For Immediate Release – Thursday, April 18, 2024
Rick Samuels Selected To OVC Hall Of Fame
Becomes third EIU selection into league hall of fame
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Former Eastern Illinois head men’s basketball coach Rick Samuels and the late Heather Brown, who served as the OVC’s Director of Communications for 20 years, have been elected to the Ohio Valley Conference Hall of Fame. The duo will be officially inducted at the annual OVC Honors Brunch which will be held on Friday, May 31 in Franklin, Tennessee.
Former Eastern Illinois head men’s basketball coach Rick Samuels, has been elected to the Ohio Valley Conference Hall of Fame. Photo: EIU Panthers
The Ohio Valley Conference Hall of Fame was organized in 1977 with the intent of honoring the coaches, administrators, faculty and staff who have been associated with the OVC for at least five years and provided extensive and outstanding service to the Conference. With the induction of this year’s class, the membership will reach 98.
Samuels served as EIU’s head men’s basketball coach for 25 years (1981-2005), the last nine as a member of the OVC. He helped the team make the transition from Division II to Division I and later from the Mid-Continent Conference to the OVC. At the end of his career he was the second-longest tenured active coach nationally. He finished his career with 360 victories, which is the most in program history.
Samuels led the program to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances (1992, 2001). The 2001 appearance followed a dramatic ending to the OVC Tournament Championship, as the Panthers topped Austin Peay 84-83 to its only OVC Tournament crown to date.
During his OVC tenure, he coached 12 All-OVC selections including 2002 OVC Player of the Year Henry Domercant. Domercant finished his career with 2,602 points, the most in OVC history. The 2000-01 EIU team featured Domercant and Kyle Hill, who each ranked in the top five nationally in scoring. Hill would late become one of three NBA Draft Picks that Samuels coached (along with Kevin Duckworth and Jon Collins).
Samuels teams consistently ranked among the top in academic performance in the league and also performed countless hours of community service in the Charleston/Mattoon community. Samuels, who was inducted into the EIU Hall of Fame in 2014, is currently an active part of the EIU 6th Man Group that helps raise funds for EIU men’s basketball. Samuels, a native of Laramie, Wyoming, attended Mid-Plains Community College and later Chadron State College (he was inducted into the CSC Hall of Fame in 2005).
He becomes the third OVC Hall of Fame inductee from Eastern Illinois joining former football coach Bob Spoo and director of track & field Tom Akers.
Brown joined the OVC staff in 2003 and served the League until her death in October 2023 after a battle with breast cancer. In the 76-year history of the League, no full-time staff member has ever worked at the OVC office longer than Brown.
Her association with the league began with a 10-month internship before she was hired full-time as the Assistant Director of Media Relations. She held that role until being promoted to Director of Media Relations in December 2006. In August 2016 her title changed to Director of Communications to better reflect the changing job responsibilities associated with collegiate athletics.
As part of her role at the OVC she worked primarily with women’s sports, making sure the student-athletes she worked for garnered their deserved accolades. In 2013, she helped plan the OVC’s Title IX Celebration Luncheon, an event that capped off a year-long celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Title IX.
At the Conference office a big part of any staff members role is to work Championship events. Brown worked over 100 OVC Championships during her tenure, including serving as the media coordinator for the sports of women’s soccer, volleyball, softball and tennis and assisting in that role with basketball and baseball.
In addition to the many OVC Championships she worked over the years, she also left a legacy of working NCAA Championship events, including helping coordinate the media activities of the 2005, 2012 and 2018 men’s basketball events in Nashville, as well as the 2014 NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four (and event that included years of planning).
At the OVC, she also coordinated social events, getting birthday cards for staff members (including giving them shoutouts on social media) and helping build a family atmosphere among Conference staff.
In January 2024 she was posthumously named the recipient of the Achievement Award – University Division by the College Sports Communicators (CSC).
A native of West Liberty, Ohio, Brown was a 2003 graduate of Bowling Green State University.
