44 Notable alumni of
Murray State University
Murray State University is 1122nd in the world, 406th in North America, and 381st in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 44 notable alumni from Murray State University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Chrishell Stause
- Occupations
- actortelevision actorreal estate broker
- Biography
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Terrina Chrishell Stause is an American actress. She is known for her role on the Netflix reality show Selling Sunset, along with previous television roles as Amanda Dillon on All My Children and Jordan Ridgeway on Days of Our Lives.
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Ja Morant
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Temetrius Jamel "Ja" Morant is an American professional basketball player for the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Murray State Racers, where he was a consensus first-team All-American as a sophomore in 2019. He was selected by the Grizzlies with the second overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft and named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2020. Morant was named to his first NBA All Star Game in 2022 as a starter, and won the NBA Most Improved Player Award at the conclusion of the season.
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Jim Varney
- Occupations
- stand-up comedianactorfilm producerwriterscreenwriter
- Biography
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James Albert Varney Jr. was an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his broadly comedic role as Ernest P. Worrell, for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award, as well as appearing in films and numerous television commercial advertising campaigns. He played Jed Clampett in a film adaptation of The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) and performed the voice of Slinky Dog in the first two films of the Toy Story franchise (1995–1999). He died of lung cancer in 2000, leaving two posthumous releases, of Daddy and Them and Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
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Chris Thile
- Occupations
- musiciansinger-songwriterguitaristradio personality
- Biography
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Christopher Scott Thile is an American mandolinist, singer, songwriter, composer, and radio personality, best known for his work in the progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek and the acoustic folk and progressive bluegrass quintet Punch Brothers. He is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow. In October 2016, he became the host of the radio variety show A Prairie Home Companion, which in December 2017 was renamed Live from Here.
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W. Earl Brown
- Occupations
- stage actorfilm actortelevision actoractortelevision producer
- Biography
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William Earl Brown is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, musician, and songwriter. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Kenny in the film Scream (1996), Warren in the film There's Something About Mary (1998), Dan Dority on the HBO series Deadwood (2004–2006), and the voice and motion capture of Bill in the video game The Last of Us (2013). He has appeared in films such as Backdraft, The Master, Being John Malkovich, The Sessions, Vanilla Sky, The Lone Ranger, and Bloodworth (which he also wrote and produced), as well as series such as Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, C.S.I., C.S.I. Miami, The X-Files, Six Feet Under, Preacher, Bates Motel, True Detective, American Horror Story, Chicago Fire, and The Mandalorian.
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Cameron Payne
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Cameron Payne is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for Murray State.
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Leva Bates
- Occupations
- professional wrestlertelevision producer
- Biography
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Leva Bates is an American professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling. She also had a successful tenure on the independent circuit, most notably for Shimmer Women Athletes. She has also appeared in WWE on their developmental territory NXT under the ring name Blue Pants.
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Justin Fuente
- Occupations
- American football player
- Biography
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Justin James Fuente is a former American football coach and player. He was the head football coach at Virginia Tech from 2016 to 2021. He was the 2016 ACC Coach of the Year. Fuente was the head football coach at the University of Memphis from 2012 to 2015. He was an assistant at Texas Christian University from 2007 to 2011 and previously at Illinois State University from 2001 to 2006. Fuente attended the University of Oklahoma before transferring to Murray State University after his redshirt sophomore season. He played quarterback for both schools. Fuente played a single season with the Oklahoma Wranglers of the Arena Football League.
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Isaiah Canaan
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Isaiah Canaan is an American professional basketball player for Galatasaray Nef of the Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL). He was an All-American college player at Murray State University.
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Joe Fulks
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Joseph Franklin "Jumping Joe" Fulks was an American professional basketball player, sometimes called "the first of the high-scoring forwards". He was posthumously enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978.
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Bud Foster
- Occupations
- head coachAmerican football player
- Biography
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Robert Eugene "Bud" Foster Jr. is a retired American college football coach and former player. He currently serves as a Special Assistant to Athletics Director Whit Babcock. Following the 2006 season, he received the Frank Broyles Award, which is annually given to the top assistant coach in college football. Foster's 2005 and 2006 Hokie defenses led the nation in total defense. Foster is regarded as one of the best defensive coordinators in college football. On August 1, 2019, Foster announced he was retiring at the end of the 2019 season.
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Marcus Brown
- Occupations
- basketball playerbasketball coach
- Biography
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Marcus James Brown is a retired American professional basketball player. At 6'3" (1.91 m) tall, he played as a shooting guard. A three time All-EuroLeague selection, Brown has been mentioned as being one of the top U.S. players ever to play abroad. Brown ended his career as a player-coach with Žalgiris Kaunas in 2011. Brown was the EuroLeague's career scoring leader since the year 2000, when he ended his career in October 2011. As far as United States players only are concerned, Brown remains the league's all-time scoring leader since the year 2000, when the league's current organizer (Euroleague Basketball) took over the competition.
