MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Morehead State Men's Basketball won the 2023-24 Ohio Valley Conference regular-season and tournament championships, and they accomplished both with class. The program has been honored with the OVC Team Sportsmanship Award for the season.
The awards program started in 2005-06. This marks the Eagles' first time winning the award, which is voted on by fellow student-athletes and coaches within the league.
Implemented in August 2005, the team honors are the most recent addition to an awards program that recognizes and celebrates sportsmanship within the Conference. In 1998, the league established the Steve Hamilton Sportsmanship Award, presented annually to a male or female student-athlete of junior or senior status who best exemplifies the characteristics of the late Morehead State student-athlete, coach and administrator. Five years later, the Conference added the OVC Sportsmanship Award, presented annually to the member institution selected by its peers to have best exhibited the standards of sportsmanship and ethical behavior as outlined by the OVC and NCAA.
"Without sportsmanship there are truly no meaningful victories," said Beth DeBauche, OVC Commissioner. "The recipients of the OVC Team Sportsmanship awards should accept this award with great pride for their fellow competitors have made it clear their teams exemplify the best in intercollegiate athletics. In receiving this prestigious honor other competitors are saying these student-athletes compete with class, respect their opponents and value fair play. That is quite a compliment as those are all traits that will lead to true victories throughout the course of life."
Men's Basketball's accolades marks the 20th all-time sportsmanship award for Morehead State, and the school won the overall institutional sportsmanship award in 2006-07.
