Photo - Dave Winder, MSU Athletics
The Murray State University Athletics family is mourning the loss of former Racer basketball coach Ron Greene, who passed away Wednesday at the age of 82. Greene led the Racers men’s basketball team from 1978-85 and was inducted into the Murray State Hall of Fame in 2016.
Greene led the MSU men’s basketball program seven seasons from 1978-85 and was the architect of the plan that took Racer Basketball into the era of modern collegiate basketball Racer Nation enjoys today, 43 years later. Greene was the 1978 SEC Coach of the Year at Mississippi State and yet, he came back to his alma mater to chase greatness as a Racer.
“Murray State University and Racer Athletics are deeply saddened by the passing of legendary Coach Ron Greene,” said MSU President, Dr. Bob Jackson. “I had the pleasure to watch him coach many outstanding student-athletes and teams when I was a student. All of us will miss Coach Greene and remember the standard of success he brought to Racer Athletics.”
“Ron Green’s love for Murray Kentucky and Murray State University was clear throughout his young and professional life. Whether as a student-athlete, or eventually a coach, time and again, Coach Greene chose to represent Murray State,” said Kevin Saal, MSU Director of Athletics. “Coach Greene will always be remembered for his love for Murray State, as a hall of fame coach and one of the pillars of Racer Basketball. Our heartfelt condolences and prayers go out to Ron’s wife, Ailene, and the entire Greene family.”
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of former Murray State player and Hall of Fame Coach, Ron Greene,” said Racer head coach Matt McMahon. “What an incredible legacy Coach Greene left on the Murray State campus and the Murray, Kentucky community. After earning the SEC Coach of the Year award in 1978, Coach Greene returned to his alma mater to rebuild the Racer basketball program. He established the foundation that has led to over four decades of the championship tradition at Murray State. Our thoughts and prayers are with Ailene and the Greene and English families.”
Before Greene coached, he played the game. He arrived at Murray State in 1960, recruited by another legendary coach, Cal Luther. The Indiana connection was strong as Luther had coached at DePauw University and Greene had starred at Gerstmeyer High School in Terre Haute. Greene came to Murray State to play for Coach Luther after originally attending Bradley.
Luther helped Greene get into college coaching. After stints at Loyola (LA) and New Orleans, Greene landed at Mississippi State.
Coach Greene was 39 years old when he came back to MSU and the Racers hadn’t won an Ohio Valley Conference Championship in 11 years. The rebuilding effort was not without challenges, as Greene’s first team (1978-79) won but four games. However, fans were thrilled to see two of those wins come against rival Western Kentucky. His second season (1979-80) produced the NCAA D-I record for improvement when the Racers were 19 wins better, won 23 overall and won the OVC regular season title and made it to the finals of the OVC Tournament. MSU played in the National Invitation Tournament and won a pair of games over Jacksonville and Alabama before falling one win short of the semifinals in a two-point game at Illinois.
After a runner-up season (1980-81) the Racers posted back-to-back OVC titles (1981-82 & 1982-83) when they were a combined 41-16 and 24-6 in the OVC. In each season, the Racers appeared in the NIT.
When his seven seasons at Murray State were finished, Coach Greene had 119 wins, which was third all-time at MSU when he left for a coaching job at Indiana State. He is among six coaches at MSU that won at least three OVC championships.
Greene was a two-time OVC Coach of the Year (1980 & 1983) and coached two OVC Player of the Year winners: Gary Hooker (1980) and Glenn Green (1983). Lamont Sleets (MSU Hall of Fame 1987) was a Greene recruit and a three-time All-OVC selection and still today ranks seventh all-time at MSU with 1,902 points. All-OVC performers John Randall (1979), Kenny Hammonds (1979), Ricky Hood (1982) and Craig Talley (1985) played for Coach Greene. Hooker (1980) and Hood (1983) led the OVC in rebounding, while Green was an OVC assist champion (1982) and Craig Jones (1984) was the OVC free throw champion.
Aside from wins and losses, Coach Greene was a visionary on the direction college basketball was about to take in the late 1970’s. In the Banner Years book (published in 2013), about the history of Racer Basketball, Greene said it was his Murray State education that gave him the tools to be a coach.
“My degree from Murray State prepared me for coaching as well as anything could have,” Greene said. “I majored in physical education and I minored in business administration and psychology. That gave me a background in business and human behavior as well as basketball. ”
Once called the “Murray State Magician” in one of the annual MSU media guides, everything in Greene’s program had recruiting in mind. From how the program was marketed to prospective student-athletes and media, to the uniforms and shoes the team wore, how the team traveled, scheduled and practiced. Greene knew the MSU program had to be considered a top-level destination to attract the kind of players it took to be successful.
“We did come in with an SEC mentality for the OVC,” Greene recalled when visiting Racer Radio at halftime of a 2019 game against Drake in Estero, Fla. “We got seven foot beds and meals at nine o’clock at night for our players. Those types of things enabled us to recruit better. We had really good players and that made coaching a lot easier.”
One of the OVC championship rings the Racers won has the inscription “Expect to be the Best.” It was a motto Coach Greene and his staff reminded themselves and their players of often.
“I think you have to expect to be the best,” Greene said. “My three legged stool was, play hard, play smart and play together. We had to constantly examine ourselves and ask ‘are we doing these things?’ and that was the key to winning an OVC championship.”
Greene kept on coaching basketball after his college career was finished with stints at Calloway County High School (1992-99) and Murray High School (2008-11).
The Terre Haute Tribune-Star recapped Ron Greene’s stellar prep career at Gerstmeyer and his part in an amazing 1956-57 season in which the Black Cats were 32-0 and No. 1 in Indiana, but lost to Crispus Attucks in the semifinals of the Indiana State Tournament.
—- Dave Winder, MSU Athletics
