Crittenden voted #15 on all-time Racer list

MBB: The Murray State legend is one of six Racers to score 2,000 points in their career

Howie Crittenden played at Murray State from 1952-56. (Photo: Murray State Athletics)

<This summer, we’ve had you vote on who you thought were the best players in the first 100 years of Murray State Men’s Basketball. Today we continue our countdown with former Racer Howie Crittenden, who you voted #15 on our list.>

Howie Crittenden and his twin sister were the youngest of ten children growing up in Pilot Oak, Kentucky, 24 miles southwest of Murray. Watching his older brother play high school basketball, Crittenden’s love for the game started early.

“The teachers in the afternoon would let the second grade go up in the gym,” Crittenden said in a 2012 interview for the Kentucky Sports Legends series. “We had a little rubber ball about the size of a volleyball. We would run up and down the gym floor, chasing each other, throwing the ball around. That was my initiation into the love for basketball.”

During World War II, Crittenden’s family moved to Detroit, Michigan for a couple of years. Even though he was just in the fourth grade, Crittenden soon realized his basketball talents were unique when compared to his Michigan peers.

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“We had what was called gym, now we call it physical education,” Crittenden said. “We’d get out there and we could play different activities. When it was basketball time, boy, I loved that. I could shoot the basketball at that time with two hands. The teacher came over one day and said, ‘Where did you learn to shoot with two hands?’ I said, ‘Well, in Kentucky.’ That helped me to feel really proud that I had done something that the other children couldn't do.”

After the war ended, Crittenden’s family moved back to Pilot Oak. After the school consolidated with Cuba High School, Crittenden’s basketball career became nothing short of legendary in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. With fewer than 100 students in the school, as a senior, Crittenden helped lead Cuba to the 1952 state championship. After earning All-State honors twice, and helping Cuba win a state title, Crittenden had several Kentucky colleges wanting him to play for them.

“I had a lot of opportunities,” Crittenden said. “(Kentucky Head Coach Adolph) Rupp came down. (So did ‘Peck’) Hickman from (Louisville) and Coach (E.A.) Diddle from (Western Kentucky University). Murray got concerned because I hadn't shown much interest in Murray. One day after our senior season was over, a student came into class at Cuba High School and said, ‘Howie, your dad's down in the office.’ Well, I was scared to death. My dad had never been at school during the day. I go down there, and he said, ‘We’ve got to go over to Murray. They want to talk to you about playing basketball.’

“We go to Murray and we go into The Bank of Murray,” Crittenden continued. “Mr. George Hart was president of the bank. He controlled the city of Murray, and he controlled a lot of Murray State University. My dad was 67 years of age, and he had had polio when he was four years old. We had a little 30-acre farm, but he'd gotten to the point where he couldn't farm. The first thing that Mr. Hart said was, ‘Howie, If you will play for Murray, the day you agree to play at Murray, your dad will have a job at the Highway Department.’ My dad was sitting right here, and (Hart) said, ‘He'll keep this job until you graduate.’ He said, ‘We know that your parents can't give you spending money. We'll have people who will help do that, so it will not cost you a thing. All we want you to do is do right, pass your grades, and work hard in basketball.’ To be honest about it, I did not want to make a commitment because I really had my mind on Western, but I knew that I couldn't say no because my Dad was there. He needed a job, and I didn't know what to say. The only thing I could think of, I said, ‘I don't have clothes to wear like the other students out there.’ Mr. Hart said, ‘That's no problem. This gentleman right here owns Corn-Austin men’s store. All you’ve got to do is go in there.’”

(Photo: Murray State Athletics)

Crittenden laughed recounting the backroom deal that got him to Murray State. For the other schools in the Commonwealth, there wasn’t much humor to be found watching him thrive as a Racer.

Playing for head coaches Harlan Hodges and Rex Alexander from 1952 to 1956, Crittenden earned All-Ohio Valley Conference honors two times. (He undoubtedly would have been an All-OVC performer his senior season, but the Ohio Valley Conference did not hand out all-conference awards in 1956). Crittenden graduated from Murray State as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 2,019 points. That mark stood for 32 years until Jeff Martin surpassed him in 1988. Crittenden still sits at #6 on Murray State’s all-time scoring list, and he is the only 2,000-point scorer in Racer history who did not benefit from the three-point shot.

Crittenden averaged 19.5 points per game over his Racer career — good for 9th-best in Murray State history. As the all-time leader in free throws made in program history, Crittenden holds three of the top ten spots on the list of most free throws made in a single-season by a Racer.

You could argue Crittenden’s best game at Murray State came in the first-ever game played at Racer Arena. On December 11th, 1954, Crittenden tied the school’s scoring record with 41 points in a 108-80 win over Middle Tennessee. That record stood for 12 years until Herb McPherson scored 44 against MTSU in 1966.

Howie Crittenden (right) was part of Murray State’s 1970 Hall of Fame class. (Photo: Murray State Athletics)

Murray State University did not wait long to stamp Crittenden as one of the program’s all-time greats. The school immediately retired his #19 in 1956, and he was inducted into the Murray State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1970. That was the first of multiple Halls of Fame to enshrine Crittenden. He was inducted into the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame in 1972, the Kentucky High School Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2013, a month prior to his passing, Crittenden was in the inaugural class of the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame.

While he was drafted by the New York Knicks, Crittenden opted to play for the Peoria Caterpillars of the National Industrial Basketball League from 1956-60. In 1966, Crittenden began a career as a high school administrator, spending nearly 30 years as a principal at both Calloway County and Henderson County High Schools in west Kentucky.

While the number of people who got to watch Howie Crittenden play for Murray State gets smaller with each passing year, the #19 hanging from the rafters of the CFSB Center will always stand as a reminder of the place he holds in Racer lore. Back in 2012, Crittenden spoke to the impact the game of basketball had on his life.

“What basketball did for me is what nothing else could have done,” Crittenden said. “That's the only thing I had to help me to get out of a environment where we didn't have any money. We had a lot of love, but basketball gave me an opportunity to go to college. Basketball gave me an opportunity that, what seems like the sky, has been unlimited for me.”