Knoxville, Tennessee was the site of a historic occasion in women’s basketball history as its Hall of Fame inducted six new members as well as honored the team cited by many as that which laid the groundwork for the WNBA.
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Natalie Williams was a dual-sport athlete when she attended UCLA as she played both basketball and volleyball. She initially played in the American Basketball League, then after it went under, eventually joined the WNBA where she played for the Utah Starzz and the Indiana Fever. Williams was part of the team that won gold in Sydney at the 2000 Olympics.
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Jackie Stiles only had a brief WNBA career that included stints with the Portland Fire and the Los Angeles Sparks, but in 2001, she was named the league’s Rookie of the Year. In her time as a collegiate player at Missouri State University, she scored an astounding 3,393 points—the most in NCAA history for women’s basketball.
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June Courteau is currently the NCAA’s national coordinator of officiating, but began as an athlete. She played multiple sports, including basketball, while attending Winona State. For 14 years, Courteau was an official in the WNBA and also got to be an official for 12 women’s Final Fours.
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Sherri Coale has been synonymous with women’s basketball at the University of Oklahoma the past two decades as the head coach for the Sooners. In addition to her record she has compiled while at Oklahoma, Coale, as an assistant for Team USA’s U-19 team at the 2001 World Championships, won bronze and was the head coach for the gold-medal winning USA team at the 2013 World University Games.
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What Geno Auriemma is to UConn, Joe Lombard has become for the status of high school girls’ basketball in the Texas panhandle. This is not only true in terms of record, but in stature. Lombard has compiled a record of 1,261 wins and only 117 losses. The coach at Canyon High School has also won 18 championships with his teams—including 12 at Canyon which is the most by any coach in Texas high school hoops history.
Bill Tipps was inducted into the Hall posthumously. The Tennessee businessman is credited as one of the most influential figures in growing the high school girls’ basketball game. From 1979 to 1991, he was the head of AAU girls’ basketball and was the director for over 70 national basketball tournaments for girls. He died in 2001.
Along with the inductions of the newly inducted members into the Hall of Fame, the 1996 U.S. Women’s National Team, that won a gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics, was also honored. Said team is credited by many with laying down the groundwork that set the stage for the establishment of the WNBA.
Among those members that attended was Nikki McCray, and she said to Knoxville television station WBIR-TV that she was thankful for what that ’96 squad managed to accomplish.
I’m thankful that, you know, America has really embraced women’s basketball, not to mention the WNBA, but the college [game].
–McCray to WBIR-TV Channel 10.
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While there was much excitement at this year’s induction ceremony, there were also moments of somberness—including when the inaugural “For the Love of the Game” award was announced and posthumously awarded to Lauren Hill.
The former Mount St. Joseph’s basketball player died in 2015, but became an inspiration to many as she played in a Division II basketball game while battling a form of brain cancer. Millions of dollars were raised for cancer research as her story of courage reached and touched people even beyond the realm of sports.
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
