“I am very humbled to be thought of this way among the greats of golf in the state of Kentucky,” said Milkman, the first Murray State Racer to be inducted into the KGF Hall of Fame. “I think about the people that I’ve coached and been associated with a lot. That’s my favorite part of it now that I’m retired from coaching. Watching them grow into wonderful wives and mothers and seeing them raise their families.”

As the women’s golf family at Murray State continues to grow, Milkman (part of the 2024 class to the Murray State Hall of Fame) is proud to know that there are 74 next-generation Racers, the children from the families of her former players. In addition, 40 percent of Milkman’s former student-athletes have had careers in the game of golf, either as a professional player or coach, or in the industry of golf.

When Milkman started the women’s golf program in 1993, she never dreamed it would’ve turned out like it did. She is the all-time leader at Murray State with 12 OVC Championships, her longevity spanned an amazing 22 years between her first title in 1997 and the last in 2019. Her Racer teams dominated by winning the OVC championship three consecutive times on three different occasions (1997-99), (2002-04) and (2017-19). The Racers finished runner up five times and placed outside of the top-3 only five times in 28 OVC championship appearances. The Racers made seven NCAA appearances under Coach Milkman by competing in team play regionals including Columbus, Ohio (2009),Velvet Milkman Columbus, Indiana (2010), Tallahassee, Florida (2014), Lubbock, Texas (2017), Madison, Wisc. (2018) and Auburn, Ala. (2019). In 2022, Payton Carter became the first MSU and OVC player to play as an individual when she competed at the Franklin, Tenn. NCAA regional. Holmslykke became the first golfer from Murray State and the OVC to advance to the NCAA Championship in 2019.

Historic programs are made by great players and Coach Milkman was able to recruit and develop eight different student-athletes that combined to win 10 OVC Player of the Year honors. That impressive list includes Jenny Daag (1998, 1999), Cuyler Hedley (2002), Lee Anne Pace (2003), Nikki Orazine (2004, 2005), Delaney Howson (2014), Moa Folke (2017), Linette Holmslykke (2019) and Payton Carter (2022). In 12 OVC team championships, Milkman’s Racers had eight players produce 10 medalist winners at the OVC championship including Daag (1998, 1999), Hedley (2002), Pace (2003), Orazine (2004), Howson (2014), Folke (2016, 2017), Anna Moore (2019) and Carter (2022).

The Racers also performed at a championship level in the classroom with 35 winners of the OVC Medal of Honor signifying perfect 4.0 GPA’s. Delaney Howson (2014) won the OVC Scholar Athlete Award and the Racers won the OVC Academic Achievement Award four times (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008). Milkman’s teams produced six student-athletes that were named the top graduate in their field of study including Jesse Widman-Economics (2000), Ilka Loubser- Finance (2006), Ashley Kelbough – Outdoor Recreation (2006), Delaney Howson – Finance (2014), Sophie Hillier – Finance (2016) and Linette Holmslykke – Finance (2019), who also won the coveted NCAA Elite 90 Award in 2019.

Milkman served for 18 years as senior woman administrator for MSU Athletics and led the department as interim athletics director from July 2018 through February 2019. She was one of the leaders in shaping women’s golf at the NCAA level and served a four-year term (2009-12) on the NCAA Women’s Golf Committee including two years as chair.

Coach Milkman was honored in 2022 with the Gladys Palmer Service Award, presented by the Women’s Golf Coaches Association’s (WGCA).