Leaving on a High Note - Austin Peay State University
Leaving on a High Note - Austin Peay State University
Leaving on a High Note - Austin Peay State University
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APSU Sports Informati<strong>on</strong><br />
Bill Persinger<br />
Susan Sheather-<br />
Kliebert<br />
Gardner built the<br />
Lady Govs basketball<br />
program into the<br />
OVC’s best during the<br />
early part of this<br />
decade. APSU compiled<br />
an impressive<br />
112-92 record during<br />
her seven-seas<strong>on</strong><br />
tenure but a spectacular<br />
63-29 mark over her final three seas<strong>on</strong>s,<br />
including 27-4 record in 2002-03.<br />
For three straight seas<strong>on</strong>s, Savage was sec<strong>on</strong>d<br />
<strong>on</strong> the team in scoring, culminating with<br />
a 17.5 average as a senior when he was chosen<br />
sec<strong>on</strong>d-team All-OVC. His record included<br />
a career-high 34-point effort at Eastern<br />
Kentucky where he launched the game-winning<br />
basket from near midcourt.<br />
Sheather was <strong>on</strong>e of the OVC’s most dominant<br />
tennis players in the early 1990s. Twice the<br />
Kelso, Australia, native w<strong>on</strong> the OVC at No. 1<br />
singles (1992, 1994) and <strong>on</strong>ce at No. 2 doubles<br />
(1991). She also captured OVC titles at No. 1<br />
doubles (1994) and No. 2 doubles (1991).<br />
Former Govs baseball star,<br />
Walker, signs with Orioles<br />
Jamie “Cat” Walker, who starred for Govs<br />
baseball in the early 1990s, signed a threeyear<br />
free-agent, $12 milli<strong>on</strong> c<strong>on</strong>tract in late<br />
November with the Baltimore Orioles.<br />
The southpaw, who spent the last five seas<strong>on</strong>s<br />
with Detroit, said the length of the deal<br />
was the deciding factor.<br />
“It’s always a tough decisi<strong>on</strong> <strong>on</strong>ce you’ve<br />
been somewhere for so l<strong>on</strong>g,” he said about<br />
leaving the Tigers. “The Tigers weren’t able<br />
to make a three-year commitment, and that’s<br />
what we started with in April of last year. ...<br />
They never really offered me a three-year<br />
deal, and Baltimore came out aggressive from<br />
Bill Persinger<br />
the get-go.”<br />
Walker, 35, appeared in 56 games for the<br />
2006 Tigers, American League champi<strong>on</strong>s,<br />
and posted a 2.81 earned-run average as a situati<strong>on</strong>al<br />
lefthander.<br />
Walker, who was OVC Pitcher of the Year<br />
in 1992, was the first former APSU player to<br />
appear in a World Series game since Jimmy<br />
Stewart played in 1970 for the Reds.<br />
Walker spoke Feb. 5 at APSU’s 2007 First<br />
Pitch Banquet. The event was an opportunity<br />
for the public to meet the Govs baseball team<br />
for the 2007 seas<strong>on</strong>.<br />
McCray leaving APSU<br />
Govs head football<br />
coach Carroll McCray,<br />
who was to begin his<br />
fifth seas<strong>on</strong> this fall,<br />
resigned in February to<br />
become the offensive<br />
line coach at Furman<br />
<strong>University</strong> in<br />
Carroll McCray Greenville, S.C.<br />
The move also<br />
allows McCray to be closer to his family.<br />
Both McCray’s and his wife Angel’s parents<br />
live in North Carolina.<br />
McCray’s s<strong>on</strong>, Trey, is going to play football<br />
at Furman, and that also factored into his<br />
resignati<strong>on</strong>.<br />
McCray, who last fall completed the first<br />
year of a three-year c<strong>on</strong>tract extensi<strong>on</strong>, was<br />
