Former coach Fanning enjoying MSU’s success
Before Vic Schaefer, before the sellout crowds at Humphrey Coliseum and before the back-to-back Final Four appearances for Mississippi State women’s basketball, there was Sharon Fanning-Otis.
Fanning-Otis, 65, has the distinction of being the coach who retired from the profession in the spring of 2012, allowing former Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin to hire Schaefer. You know what happened next. But she’s more than that, as people from similar backgrounds often are.
Yes, Mississippi State women’s basketball enjoyed some level of success in the years before Schaefer’s arrival. Fanning-Otis has the most career wins and losses at the school (281–232), coached one of the state’s best-ever players in LaToya Thomas and posted six winning seasons and seven postseason appearances from 1995-2012, including a trip to the Sweet 16 in 2010.
She never got to the Final Four with the Bulldogs, though. That is, until last year, when she followed the team to Dallas. She’ll be there again this week when Mississippi State takes on Louisville at 6 p.m. Friday (ESPN2) in Columbus, Ohio. Why? Fanning-Otis is no longer part of the program, but she is part of its booster club and is one of the team’s biggest supporters.
It’s unusual to see a former coach celebrate in the new heights of his or her direct successor like Fanning-Otis has. Egos are often too big for that sort of thing. Fanning-Otis said she is too comfortable with her own history and appreciates MSU and Starkville — where she chose to stay and live — too much for that.
“When you go through your life, you’re at a certain segment at a certain time,” Fanning-Otis said. “And whatever you do, you want to leave it better, hopefully, than it was when you came there. That’s true in anything because you want to be the best you can be. When you try to achieve those things, then you have a peace about that. You have confidence that you have taken your turn and now it’s someone else’s turn.”
When Schaefer’s turn started, Fanning-Otis took a position with the school’s Bulldog Club and gave the new staff space because they were inheriting players she had coached and needed to put their own thumbprint on the program.
“You always want that new coach to embrace what he or she has coming in and get to develop their own thing without you being right under them,” Fanning-Otis said.
“Of course, Vic said from the beginning to come to practices and this, that and the other.”
After about a year and a half, Fanning-Otis retired from her position with the Bulldog Club. She is now part of MSU’s Courtside Fanatics, which is made up of volunteers who help in the areas of fundraising, marketing, membership, hospitality and travel.
Fanning-Otis landed her first head coaching job in 1975 at UT-Chattanooga, her alma mater, before support staffs, top-notch travel, marketing and several scholarships were part of the women’s game. MSU went 8-22 in the SEC in her last two seasons, but before she arrived in Starkville, the program never posted consecutive 20-win seasons. In her new role, Fanning-Otis gets to see firsthand the growth of both women’s basketball and MSU’s program.
“All I want is for it to be better and for it to continue to grow,” she said. “I mean, records are made to be broken. That’s pure and simple. That’s what you want.
“Vic had a tremendous opportunity and I feel like for him to come in here, too … I am tickled to death that he felt like it was a place he could come to and be successful — and be more successful. I applaud what they’ve done and I just want to see them continue to grow and become better. I’m just extremely happy for our program and hope it continues to progress like it is.”
Sharon Fanning-Otis