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James Singleton
- Occupations
- basketball playerbasketball coach
- Biography
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James Alexander Singleton is a former American professional basketball player and former assistant coach of the Austin Spurs of the NBA G League. The 6'8" forward played two years of college basketball for Murray State.
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Kirk Rueter
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Kirk Wesley Rueter, nicknamed "Woody", is an American former left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. Rueter played for the Montreal Expos and the San Francisco Giants.
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Larry J. Hopkins
- Occupations
- politicianstockbroker
- Biography
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Larry Jones Hopkins was an American politician who represented Kentucky's 6th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1993. He was the Republican nominee for governor of Kentucky in 1991 and lost to Brereton C. Jones. He was the father of actor Josh Hopkins.
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Wesley Korir
- Occupations
- marathon runnerpolitician
- Biography
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Wesley Korir is a Kenyan long distance runner, who specializes in road running competitions, and politician. On 16 April 2012, he won the Boston Marathon with a time of 2 hours 12 minutes 40 seconds. He had previously won the Los Angeles Marathon in 2009 and 2010, the first back-to-back winner there in eight years. He took second place in the 2011 Chicago Marathon in a personal-record time of 2 hours 6 minutes 15 seconds, and improved that personal record by 2 seconds in the 2012 Chicago Marathon. In the 2013 Kenyan general election, Korir was elected to a seat in the National Assembly. He lost his seat in 2017.
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Ed Daniel
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Edward Daniel is an American professional basketball player for Scafati Basket of the Serie A2 Basket. He played college basketball at Murray State University.
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Jeff Easley
- Occupations
- painterillustrator
- Biography
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Jeff Easley is an oil painter who creates fantasy artwork for role-playing games, comics, and magazines, as well as non-fantasy commercial art.
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Bill Cunningham
- Occupations
- lawyerjudge
- Biography
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William Harold Cunningham is an American former prosecutor and former Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court. He was elected to the court in November 2006 to represent the first Appellate District. He announced he would retire in early 2019.
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Joe Staton
- Occupations
- comics artist
- Biography
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Joe Staton is an American comics artist and writer. He co-created the Bronze Age Huntress (Helena Wayne), as well as the third Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) and the Omega Men for DC Comics. He was the artist of the Dick Tracy comic strip from 2011 to October 2021.
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Lee-Anne Pace
- Occupations
- golfer
- Biography
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Lee-Anne Pace is a South African professional golfer.
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J. D. Wilkes
- Occupations
- singer
- Biography
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Joshua "J. D." Wilkes is an American visual artist, musician, amateur filmmaker and author. He is best known as the singer for the rock band Legendary Shack Shakers, and is also an accomplished harmonica player, having recorded for such artists as Merle Haggard, Sturgill Simpson, John Carter Cash, Mike Patton, and Hank Williams III in the American Masters film "Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues". His song "Swampblood" can be heard on the Grammy-nominated soundtrack for HBO's True Blood series. Wilkes is a resident of Paducah, Kentucky and is the author of two books, The Vine That Ate The South and Barn Dances and Jamborees Across Kentucky.
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Tripp Gibson
- Occupations
- athlete
- Biography
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Hal Harrison Gibson III, known as Tripp Gibson, is an American Major League Baseball umpire who wears uniform number 73. Gibson's first Major League game was July 8, 2013 at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. He was promoted to a full-time position in January 2015. Prior to his hiring, he worked as a substitute teacher during the offseason.
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William T. Redmond
- Occupations
- politicianinstructorteacherpriestwriter
- Biography
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William Thomas Redmond is an American politician and minister who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New Mexico.
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Stew Johnson
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Stewart "Stew" Johnson is an American former professional basketball player. A 6'8" (2.03 m) tall forward/center from Murray State University, that was born in New York City, Johnson was selected by the New York Knicks in the third round of the 1966 NBA draft. However, Johnson never played in the NBA, joining the rival American Basketball Association instead.
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John Powless
- Years
- 1932-2021 (aged 89)
- Occupations
- coachtennis playerbasketball playerbasketball coach
- Biography
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John D. Powless was an American basketball and tennis coach at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a player on the international senior tennis circuit.
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Ivan Aska
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Ivan Aska is a U.S. Virgin Islander-Puerto Rican professional basketball player for DEAC of the Hungarian Nemzeti Bajnokság I/A. He has also represented the senior men's U.S. Virgin Islands national basketball team. He played college basketball for Murray State's Racers. He is a 2.03 m (6'8") tall power forward-center.