11-33 overall and went 3-8 last seas<strong>on</strong> in<br />
<strong>Austin</strong> <strong>Peay</strong>’s return to scholarship football.<br />
Assistant head coach and offensive line<br />
coach Steve Haywood has been named interim<br />
head coach until a new successor to<br />
McCray is named.<br />
Former APSU coach, Bo<br />
Brown, remembered with<br />
scholarship in his name<br />
Woods<strong>on</strong> Oliver, Clarksville, wanted to pay<br />
tribute to his former college coach, Fred “Bo”<br />
Brown, in a meaningful way, so Oliver<br />
recently established a football scholarship in<br />
Brown’s name at <strong>Austin</strong> <strong>Peay</strong>.<br />
He’s encouraging others to support the<br />
Coach Fred “Bo” Brown Memorial<br />
Scholarship, named in memory of the man<br />
who, according to Oliver, had a profound<br />
impact <strong>on</strong> the lives of many people during the<br />
short time he was <strong>Austin</strong> <strong>Peay</strong>’s head basketball,<br />
baseball and football coach.<br />
Looking for<br />
<strong>Austin</strong> <strong>Peay</strong><br />
sports schedules,<br />
news and the<br />
most up-to-date<br />
informati<strong>on</strong>?<br />
Get it all <strong>on</strong>line at<br />
www.apsu.edu<br />
the family farm near Clarksville, Oliver was<br />
determined to get a college degree. Although his<br />
father saved $25 so he could attend <strong>Austin</strong> <strong>Peay</strong><br />
in Fall 1941, the m<strong>on</strong>ey ran out after <strong>on</strong>e term.<br />
Oliver found odd jobs around campus to<br />
fund his educati<strong>on</strong> until Bo Brown, coach of<br />
the Govs’ struggling football team, offered<br />
him a football scholarship.<br />
After graduati<strong>on</strong>, Oliver began a career<br />
with a U.S. Steel-affiliated company—a job<br />
that would take him around the world—<br />
before he retired and returned to Clarksville.<br />
If interested in c<strong>on</strong>tributing to the Coach<br />
Fred “Bo” Brown Memorial Scholarship,<br />
c<strong>on</strong>tact Margaret Bentley by teleph<strong>on</strong>e at<br />
(931) 221-7127.<br />
Kimmel retires as head<br />
athletic trainer<br />
Chuck Kimmel, <strong>Austin</strong> <strong>Peay</strong>’s l<strong>on</strong>gtime<br />
athletic trainer and assistant athletics director,<br />
retired from the <strong>University</strong> in December.<br />
Kimmel began a new career in January as<br />
director of rehabilitati<strong>on</strong> and a lecturer at<br />
Appalachian <strong>State</strong> <strong>University</strong>, Bo<strong>on</strong>e, N.C.<br />
Kimmel, a member of the <strong>Austin</strong> <strong>Peay</strong><br />
Athletics Hall of Fame, arrived at APSU in<br />
August 1981 from East Tennessee <strong>State</strong><br />
<strong>University</strong>.<br />
J<strong>on</strong>i Johns<strong>on</strong>, APSU’s assistant athletic trainer<br />
for the past 14 years, is interim head athletic<br />
trainer. APSU will c<strong>on</strong>duct a search this spring<br />
for a permanent positi<strong>on</strong> replacement.<br />
Bivins receives OVC<br />
Scholar-Athlete Award<br />
Ad<strong>on</strong>ia Bivins, a senior defender for the<br />
women’s soccer team, was named <strong>on</strong>e of six<br />
recipients of the Ohio Valley C<strong>on</strong>ference’s<br />
prestigious Scholar-Athlete Award for 2006-07.<br />
Jamie “Cat” Walker speaks at the annual “First<br />
Pitch” Governors baseball banquet in February. After a childhood of “following a mule” <strong>on</strong><br />
C<strong>on</strong>tinued <strong>on</strong> Page 31<br />
Spring 2007 25