Racer Legend Milkman Set For OVC Hall of Fame Honor

Murray State Hall of Famer, Coach Velvet Milkman, will be honored, May 29, as part of the class of 2025 to the Ohio Valley Conference Hall of Fame.

The honor is Milkman's third selection to an organization's hall of fame, after being inducted into the Murray State Hall of Fame and the Kentucky Golf Hall of Fame in 2024.

Milkman began the MSU women's golf program in 1993 and was the only coach of the team until her retirement at the end of the 2021-22 season. She is the first full-time women's golf coach to be enshrined into the OVC Hall of Fame.

Milkman's longevity spanned an amazing 22 years between her first title in 1997 and the last in 2019. Her teams dominated the OVC championship winning three-straight times on three different occasions (1997-99), (2002-04) and (2017-19). The Racers finished runner up five times and placed outside of the top-3 only five times in 28 OVC championship appearances.

The Racers made seven NCAA appearances under Coach Milkman by competing in team play regionals including Columbus, Ohio (2009), Columbus, Indiana (2010), Tallahassee, Florida (2014), Lubbock, Texas (2017), Madison, Wisc. (2018) and Auburn, Ala. (2019).

Milkman coached MSU greats Payton Carter and Linette Holmslykke in her final seasons. In 2022, Carter became the first MSU and OVC player to play as an individual and Holmslykke became the first golfer from Murray State and the OVC to advance to the NCAA Championship in 2019.

Milkman recruited and develop eight different student-athletes that combined to win 10 OVC Player of the Year honors. That list includes Jenny Daag (1998, 1999), Cuyler Hedley (2002), Lee Anne Pace (2003), Nikki Orazine (2004, 2005), Delaney Howson (2014), Moa Folke (2017), Linette Holmslykke (2019) and Payton Carter (2022). In 12 OVC team championships, Milkman's Racers had eight players produce 10 medalist winners at the OVC championship including Daag (1998, 1999), Hedley (2002), Pace (2003), Orazine (2004), Howson (2014), Folke (2016, 2017), Anna Moore (2019) and Carter (2022).

The Racers also performed at a championship level in the classroom with 35 winners of the OVC Medal of Honor signifying perfect 4.0 GPA's. Delaney Howson (2014) won the OVC Scholar Athlete Award and the Racers won the OVC Academic Achievement Award four times (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008). Milkman's teams produced six student-athletes that were named the top graduate in their field of study including Jesse Widman-Economics (2000), Ilka Loubser- Finance (2006), Ashley Kelbough - Outdoor Recreation (2006), Delaney Howson - Finance (2014), Sophie Hillier – Finance (2016) and Linette Holmslykke – Finance (2019), who also won the coveted NCAA Elite 90 Award in 2019.

Milkman served for 18 years as senior woman administrator for MSU Athletics and led the department as interim athletics director from July 2018 through February 2019. She was one of the leaders in shaping women's golf at the NCAA level and served a four-year term (2009-12) on the NCAA Women's Golf Committee including two years as chair.

In 2022, Milkman was given the Gladys Palmer Service Award, presented by the Women's Golf Coaches Association's (WGCA).

Follow the Murray State Racers on X (@MSURacers), Instagram (@RacersAthletics) and Facebook to stay up-to-date on all that is happening with Murray State Athletics. For more on Murray State women's golf, follow on X and Instagram (@RacersWGolf).

Murray State University

Players Mentioned

Payton Carter

Moa Folke

Linette Holmslykke

Anna Moore

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