Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

alumni number around 634,300 worldwide. Famous Spartans include

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

star

Earvin "Magic" Johnson Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American former professional basketball player. He is often regarded as the greatest point guard of all-time and has been compared with Stephen Curry. Johnson played 13 seasons in the ...

;

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

stars

Kirk Gibson Kirk Harold Gibson (born May 28, 1957) is an American former professional baseball player and manager. He is currently a color commentator for the Detroit Tigers on Bally Sports Detroit and a special assistant for the Tigers. As a player, Gibson ...

Steve Garvey Steven Patrick Garvey (born December 22, 1948) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres from 1969 to 1987. Garvey was the National ...

, Robin Roberts;

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

stars

Brad Van Pelt Brad Alan Van Pelt (April 5, 1951 – February 17, 2009) was an American football linebacker who played 14 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). A two-time All-American (1971, 1972) and the 1972 Maxwell Award winner as college football' ...

Bubba Smith Charles Aaron Smith (February 28, 1945 – August 3, 2011), commonly known as Bubba Smith, was an American football defensive end and actor. He first came into prominence at Michigan State University, where he twice earned All-American hon ...

Herb Adderley Herbert Anthony Adderley (June 8, 1939 – October 30, 2020) was an American professional football player who was a cornerback for the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). In 1980, he was enshrined in th ...

and

Joe DeLamielleure Joseph Michael DeLamielleure ( ; born March 16, 1951) is an American former professional football player who was a guard in the National Football League (NFL). He was an All-American playing college football for the Michigan State Spartans. ...

; actors

James Caan James Edmund Caan ( ; March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972) – a performance which earned him Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Academy Award an ...

and

Robert Urich Robert Michael Urich (December 19, 1946 – April 16, 2002) was an American film, television, and stage actor, and television producer. Over the course of his 30-year career, he starred in a record 15 television series. Urich began his ca ...

; ''

Evil Dead ''Evil Dead'' is an American horror film franchise created by Sam Raimi consisting of four feature films and a television series. The series revolves around the ''Necronomicon Ex-Mortis'', an ancient Sumerian text that wreaks havoc upon a gro ...

'' trilogy director

Sam Raimi Samuel M. Raimi ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the Spider-Man (2002 film series), ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007) and the ''Evil Dead'' franchise (1981–present). He also directed the 1 ...

;

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 33 ...

activist and internet personality

Tyler Oakley Mathew Tyler Oakley (born March 22, 1989) is an American YouTuber, actor, activist and author. Much of Oakley's activism has been dedicated to LGBT youth, LGBT rights, as well as social issues including health care, education, and the prevention ...

; former

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

governors

James Blanchard James Johnston Blanchard (born August 8, 1942) is an American retired attorney, diplomat, and politician who served as the 45th governor of Michigan from 1983 to 1991. A member of the Democratic Party, Blanchard previously served in the United ...

Fred M. Warner Fred Maltby Warner (July 21, 1865 – April 17, 1923) was an American politician. He served as the 26th governor of Michigan from 1905 to 1911. Birth in England and early life in Michigan Born in Hickling, Nottinghamshire, England, Warner spe ...

, and

John Engler John Mathias Engler (born October 12, 1948) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 46th Governor of Michigan from 1991 to 2003. A member of the Republican Party, he later worked for Business Roundtable, where '' The Hill'' ...

; U.S. Senator

Debbie Stabenow Deborah Ann Stabenow ( ; née Greer, born April 29, 1950) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Michigan, a seat she has held since 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, she became the state's first female ...

; former U.S. Senator

Spencer Abraham Edward Spencer Abraham (born June 12, 1952) is an American attorney, author, and politician who served as the tenth United States Secretary of Energy from 2001 to 2005, under President George W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party, Abraham pre ...

; billionaires

Eli Broad Eli Broad ( ; June 6, 1933April 30, 2021) was an American businessman and philanthropist. In June 2019, ''Forbes'' ranked him as the 233rd-wealthiest person in the world and the 78th-wealthiest in the United States, with an estimated net worth of ...

Reinhold Schmieding Reinhold D. Schmieding (born 1955/56) is an American billionaire businessman and the founder, CEO and 95% owner of Arthrex. Early life Schmieding was born in Michigan, the son of a dentist. His parents emigrated from Germany six months prior t ...

Drayton McLane, Jr. Drayton McLane Jr. (born July 22, 1936) is an American billionaire businessman. He is chairman of the McLane Group, a holding company with a portfolio of various diverse enterprises. He was, until 1990, the CEO of the McLane Company, a grocery an ...

Harley Hotchkiss Harley Norman Hotchkiss, (July 12, 1927 – June 22, 2011) was a Canadian business and community leader who was best known for his contributions to health and sports development in Canada. He was part of the consortium that brought the Atlanta ...

