured this week on the Runnin' with the Racers Podcast, episode 112.

The Runnin' with the Racers Podcast posts each week to GoRacers.com, iTunes and Soundcloud.

This article on GoRacers.com is brought to you by McConnel Insurance.

Smith, one of two players to be selected four times as All-Ohio Valley Conference at MSU, was inducted into the Murray State Hall of Fame in 1998 as the first player from women's basketball. The program's all-time scorer from 1985-89, her 2,287 points is still eighth all-time in the OVC. Smith's No. 24 was retired when she was inducted into the MSU hall.

Now coaching and teaching at Raleigh Egypt High School in Memphis, Smith said she felt like she was coming home last winter at the Racer women's basketball reunion, organized by head coach Rechelle Turner.

"We had some good times when I was at Murray," Smith recalled. "The learning experiences and adversity that we went through. I love to come back to Murray when I can. Looking back, it's hard to believe some of the things in basketball that I was able to do. I had a great time coming back and look forward when we can do that again."

Smith recalls being recruited by Coach Bud Childers to Murray State.

"We hit it off pretty well and my grandma loved Bud," Smith said. "Being from Memphis, there was a thought to stay at home and play, but I wanted to kind of get away and grow up a little bit. Coach Childers gave me a great opportunity and the rest is history as they say!"

In a time when women's basketball in the OVC was about a decade old, Sheila Smith gave the Racers one of the best players in the conference and with a fine supporting cast of All-OVC talent including: Karen Johnson, Melody Ottinger and Michelle Wenning (also a four-time All-OVC selection).

The best season the Racers experienced with Smith was the 1986-87 campaign. MSU was 21-7 overall and 10-4 in the OVC with a third place finish. However, as the Racer program was building, they had to deal with perennial powers Middle Tennessee and Tennessee Tech.

"We were growing and actually trying to figure out if we could be on that level," Smith said. "A lot of times we made it to the finish line (in games), but couldn't get it across the line because of our lack of experience. Looking back at what we were up against, having three third place finishes in the OVC was pretty good."

The Coach Childers era produced seven of the top-10 scorers of all time in the first decade of MSU teams and still today, this era has six of MSU's top-20 scorers represented.

In her junior season, Smith was named honorable mention All-America by Women's Basketball Yearbook. When she finished her career in 1989, she held 10 Racer women's program records including: total points, 2,287, points per game (19.7), games played (116), field goals (892), field goals attempted (1855), three point field goals attempted (106), free throws (467), free throws attempted (628), steals (200), minutes (3,752).

In recent times, Ke'Shunan James made a run at Smith's mark, by scoring 2,191 points from 2014-18.

Sheila Smith played in France for several seasons as a professional.

Smith watches the current Racers and wants to see the team to be a champion. She thinks often of the career path Murray State set her on when she graduated in 1989.

"As a city kid, it meant a lot to be in Murray and I grew up a lot there. Murray gave me a sense of trust and I met some of the best people in the world by being at Murray State."

About Runnin' With The Racers Podcast
Murray State Basketball great Jonathan Stark was the first guest when the pilot episode posted Aug. 29, 2018, The podcast is produced weekly and usually is available by Wednesday. The Runnin' with the Racers Podcast is mainly guest driven with news and notes of the week from the Racers. Dave Winder, MSU Athletics Associate AD for Media Relations is the host. The podcast is available on GoRacers.com, ITunes and Soundcloud.

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