Southeastern Oklahoma State University Athletics

MARK MILLIGAN came out of Henryetta High School as the No. 1 player in Oklahoma and joined a tennis program at Southeastern that made 13-consecutive trips to the NAIA National Tournament.
 
He made four of those trips with the Savages twice finishing second in the nation while he reached the national finals in doubles in his senior year.
 
In the first match of Milligan’s first year as a Savage tennis player, he defeated Marshall Shubert from North Texas in a home match, and over his career would collect wins over NCAA Division I schools in the area, including Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Tulsa, Missouri, Texas and Baylor. Most of those matches coming on the road as the larger schools would not come to Durant.
 
Milligan played four seasons of Southeastern tennis under hall of fame coach Clarence Dyer and put together a memorable career highlighted by a pair of All-American honors in 1970 and 1972 while helping those teams to NAIA National Team Runner Up finishes thanks in part to a national doubles runner-up finish of his own in 1972 with teammate and hall of famer Kimm Ketelson.
 
He joined the Savage tennis program as Oklahoma's top-ranked junior player and would win a pair of Oklahoma Collegiate Conference doubles championships and twice finished as OCC singles runner-up. He helped guide his teams to OCC team championships in each of his four seasons.
 
Milligan continued his tennis success as a coach, taking over as the coach at Ardmore HS in 1973 and making stops at Muskogee HS, Henryetta HS, Altus HS, and McAlester HS over his 30 year coaching career. Over that span he coached 12 All-State athletes and 11 individual State Champions, while adding one team state title and one team state runner-up finish. In 2018 he was inducted into the Oklahoma Tennis Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
 
Milligan, through his efforts on and off the court, excelled to a level that brings great honor to Southeastern Oklahoma State University.  The University honors him today, August 18, 2018, with membership in the Southeastern Oklahoma State Athletics Hall of Fame.