Lynette Woodard

1959—

Basketball player

Lynette Woodard is an American basketball player who won a gold medal with the U.S. Olympic team in 1984 and became the first woman to play with the world-renowned Harlem Globetrotters. A high school and college star in Kansas during the 1970s and early 1980s, she played professionally in Europe and Asia before joining the inaugural season of the Women's National Basketball Association in 1997. As of 2008 Woodard had scored more points during her career than any other female player, and her dynamic, groundbreaking career remained an inspiration to many aspiring female athletes.

Woodard was born in Wichita, Kansas, on August 12, 1959, the youngest of four children born to Lugene and Dorothy Woodard. The Woodards were devout Baptists and raised their children to share their faith.

Woodard was introduced to basketball by her older brother, and she practiced playing in her bedroom by creating homemade balls of paper or rolled-up socks. She took part in pick-up games in Piatt Park, across the street from her home, holding her own against the neighborhood boys. She was also inspired to become a ballplayer by her cousin Hubie "Geese" Ausbie, who was a member of the Harlem Globetrotters exhibition team from 1960 until 1984. The Globetrotters, an all-black basketball team that toured nationally and internationally, presented a unique combination of entertainment and sports, with players using their considerable athletic skill to perform comic antics. When Ausbie visited, Woodard would learn techniques and tricks of ball-handling from him that improved her game.

Set Records in College Basketball

By the time she attended Wichita North High School, Woodard was a basketball star in her own right. She was a strong and flexible player who could perform well in any position, but she usually played forward. Woodard's hard-driving, high scoring game helped her high school team win two state championships. In her senior year, she was named to the all-American high school team and was courted by several colleges and universities. Even with a number of respected schools to choose from, Woodard decided to remain in her home state. She chose to attend the University of Kansas (KU), citing her admiration for Marian Washington, the women's basketball coach there.

As a Lady Jayhawk, Woodard continued her strong performance on the court, leading her team to three straight Big Eight championships. During her four-year career, she broke twenty-four school athletic records, earning the title for most rebounds in the nation during her freshman year. By graduation she had amassed 3,649 career points, more than any other female player in the United States and only eighteen points less than Louisiana State University player Pete Maravich, who held the men's scoring record. Woodard averaged almost twenty-seven points and twelve rebounds per game, an exceptional record that prompted the university to retire her number 31 jersey upon her graduation.

While Woodard was a dynamo on the basketball court, she did not neglect her studies. Along with earning the title of Kodak All-American four years in a row for her athletic achievement, she was also an academic all-American, making the dean's list and maintaining a 3.04 grade average. She graduated from KU in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in speech communications.

Played Professionally in Europe

While still in college Woodard began playing in international tournaments, traveling to the Soviet Union in 1979, where she helped the U.S. women's team win a gold medal in the World University Games. In 1980 Woodard earned a place on the U.S. Olympic women's basketball team. This achievement was dimmed, however, when the United States boycotted the Moscow Olympic Games because of political differences with the Soviet Union. She was also part of the U.S. team that captured the gold in the 1983 Pan Am Games in Caracas, Venezuela.

Because there were no professional basketball teams for women in the United States before the late 1990s, many promising female college players moved to Europe and Asia to continue their basketball careers. Woodard took a job in the Italian women's professional basketball league. Though she was top scorer in the Italian league in 1982, Woodard found living abroad difficult at first. The only American as well as the only English-speaker on her team, she felt isolated, unable even to understand television. However, she took steps to improve her situation. She studied Italian, beginning with the basketball and food terms she needed for day-to-day life, and she reached out to make friends among her teammates.

In 1983 Woodard returned to the United States to make another attempt at the Olympics. This time she not only made the team, but became its captain, and the U.S. women's team won the gold medal in the Los Angeles summer games in 1984.

Joined the Harlem Globetrotters

Following her 1984 Olympic triumph, Woodard had a chance to make a childhood dream come true. She heard that the Harlem Globetrotters, anxious to update their image and win back African-American fans who had grown weary of the team's increasingly comic image, were planning to add a female member to the team. Though the team had a reputation for clowning, all of the Globetrotters were skilled professional ballplayers, and Woodard knew that playing with them would be demanding. She put herself through a challenging training routine to prepare for tryouts, and, in 1985, she was chosen from a group of ten women applicants to be the first female Harlem Globetrotter.

Her male teammates were not altogether happy about their management's decision to add a woman to the lineup, but Woodard soon proved that she was a serious and determined player. She became an accepted member of the team, traveling with the Globetrotters for two years and playing as many as 185 games in a single year.

In 1987 Woodard decided to leave the Globetrotters and return to professional play abroad. She played two more seasons in Italy, helping her team to the Italian league championships in 1989, then went to Japan, where she played for the Daina Securities team from 1990 to 1993, winning the division championship in 1992.

