Les Taylor (1987) - Hall of Fame - Murray State University Athletics

Les Taylor

Induction:
1987

Les Taylor – Basketball, 1969-1973

Les Taylor arrived at Murray State from Carbondale (IL) High School to play for Coach Cal Luther and did so as one of the best forwards to ever suit up for the Racers as his career ran from 1968-71 in which he was named Player of the Year twice in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Taylor was OVC Player of the Year for both the 1970-71 and 1972-73 seasons and was at the time, the first Murray State player to win the award twice.
At that time, only Taylor and WKU’s Clem Haskins (1965, 1966, 1967) and Jim McDaniels (1970, 1971) had won the OVC POY award in two or more seasons.
As of 2022, Taylor has been joined at Murray State by other multiple OVC Player of the Year winners including Jeff Martin (1988, 1989), Popeye Jones (1990, 1991), Marcus Brown (1995, 1996) and Isaiah Canaan (2012, 2013).
Playing in a time when it was an NCAA rule that freshman was not allowed to play on the varsity squad, Taylor’s talent was only displayed in freshman games in the 1969-70 season in which he dominated with a scoring average of 22.4 points per game. If the OVC would’ve been giving a league Freshman of the Year award, Taylor would’ve been the obvious choice.
In the 1970-71 season as a sophomore, Taylor scored 15.8 points per game and pulled down 8.9 rebounds per game.
In his first MVP season in 1971-72, Taylor scored 25.6 points per game and was the eighth ranked scorer in NCAA D-I.
He came back for his senior season in 1972-73 and was OVC MVP again scoring 22.4 points per game.
Sadly, Taylor was never able to win an OVC regular season as they finished second twice in 1971 and 1973.
When Taylor was finished at MSU, he was the fifth-leading career scorer in team history and is still 16^th all-time at MSU as of 2022.
Taylor’s 25.6 points per game in 1971-72 was the best at MSU when he finished in 1973 and still ranks fourth at MSU as of 2022
His 562 career field goals in only 70 games is still second (as of 2022) all-time at MSU in per-game average at 8.0 per game. He is second behind only Claude Virden (1967-70) who averaged 8.7 per game in 71 games.
Taylor is 12^th (as of 2022) in career made free throws at 353.
His 16-rebound game against Williams Jewell in 1973 was among the best single game performances at the time.
In that same game against William Jewell, Taylor scored 39 points for the sixth-best scoring game in MSU history at the time and a game that is 11^th at MSU as of 2022.
In 1973, Taylor was in a rare group of players that were drafted by the NBA and the ABA.
The NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers made him the 12^th Murray State player to be selected in the NBA Draft as the fifth pick in the ninth round as the 142^nd player taken overall.
Taylor’s contemporaries that also were drafted in 1973 by the NBA included Doug Collins of Illinois State who was the No. 1 pick.
The Kentucky Colonels of the ABA chose him in the seventh round, but Taylor never played a game as a professional.
It is no wonder that Coach Cal Luther called Les Taylor the most complete player he ever coached.