Who was the "Queen of Basketball"?
Meet Lucy Harris, the only woman drafted by the NBA
It’s that time, friends!
March Madness!
I was so pleased when the NCAA (finally) gave the women’s college basketball tournament the “March Madness” branding that the men’s teams have been using for decades.
I’ve loved basketball since I was a kid, and have been watching long enough now that some players today are the kids of the people I grew up watching.
But I didn’t grow up hearing much about women’s basketball.
And when I heard that a woman was once drafted into the NBA, I was curious…
Her name was Lusia (Lucy) Harris, and she was nicknamed the “Queen of Basketball.”
Lucy was born in 1955 in Minter City, a small town in Mississippi.
Her parents were sharecroppers, and Lucy and her 10 siblings would pick cotton after school.
And afterwards, they would play basketball.
Her family was one of the few in the area to have a basketball hoop, and kids would gather there to play ball.
Late at night, Lucy would stay up watching the greats play basketball on TV: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and her favorite, Oscar Robertson.
Lucy grew up wanting two things – to have a family, and to be able to shoot the ball like the men she watched on TV.
In high school she was 6’3, taller than anyone else in her class, when she joined the basketball team.
She had to learn how to play offense and defense, and develop her shot.
“It just came natural,” she said.
Then Title IX was passed in 1972, bringing with it access to women’s sports.
Lucy had planned to go to Alcorn after graduating high school – but they didn’t have a women’s basketball program.
“So I changed my mind,” she said.
She decided to go to Delta State, and become a member of the women’s basketball team.
Lucy was not only bigger than the other girls on the team, she was also the only Black player on the team.
“When I got the ball, I knew my job was to score.”
“And more than likely, I would score.”
The Delta State team lost one game during Lucy’s first season – just missing out on the national tournament.
She and her teammates decided they were going to the national tournament the following year – and they did.
The NCAA didn’t even have a women’s basketball tournament until 1982, but the women competed in a national competition run by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).
Delta State was up against the undefeated Immaculata College for the 1975 championship.
Immaculata had been national champs since the tournament began in 1972.
But Lucy and her teammates at Delta State defeated Immaculata, 90-81, and became national champions.
The women’s success saw their fanbase grow quickly.
They were selling twice as many tickets as the men’s team at Delta State, and getting to travel to games on airplanes, something the men’s team did not.
“I guess the women were bringing in the money,” Lucy said with a laugh.
The next year, Delta State beat Immaculata a second time to become the national champs, 69-64.
That same year – 1976 – women’s basketball was included in the Olympics for the first time, and Lucy made history after scoring the first basket.
Lucy and Team USA won the silver medal.
Legendary basketball coach Pat Summit was Lucy’s teammate at the Olympics, and described her as “the first truly dominant player of modern women’s basketball, 6-foot-3 and 185 hard-muscled pounds of pivoting, to-the-rim force.”
Following the Olympics, Lucy returned to Delta State for her senior year.
She was co-captain of the team, and led Delta State to its third national championship.
That year the Delta State Lady Statesmen defeated the LSU Tigers, 68-55.
During her time at Delta State, Lucy averaged 25.9 points and 14.4 rebounds a game.
She’s still the school’s all-time leader in scoring (2,981 points) and rebounds (1,662).
When the “Queen of Basketball” finished her senior year, she thought about what to do next.
“I wanted to keep playing, but there was no place to go.
“There was no WNBA when I came along.
“It didn’t exist.”
Lucy married her high school sweetheart, George.
And over the summer the New Orleans (now Utah) Jazz selected Lucy in the seventh round of the 1977 NBA draft.
They called Lucy and asked her to try out for the team.
“We had already decided to start a family,” she said.
“I just thought it was a publicity stunt, and I didn’t think I was good enough.
“Competing against a woman, yes.
“It’s a different story competing against a man.
“So I decided not to go.
“I said no to the NBA.”
Another female basketball player, Denise Long, was drafted as a senior in high school by the San Francisco (now Golden State) Warriors in 1969.
But NBA commissioner Walter Kennedy blocked the pick – making Lucy Harris the only woman officially drafted in the NBA.
And interestingly, she was chosen before 36 men who were also drafted that year.
It wasn’t until Lucy’s basketball career was over that she looked back on what she had accomplished as a player.
“Three-time national champions. Olympian. Wow, very impressive!” she said with a big laugh.
Lucy would go on to receive a master’s degree in special education, and teach special education and coach women’s basketball at both Delta State and Texas Southern University.
She was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 1992, the first Black woman and the first female college player ever to be inducted.
And she was escorted to the ceremony by her favorite player, Oscar Robertson.
“I don’t regret not going [to the NBA] – not even a little bit,” she said.
“If I was a man, then there would have been options for me to go further and play.
“But I wanted to grow up and shoot that ball just like they would shoot it.
“And I did.”
One more thing…
Though Harris passed away in January 2022, her story was captured in the 2021 Oscar-winning short subject documentary film The Queen of Basketball:
In Other News…
Have you had a performance review lately?
This image sums up how a lot of people feel about them…
People often dread performance reviews — and that’s because many organizations (and managers) don’t do them well.
In this interview, I share my tips on how to improve performance reviews (spoiler: it involves communication!).
How Can I Help?
I’ll keep saying it: Communication matters.
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So, if you know someone who could benefit from some help (as even the most seasoned leaders do), please get in touch and check out my website for more information.
You can also see my Top 10 list of what I can (and can’t) do for you here.
And if you see any communication examples (the good, the bad, and the ugly) that you think are worth analyzing or sharing, please send them my way!
Until next time, stay curious!
-Beth
LOVE this.