Mississippi State Unveils 2016 Sports Hall of Fame Class

July 26, 2016

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI/MSU Athletics) — Four former student-athletes and one current administrator will be officially inducted into the Mississippi State Sports Hall of Fame at halftime of the Bulldogs’ Sept. 10 football game against South Carolina, the MSU M-Club Alumni Association announced Tuesday.

The annual MSU Sports Hall of Fame Gala will be held on Friday, Sept. 9 at The Mill Conference Center. Festivities get underway at 6 p.m. and will include a silent auction, seated dinner and awards ceremony. A post award party will immediately follow featuring the band, Just A Few Cats, of Birmingham. Tickets are available for purchase at msumclub.org for $110 per person. Proceeds benefit the MSU M-Club Alumni Association Scholarship Fund.

New inductees to the MSU Sports Hall of Fame are two-time first-team softball All-American Chelsea Bramlett-Malone, basketball All-American Greg Carter, football All-Southeastern Conference quarterback Wayne Madkin, longtime equipment manager Phil Silva and women’s basketball Kodak All-American Tan White.

A four-year NFCA First Team All-American (2007-10), Bramlett finished her senior season as a USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year Top 10 finalist (2010) after finishing as a Top 25 finalist the two seasons prior (2008 and 2009).

Bramlett remains MSU’s career leader in batting average (.461), runs scored (219), hits (359) and stolen bases (207). The three-time NFCA Catcher of the Year (2008-10) also owns Bulldog single-season records for batting average (.536, 2010) and stolen bases (61, 2010). Her batting average of .536 in 2010 is the 10^th-highest ever recorded in NCAA Division I history and propelled her to the 2010 ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic Player of the Year.

Carter finished his illustrious MSU career with 1,123 points and 611 rebounds and was named to the school’s All-Century team. Carter, now the coach at Starkville High School, also ranks among MSU’s career leaders in steals (115) and blocks (53).

Carter started 101 games, including all 59 games of his junior and senior campaigns combined. In addition, he paced the 1990-91 SEC co-champion Bulldogs in rebounding (7.8) and field goal percentage (56.5) en route to garnering first-team All-SEC honors in 1991 and being voted to the All-SEC Defensive team. He was also tabbed honorable-mention All-American.
No quarterback in State history won as many games as Madkin, who led the Bulldogs to 25 victories as a starter from 1998-2001. At the time, he set school career records for passing attempts (887), completions (462) and passing yards (6,336). He guided MSU to three consecutive bowl games as a starter, including the 1999 Cotton Bowl, 1999 Peach Bowl and the 2000 Independence Bowl.

As a redshirt freshman in 1998, Madkin spearheaded the Bulldogs to a three-game winning streak to close the regular season en route to the SEC Western Division championship and the program’s first appearance in the SEC Championship Game. Madkin threw for 1,884 yards as a sophomore and was named most outstanding player of the 1999 Peach Bowl after his performance in a 17-7 win over Clemson. That year he was part of the first 8-0 team in program history. He followed that up a year later, completing 136-of-246 passes for 1,908 yards and eight touchdowns, earning first-team All-SEC honors by College Sports Southeast.

A native of Huntsville, Ala., Madkin was named to MSU’s All-Century Team and earned his degree from Mississippi State in 2001. He currently works at Entergy Corporation in Jackson.

A familiar face on the Bulldog sideline since 1984, Silva has seen his share of great moments as MSU’s equipment manager. He’s mentored hundreds of students over the years who have gone on to full-time roles, served five football head coaches from Emory Bellard to Dan Mullen and been in charge of equipping MSU’s athletic teams. The Leo Seal Jr. Football Complex opened its doors in 2013 and the equipment room was named in Silva’s honor. The New Orleans native begins his 33rd season in 2016.

White concluded her career from 1997-2001 as the MSU record-holder in three-point field goals made (22), three-point field goals attempted (714), steals (372), blocked shots (118) and field goals attempted (121). She became just the second Lady Bulldog to reach the 2,000-point plateau and shattered the SEC record for career steals, a mark that ranks third today.

A finalist for the State Farm Wade Trophy, Naismith Award, Wooden Award and Senior CLASS Award in 2001, the Tupelo native was the nation’s top scorer as a senior, averaging 23.5 points per game. She earned Kodak All-America honors and was named first-team All-SEC. After graduation, White was taken as the No. 2 overall pick of 2005 WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever. She was the second Lady Bulldog to be drafted into the WNBA and played 10 seasons.

The MSU Sports Hall of Fame, administered by the M-Club Alumni Association, is designed to honor those former student-athletes, coaches and administrators at Mississippi State who excelled in their respective sports at MSU while also demonstrating good citizenship and outstanding character since leaving the university.