Two To Be Inducted Into MSU Sports Hall of Fame
September 11, 2014 | Athletics
STARKVILLE, Miss. – Two former Mississippi State student-athletes will be inducted into the MSU Sports Hall of Fame during pregame festivities when Bulldog football hosts Texas A&M on Oct. 4, the MSU athletic department announced Thursday. Men's basketball's Rickey Brown and track and field standout Tiffany McWilliams Dudley will represent the 2014 class of the MSU Sports Hall of Fame.
Brown, a native of Madison County, Miss., lettered for the Bulldogs from 1976-80 and was an All-American in his final season of 1979-80. A first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection in 1980, Brown is the school's fourth all-time leading scorer with 1,838 career points, and he is the third all-time leading rebounder with 1,092 boards.
Brown's career scoring average of 17.2 points per game is sixth all-time in MSU history. He immediately made an impact as a freshman in 1976-77, averaging 19.3 points per game. To this day, that figure remains the highest all-time single-season freshman scoring average in MSU history. On March 7, 1977, Brown poured in a career-best 40 points to lead the Bulldogs past Auburn 89-75.
As a senior in 1979-80, Brown tallied a team-best 20.4 points and 14.4 rebounds per game. He became just the second Bulldog ever to lead the SEC in rebounding, while his 14.4 boards per game is third all-time in MSU single-season history.
Following a successful collegiate career with the Bulldogs, Brown was chosen by the Golden State Warriors with the 13th overall pick of the 1980 NBA Draft. He played two seasons with the Warriors from 1980-82 before spending three seasons with the Atlanta Hawks from 1982-85.
McWilliams Dudley, a native of Red Bay, Ala., was a six-time NCAA All-American, a three-time NCAA individual champion and a seven-time SEC individual champion from 2001-04. She shattered five school records during her career, breaking marks in the indoor one-mile run (4:32.24), indoor 3,000-meter run (9:26.29), outdoor 1,500-meter run (4:06.75), outdoor 800-meter run (2:01.00) and outdoor one-mile run (4:31.31).
From 2003-04, no female distance runner in the SEC was as dominant as McWilliams. She claimed league titles in the indoor one-mile run both years and continued her success onto the outdoor circuit, winning the 800 and 1,500-meters in 2003 and 2004.
In 2003, McWilliams broke a 15-year-old NCAA outdoor record to defend her 1,500 meters national title with a time of 4:06.75. She won the same event in 2003 and was the 2004 NCAA indoor one-mile champion.
McWilliams was a member of two USA Track and Field international squads, participating in the 2003 Outdoor World Championships and 2006 Indoor World Championships. In 2006, she was runner-up in the 1,500 meters at the USA Track and Field Championships with a time of 4:09.17.
