Willie "Rat" McGowan / Baseball and Football

A fixture for over 40 years at Alcorn State, McGowan won 701 games as the head baseball coach for the Braves, including four division titles. "Rat" was named SWAC baseball coach of the year four times (1978, 1979, 1981, and 1988). He also served as the defensive line and defensive backs coach for the ASU football teams during his tenure.

As a player at Alcorn State from 1957 to 1960, the McComb, Mississippi native lettered four times in both football and baseball and was named captain and football team MVP in 1959. He earned the school’s inaugural Jack Spinks Award.

McGowan retired in 2009 and the baseball complex on campus is now named in his honor, along with another Alcorn State legend, Bill Foster. He was inducted into the Alcorn State Hall of Fame in 1998 and received a proclamation from the State of Mississippi in 2005. In 2005, he also received the Tom Joyner Award and the ASU Humanitarian Award.