The Guru NCAAW Report: On Behalf of the HOF Candidacy of Marian Washington

“There tends to be a tendency to forget or lose respect for the past. … The realization seems lacking that only on a thorough knowledge of the past can the present and future be mapped wisely.” – James Naismith, 1937

 

An open letter to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame Honors Committee:

 

Maya Moore, Sylvia Fowles and Chamique Holdsclaw are among the women joining Marian Washington on the Naismith Hall of Fame ballot. They are newcomers; Washington, 78, is on the ballot for the third time, and I would ask the committee to recognize her legacy and award her a spot in the class of 2025.

 

Marian Washington paved the way for Moore, Fowles and Holdsclawjust as she did for Hall-of-Famer Dawn Staley. In 2022, the Washington Post selected 20 pioneers as the Jackie Robinson of their sport. Marian Washington was chosen for women’s basketball, the first African American woman to coach basketball at a Division I level.

 

I hope you have had a chance to read Washington’s memoir, FIERCE: My Fight for Nothing Less, released in September 2024 by Ascend Books. Among the testimonials inside her autobiography:

 

“They should give Coach Washington her flowers because there is no Dawn Staley without Coach Washington before her. That’s her legend to me.”

— Gold medalist Venus Lacy, National Player of the Year in 1990 and a member of the

Olympic team in 1996

 

And from Staley: “We have a tendency to forget where things started and who opened doors for us. And we must not do that.”

 

Marian Washington played on the first team to win a collegiate national championship (West Chester State University, 1969). She was one of two players who integrated the US National Team (under Alberta Lee Cox). There were no other Black women hired to coach college women’s basketball when she accepted the position at the University of Kansas in 1973; a year later she also was named the inaugural director to implement intercollegiate athletics for women in light of Title IX requirements.

 

A letter from Carol Callan, Women’s National Team Director for USA Basketball, credits Washington for her efforts that led to a significant policy change. Every USA Basketball coaching staff today has a woman of color. Washington lobbied for that change and again, achieved another first – the first Black woman to be part of an Olympic Basketball staff (1996).

 

I ask this committee to look at these milestones and her body of work that includes 560 career victories at Kansas over 31 years. Further, Washington recruited and coached Lynette Woodard, whose scoring record stood for 40 years. Woodard is one of four All-Americans who played under Washington.

 

Moore, Fowles and Holdsclaw are outstanding candidates who deserve to be celebrated. But the legacy of Marian Washington cannot be overstated. Per Rebecca Lobo, a testimonial that is also part of FIERCE: 

 

“Now is the perfect time to tell these stories about people who certainly should have been celebrated more but for whatever reason have been overlooked. We need to look back and understand the time she spent at Kansas, the success that she had there, the great players she produced and what she means as one of the originals in women’s college basketball.”

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Vicki L. Friedman