At a Glance …

Born August 12, 1959, in Wichita, KS; daughter of Lugene Woodard (a firefighter) and Dorothy Woodard (a homemaker). Religion: Baptist. Education: University of Kansas, BA, speech communications, 1981.

Career: U.S. Olympic women's basketball team member, 1980, captain, 1984; Italian professional basketball league player, 1981-83, 1987-89; Harlem Globetrotters team member, 1985-87; Japanese professional basketball league player, 1990-93; Kansas City, MO, School District, athletic director, 1993-95; Women's National Basketball Association, Cleveland Rockers team member, 1997-98; Detroit Shock team member, 1998-99; University of Kansas women's basketball team, assistant coach, 1999-2003, interim head coach, 2004.

Memberships: Governor's Council on Fitness, cochair, 2006;

Selected awards: State Farm Insurance, Wade Trophy, 1981; Honda, Broderick Cup, 1981; Women's Sports Foundation, Flo Hyman Award, 1993; Professional Women of Color, Breaking the Mold Award, 1998; Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, 2002, 2004; Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, 2005.

Addresses: Home—Wichita, KS. E-mail—[email protected].

Became a Stockbroker

Daina Securities was a stock brokerage and financial services company, and while playing basketball for the company's team, Woodard developed an interest in the stock market. Always a good student, she quickly learned about the brokerage business and obtained her license to sell stock. Upon returning to the United States, she worked on the New York Stock Exchange for a time as an employee of Magna Securities, a brokerage firm founded in 1992 by Patricia Winans, another African-American woman. Woodard found that the world of investment, like basketball, required strategy and aggressiveness. She enjoyed negotiating the stimulating world of finance much as she loved the fast-paced demands of the basketball court. In 1993, as she was developing her financial career, Woodard also took a job as athletic director of the Kansas City, Missouri, school system, working there for two years.

As she pursued these other interests, Woodard had essentially retired from basketball, but in 1997 something happened that convinced her to come out of retirement. On April 24, 1996, the Board of Governors of the National Basketball Association gave its approval to a U.S. professional basketball league for women. The Women's National Basketball Association began play in June 1997, and Woodard was determined to be part of it. She was drafted by the Cleveland Rockers, then after one season was traded to the Detroit Shock. No longer the young powerhouse she had been earlier in her career, Woodard still made a good showing, playing twenty-seven games with the Shock, with a game-high score of 18. She retired from basketball for good in May 1999, just months before her fortieth birthday.

Woodard continued her successful stock brokerage career, becoming an independent agent for Primerica Financial Services. In 1999 she returned to the University of Kansas, going to work for her old friend and mentor Marian Washington as assistant basketball coach. When Washington retired for health reasons in 2003, Woodard served as interim head coach until a new coach was appointed. In 2006 Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius recognized Woodard's contribution to Kansas athletics when she appointed her to serve as cochair of her new Governor's Council on Fitness.

Woodard is recognized as a pioneer in women's athletics, both nationally and internationally. Many of the records she set while a basketball player at the University of Kansas have remained in place into the twenty-first century. Though she was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002 as a Globetrotter and in 2004 as an individual, and tapped for the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame 2005, a technicality prevents her from holding the record for most career points in women's college basketball. When Woodard set her still-unbroken record with 3,649 career points, women's college basketball was overseen by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). During the early 1980s the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) took over most women's sports, and the NCAA did not recognize records set under the AIAW. Kansas fans and students of women's athletic achievement do, however, recognize that Lynette Woodard set the standard for all the athletes who followed her.

Sources

Books

Lyman, Darrell, "Lynette Woodard: The First Female Harlem Globetrotter," in Great African American Women, Johnson-David Publishers, 2005, pp. 270-73.

Periodicals

Ebony, December 1985, pp. 131-35.

Jet, June 14, 1999, p. 46; April 26, 2004, p. 52.

Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, September 17, 2004.

Ms., January 1986, p. 44.

New York Beacon, February 4, 1998, p. 21.

New York Times, July 27, 1984, p. A18; July 12, 2006, p. D5.

People, November 4, 1985, pp. 127-29.

Sports Illustrated, January 26, 1981, pp. 41-43; January 6, 1986, pp. 44-48.

Online

"Lynette Woodard," KU Sports, 2007, http://www.kusports.com/w_bball/roster/woodard.html (accessed March 2, 2008).

"Lynette Woodard," Official Website of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, 2007, http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/bhof-lynette-woodard.html (accessed March 2, 2008).

"Lynette Woodard," The Robinson Library, April 25, 2007, http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/geography/recreation/sports/ball/basketball/biography/woodard.htm (accessed March 2, 2008).

—Tina Gianoulis