Track, Basketball (1963-67)
Tommy McVay was a two-sport athlete at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, winning four letters in track and three in basketball.
His induction produced the first father-son combo as he joined his dad (Tom, 1996) in the Athletic Hall of Fame.
Tommy McVay was born on May 22, 1944 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He attended high school in Beaver, Oklahoma, where he was a three-sport athlete in football, basketball, and track, playing under the tutelage of his father.
After coming to Southeastern and becoming a two-sport standout for the Savages, McVay soon found that he dominated the Oklahoma Collegiate Conference in track by winning the quarter-mile in his sophomore, junior, and senior years. In 1964, he was a member of the Oklahoma Collegiate Conference champion mile-relay team.
He was a three-time Oklahoma Collegiate Conference champion in the 440-yard dash and posted a best time of 47.5 when he finished in the Top 16 in the NAIA Nationals in 1967.
Tommy was a three-year letterman in basketball, a two-year starter and All-Conference Honorable Mention in 1966-67 and a team member of the “Silky Five” that included Senator Darryl Roberts, Bob Parkhill, Joe Lewis and Gene Wilmoth.
The Southeastern Savages were conference co-champions in 1965-66. Tommy served as team captain the following year. He was the first recipient of the Bloomer Sullivan Award, in 1965-66, currently known as the Most Outstanding Male Athlete.
McVay earned two degrees at Southeastern, in 1967 and 1968 and started his coaching career at Waynoka, Oklahoma, as the head coach in both basketball and track and as an assistant coach in football. He followed with a stint in Kansas, coaching at Protection, Kansas and Derby, Kansas. He has served as the President of the Kansas Coaches Association.
McVay also coached at the collegiate level, serving a stint at Kansas State University where he coached quarterbacks and running backs. In 1997, McVay joined Texas Tech University as the Assistant Athletics Director and Director of Football Operations.
Tommy McVay found success both on the track and on the court, and the University honored him with membership into the Southeastern Oklahoma State Athletics Hall of Fame on February 14, 2009.
