Melanie Marshall is the only woman athlete in Tennessee Tech history to earn letters participating in four different sports.

Melanie came to Cookeville from Colombia, Tenn., to play softball and wound up lettering in three additional sports. She also earned her bachelor’s in engineering in 1989.

While at Tech, Marshall participated in volleyball, basketball, softball and golf. She came to Tech to play softball, and eventually proved to be an all-OVC standout on the volleyball court, was ranked nationally in both volleyball and softball statistics, and won a team award in basketball. She was a pioneer in both the softball and women’s golf programs.

Marshall first enrolled at Lipscomb University, the alma mater of her parents, where she planned to participate in intramural sports. After one semester, however, she moved to Tech at the urging of then softball coach Bob Swindell.

Marshall played just one season of softball, but was the Most Valuable Player on Tech’s first intercollegiate team, helping elevate the program from club status. The 1986 team managed a 23-24 overall record, and Marshall ranked sixth in the nation in RBI per game (41 in 46 games). She batted .247, and led the squad in runs, triples, homeruns, RBI, extra base hits, walks, and total bases.

Also that spring, Marshall joined the volleyball team as a walk-on for its spring drills and earned a spot on the roster, eventually gaining a volleyball scholarship from Coach Sharron Bilbrey. She lettered four times in volleyball and proved to be a defensive stalwart. At the time of her induction, she still ranked second in school history in career digs. As a junior, she led the team and ranked fourth in the nation in digs, and was named all-OVC. She continued to set school records as a senior, ranking 17^th nationally in digs per game and stablished a career record for digs which stood until 1997. She was named second team all-OVC and also earned a spot on the OVC all-tournament team.

In 1987, the list of sports climbed to three as Marshall volunteered to join coach Karen Kendall’s golf team in its second year. While the golf team was in its developmental stages, and scores were nowhere near today’s records, Marshall’s desire to compete helped build a foundation that would eventually lead to multiple OVC championships.

Marshall began playing her fourth sport in an unexpected manner. She found a note in her campus mailbox from women’s basketball coach Bill Worrell, whose Eaglettes has been hit by a rash of injuries and were in peril of being short-handed. She visited with Worrell, and was in basketball practice 30 minutes later. Marshall went on to play two seasons on the squad in a reserve role, eventually winning the team’s free throw shooting award as a junior in 1987-88. She was part of the 1988-89 team which won the OVC tournament and advanced to the NCAA tournament.