Hall of Fame
Greg Alexander enrolled at Southern Arkansas University in the fall of 1975 after leading the Magnolia High School Panthers to back-to-back state basketball championships in 1974 and ‘75. Highly-recruited, the late W.T. Watson, then the Mulerider head basketball coach, and later athletic director, was able to land Alexander in spite of new University of Arkansas coach Eddie Sutton sending assistant Pat Foster, a native of Emerson, to watch almost all of Alexander’s games with the Panthers.
Alexander was a four-year starter for the Muleriders. He is second to John Holmes in the 500-Point Club, without the benefit of the three-point field goal that Holmes had. Holmes, inducted into the SAU Sports Hall of Fame in 2004, twice made the 600-Point Club. With the three-point shot advantage, Holmes scored 598 points in 1988-89 for an average of 20.6 points a game in 29 games. Alexander scored 586 points with no three-pointers in 26 games in 1978-79 for a 22.5 average. Alexander made the university’s 400-Point Club twice, in 1975-76, and 1977-78. He scored 454 points both years, in 29 games his freshman year for a 15.6 average, and in 25 games his junior year, an 18.0 average. Alexander is second to Holmes in career scoring with 1,886 points in 101 games for an 18.7 scoring average.
Alexander holds the SAU career record for the most two-point field goals in the school’s history with 779, and the most two-point field goals in a season with 240 (1978-79). He also holds the school record for most steals in a career with 209, and most steals in a season with 70 (1978-79).
Alexander was an excellent rebounder, dribbler, passer, and defender. Watson said, “Greg is one of the best practice players I have ever seen. He plays just as hard in practice as in games.” Alexander was a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Honorable Mention All-America selection in 1979 and an All-Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference (AIC) choice in 1976, 1978, and 1979. The talented Alexander also played baseball two years at Southern Arkansas.
After SAU, he tried out for the Dallas Cowboys as a defensive back. He made it to the final cut, before he was blocked in the back, suffering a kidney injury. The New York Giants and the Cowboys again, expressed interest and offered tryouts to Alexander, before he gave up on a career in the NFL. He had not played football since a sophomore at Magnolia High School. He was then invited to a National Basketball Association (NBA) camp in Los Angeles where the Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets expressed interest. Though he did not make it to the NBA, he played on pro-team leagues.
After finishing his degree at SAU, Alexander remained involved in sports. He played basketball in a 40 and older league. He has three world championship rings in softball. In a 2005 championship games in Atlanta, Ga., he pitched every game in the tournament, and won the home run trophy with 13 round-trippers in eight games en route to the team title.
