Runnin' With The Racers Podcast - Coach Mike Thieke - Murray State University Athletics

Coach Mike Thieke, who was a student-athlete and later head coach for the Murray State Baseball program is this week's guest on the Runnin' with the Racers Podcast, No. 95 on GoRacers.com.

In the spring of 1973, Mike Thieke was a junior right-hander and just getting his time with Murray State underway when he struck gold and tossed a no-hitter against the Purdue Boilermakers. His 2-0 masterpiece was the fifth no-hitter in program history. The amazing thing about this big day was that Thieke never realized he had a no-hitter in the works and of course, his teammates never said a word, as written in the silent code of the game.

"About the fifth inning, I noticed there was nobody sitting with me in the dugout or speaking to me," said Thieke. "And nobody told me that a no-hitter was Mike Thieke

going on. I didn't know it until I got the last out. Then someone tells me 'Mike, you just threw a no-hitter!' It was probably for the best, because it would've changed the way I pitched."

As a side note, there are now eight all-time no-hitters in MSU Baseball history after Cameron Finch did it in 2013 at SIUE.

After finishing up his two seasons with the Thoroughbreds, Thieke became a graduate assistant coach for Coach Johnny Reagan in 1975. After leaving MSU to coach at his alma mater, Century High School in Southern Illinois, he started full-time college coaching at the University of Memphis where he worked for Coach Bobby Kilpatrick. Thieke was back as assistant with Reagan in 1988 and became head coach at Murray State when Reagan retired in 1994.

"Baseball was the least of what he taught us," said Thieke of Reagan, MSU Hall of Fame coach who built the program in 1958 and led it for 36 seasons. "He taught us the value of being a gentleman. It (being a gentleman) didn't mean he didn't do everything he could to win a game. In a quiet way, he motivated players in a way that I never could. I had no idea why he asked me to be his grad assistant, but I'm glad he did."

The highlight of Thieke's 10 seasons with the Breds' included the 2003 team that became a true Cinderella story by winning the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament at Brooks Stadium in Paducah, Ky. It was a crazy week where the top-3 seeds (Southeast Missouri, Austin Peay and Tennessee Tech) all lost on the opening round.

After the Breds' defeated Tech 6-4 and lost 13-6 to Eastern Kentucky, they began a run to the title by surviving three elimination games. MSU defeated SEMO 4-3 and on the final day, ran past EKU 11-5 and 19-4. The underdog team from Murray State had accomplished the impossible.

Enjoy the podcast with Coach Mike Thieke.

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.

Murray State University Athletics

Runnin' With The Racers Podcast - Coach Mike Thieke

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