Thomas H. Bailey Thomas H. Bailey (born 1936/37) is an American financier, noted for founding Denver, Colorado-based Janus Capital Group, one of the largest mutual fund institutions in the United States. In 2015, Bailey had an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion. ...

Tom Gores Tom Gores (born Tewfiq Georgious, ar, توفيق جورجيوس; July 31, 1964) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the founder of Platinum Equity, a private equity firm headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In June 2011, Gores a ...

Andrew Beal Daniel Andrew Beal (born November 29, 1952) is an American banker, businessman, investor, and amateur mathematician. He is a Dallas-based businessman who accumulated wealth in real estate and banking. Born and reared in Lansing, Michigan, Beal i ...

and

Dan Gilbert Daniel Gilbert (born January 17, 1962) is an American billionaire businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and majority owner of Rocket Mortgage, founder of Rock Ventures, and owner of the National Basketball Association ...

. Michigan State's faculty and academic staff number around 4,500 researchers. Throughout the years, notable researchers have included

William J. Beal William James Beal (March 11, 1833 – May 12, 1924) was an American botanist. He was a pioneer in the development of hybrid corn and the founder of the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden. Biography Beal was born in Adrian, Michigan, to William and ...

, who developed hybrid

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

;

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

Erich Fromm Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and settled in the U ...

;

G. Malcolm Trout George Malcolm Trout (March 7, 1896 – November 1, 1990) An American dairy industry pioneer, writer, researcher, and professor emeritus in food science at Michigan State University. Trout is credited with finding the key to the creation of homoge ...

, who invented the process for the

homogenization Homogeneity is a sameness of constituent structure. Homogeneity, homogeneous, or homogenization may also refer to: In mathematics *Transcendental law of homogeneity of Leibniz * Homogeneous space for a Lie group G, or more general transformati ...

of milk; and

Barnett Rosenberg Barnett Rosenberg (16 November 1926 – 8 August 2009) was an American chemist best known for the discovery of the anti-cancer drug cisplatin. Rosenberg graduated from Brooklyn College in 1948 and obtained his PhD in physics at New York Universi ...

, the discoverer of cancer-fighting drug

cisplatin Cisplatin is a chemotherapy medication used to treat a number of cancers. These include testicular cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer, head and neck cancer, esophageal cancer, lung cancer, mesothelioma, br ...

. In addition to faculty, Michigan State has around 6,000

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

and non-academic staff. This includes the university's governing board, the

board of trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. Elected by statewide referendum every two years, trustees have eight-year terms, with two of the eight elected every other year. As of 2007, the board is made up of three

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

s and five Democrats, and has a 4:4 gender balance. Other notable staff members include President

Samuel L. Stanley Samuel L. Stanley Jr. (born January 11, 1954) is an American educator and biomedical researcher. He was the President of Michigan State University from 2019 until November 2022, and he was the President of Stony Brook University from 2009 t ...

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

Bill Beekman, men's basketball coach

Tom Izzo Tom Izzo (, ); born January 30, 1955) is an American college basketball coach who has been the head coach at Michigan State University since 1995. On April 4, 2016, Izzo was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Izzo has led the Spart ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

coach

Danton Cole Danton Edward Cole (born January 10, 1967) is an American former professional hockey player and the former head coach of the Michigan State Spartans men's ice hockey, Michigan State Spartans men's hockey team. He had guided the USA Hockey Nationa ...

, and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach

Mel Tucker Melvin Tucker II (born January 4, 1972) is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the head football coach at Michigan State University, a position he has held since 2020. Previously, Tucker served as the head football coach ...

. __NOTOC__

Notable alumni

Academia

Administration

Biology

Business

Education

Engineering

Law

Medicine

Physics

Psychology

Other sciences

Social science

Arts and media

Cinema

Journalism

Literature

Music

Television and radio

Theatre

Visual arts

Business

Consumer goods

Finance

Industry

Politics and government

Activism

Diplomacy

Armed Forces

Law

Public office

Sports and athletics

Baseball

Basketball

Bodybuilding

Football

Golf

Gymnastics

Ice hockey

Running

Soccer

Jordan Gruber Jordan Gruber ( he, ירדן גרובר; born September 12, 1983) is an American former professional soccer player. Biography He is the son of Avi, originally from Israel, and the owner of Avi's Auto Care, and Abby Gruber, and was born i ...

(born 1983), American-Israeli soccer player

Olympians

Mixed martial arts

Wrestling

Faculty and administration

Notable faculty

Arts and humanities

Science

Social science

Current administration

Board of Trustees

Head coaches

Former administration

Presidents

References

External links

MSU Alumni Office
{{Michigan State University *

Michigan State University people Michigan State University alumni number around 634,300 worldwide. Famous Spartans include NBA star Earvin "Magic" Johnson; MLB stars Kirk Gibson, Steve Garvey, Robin Roberts; NFL stars Brad Van Pelt, Bubba Smith, Herb Adderley and Joe DeLami ...