When I went to Hiwassee College to register, my grandmother went along. I never will forget that day! After I had completed my registration, my grandmother, in her own unique way asked the registrar, “Where is the President’s Office?” An administrative staff member guided us to his office and President Barker was very polite and kind and took the time to speak with her. Grandmother proceeded to strongly convey to Dr. Barker that “This one belongs to me and if you have any problems with her, you have my permission to correct the problem directly and then I will add my own correction methods myself.”

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While at Hiwassee I receive a number of honors. In both my freshman and sophomore years, I received the “Tigerette Award”; the “Best Defensive Player Award”; the “Best Offensive Player Award”; and the National Junior College All-Tournament Team Award. I was MVP of National Junior College Tournament my sophomore year and was All-Tournament for most all of the tournaments in which we played.

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In both 1972 and 1973, the national junior college tournament was held in Enid, Oklahoma. Both years, Coach Harley Redin, head coach at Wayland Baptist College in Plainview, Texas, came to recruit. After the tournament my senior year, Coach Redin contacted Coach Mitchell to invite me to come for a weekend campus visit. I decided to go and I was truly impressed with Wayland. When I arrived at the Wayland Campus, I was introduced to Coach Dean Weese who had just been named the head coach at Wayland for the upcoming year (1973-74).

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While at Wayland Baptist, I achieved more honors. I was both a Kodak All-American and a Street & Smith All-American in 1975. I appeared in Sports Illustrated magazine’s “Faces In The Crowd.” I competed in two AIAW National Tournaments and two AAU National Tournaments. I was an AAU All-American and Rookie of the Year in 1974. In 1975, I was an AAU All-American tournament MVP. In both 1974 and 1975, I was a NWIT All-American and tournament MVP and the same was true for the Gold Coast Classic— MVP and All-Tournament. I was privileged to be on USA teams that toured Russia (5 cities), China and Taiwan (4 cities), Japan and Korea (4 cities). I was on the USA team that won the gold medal in the 1975 Pan American Games. I was voted by the Texas Pan-Handle Sports Hall of Fame as “Player of the Year” and “Athlete of the Year” in 1975. Also, in 1975 I was a National Amateur Association of Universities Women’s Basketball Team member, and in 1976, I was an Olympic Team Finalist. In my two years at Wayland, I scored 1090 points, which currently places me at number 37 on the all-time scoring list.

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The trip to Russia was particularly memorable because I single-handedly stopped traffic in Moscow due to my hair style. Lusia Harris (teammate) had braided my hair and I don’t think a lot of Russians had seen a black woman with braided hair. People were slowing down and stopping to look at me. The KGB had to come and escort me back to where we were staying. Nobody was mean or anything, but I was scared. Needless to say, I unbraided my hair as quickly as possible.

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During my basketball career, I had the distinct pleasure of playing with and against Pat Head Summitt, Lusia Harris, Nancy Lieberman & Annie Myers Drysdale, just to name a few. I was invited to play International basketball in France for 2 years, but I declined to do so. I was tired of all the traveling and living out of a suitcase plus I missed my grandmother.

In 1975, after playing and graduating from Wayland Baptist, I came back home to Kingston because I wanted to give back some of what was given to me growing up. So, I decided to hold a number of basketball camps in the summer of ‘75 and ‘76, for ages 5 to 15. During this time, and after establishing sound contacts with the Atlanta Hawks, I was able to direct and coordinate 2 professional basketball camps featuring professional Dominique Wilkins and hosted the Traveling Globetrotters. In addition to directing my own camps, I was a member of the coaching staff at Coach Summitt’s Basketball Camps at Tennessee for 28 years and at Coach Jim Davis’s Camps at Clemson for 4 years. In working with young players, I try to teach them that they have no limits. I tell them, “The only limits you have are the ones you set on yourself and that you have to be positive no matter what.”