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Forrest Pogue
- Occupations
- military historianhistorian of the modern age
- Biography
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Forrest Carlisle Pogue Jr. was an official United States Army historian during World War II. He was a proponent of oral history techniques, and collected many oral histories from the war under the direction of chief Army historian S. L. A. Marshall. Forrest Pogue was for many years the Executive Director of the George C. Marshall Foundation as well as Director of the Marshall Library located on the campus of Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia.
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Vicki Ann Funk
- Enrolled in Murray State University
- Graduated with master's degree
- Occupations
- botanistcuratorbotanical collector
- Biography
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Vicki Ann Funk was a Senior Research Botanist and Curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, known for her work on members of the composite family (Asteraceae) including collecting plants in many parts of the world, as well as her synthetic work on phylogenetics and biogeography.
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Brent Yonts
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Brent Yonts was an American politician and a Democratic member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from District 15. He took office in 1997 and was defeated for re-election in 2016 by Republican Melinda Gibbons Prunty.
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Steven H. David
- Occupations
- judge
- Biography
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Steven H. David is the 106th Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. David previously served as a lawyer and military officer. He retired from the United States Army Reserve in September 2010 with the rank of colonel.
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Mark Riggins
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Mark Alan Riggins is a former Major League Baseball pitching coach for the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball (MLB).
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Fats Everett
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Robert Ashton "Fats" Everett was an American Democratic Congressman from Tennessee from February 1, 1958 until his death in 1969.
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De'Teri Mayes
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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De'Teri Mayes is a former Austrian-American professional basketball player.
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Pat Spurgin
- Occupations
- sport shooter
- Biography
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Karen Patricia "Pat" Pitney is an American university president and sport shooter, now living in Fairbanks, Alaska. Born in Billings, Montana, she competed and won a gold medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics. She became the first Olympic Champion in Air Rifle for Women, at the time being an 18-year-old student at Murray State University, Kentucky. She earned a degree in engineering physics from Murray State University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She is the president of the University of Alaska system.
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Mark Evitts
- Born in
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United States - Occupations
- songwriterfiddlermandolinist
- Biography
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Mark Steven Evitts is an American composer, producer, string arranger, and multi-instrumentalist. Evitts has worked with such artists as Nas, Hit-Boy, G Herbo, David Guetta, Cheat Codes (DJs), Train, Blues Traveler, Jewel, Rodney Atkins, The Band Perry, Secondhand Serenade, Katharine McPhee, Drew Seeley, Jaida Dreyer, We The Kings, among many others. In 2021, Mark was a co-writer on the Nas (feat. Blxst) single, "Brunch on Sundays" for the Grammy nominated rap album, King's Disease II. Evitts also recorded on Joey + Rory's RIAA certified Gold selling album, "Hymns", which earned Evitts two Grammy winning certificates for string arranging and violin/viola performance, as well as working with producers Sam Hollander and Josh Edmondson (songwriter) on ten episodes of NBC's SMASH, including the Emmy nominated original song, "I Heard Your Voice In A Dream", and on 2015's Summer Forever soundtrack, distributed by Disney Music Group. Mark also arranged and recorded strings on the Cheat Codes track, "Shed a Light (Acoustic Version)".
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Taghreed El-Khodary
- Born in
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Palestine - Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Taghreed El-Khodary is a Palestinian journalist who is a visiting scholar in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment, where her research focuses on the future of Gaza. She is also a 2010 Heinrich Boell Fellow. She is editor at fanack.com,
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Stanley H. Humphries
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Stanley Harold "Stan" Humphries is an American teacher, farmer, and politician. He represents District 1 in the Kentucky State Senate. He was elected in 2012 to succeed fellow Republican Senator Kenneth W. Winters of Murray.
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Isaac Spencer
- Years
- 1977-.. (age 45)
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Isaac Spencer, is an American professional basketball player. At 6'6", he played as a forward.
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Kenneth W. Winters
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Kenneth W. Winters is Kentucky politician who served in the Kentucky State Senate and as president of Campbellsville University.
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Kerry B. Harvey
- Years
- 1957-.. (age 65)
- Biography
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Kerry B. Harvey is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky from 2010 to 2017.
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Myron Dossett
- Years
- 1961-.. (age 61)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Myron B. Dossett is an American politician and a Republican member of the Kentucky House of Representatives representing District 9 since January 2007.
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William F. Paxton
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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William F. Paxton III, better known to his friends as Bill, is a conservative politician who served as Mayor of Paducah, KY from 2000 to 2012. Before his tenure as the Mayor of Paducah, Paxton served a portion of an elected term from 1998 as a City Commissioner.
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Bryant Wallizer
- Occupations
- sport shooter
- Biography
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Bryant Wallizer is an American rifle shooter. He won a bronze medal in the 10 m air rifle at the 2015 Pan American Games.
