Lynette Woodard

Lynette Woodard
Information about the player
Full name	Lynette Woodard
birthday	August 12, 1959 (61 years 19 days)
place of birth	Wichita , Kansas , USA
size	183 cm
position	Guard
college	University of Kansas
1 As of March 7, 2012

Lynette Woodard (  [ ˈwʊdɑːrd ] ; born August 12, 1959 in Wichita , Kansas ) is a former American basketball player. Woodard played college basketball at the University of Kansas , where in four years she set the NCAA career record for points, which is still valid today, with a total of 3,649 points . Before her professional career, Woodard was twice inducted into the United States Olympic selection. She won gold at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles . In 1985, Woodward became the first woman ever to join a men's professional basketball team when she signed a contract with the Harlem Globetrotters . As a result, she played between 1987 and 1999 for professional teams in Italy and Japan and shortly before her active career for the Cleveland Rockers and Detroit Shock in the WNBA . For her accomplishments, Woodard was inducted into the 2004 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame . In 2005 he was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame .

Childhood and youth

Lynette Woodard made her first attempts at throwing as a child with stuffed socks. Brother Darrel, who was two years older than him, regularly rolled up several pairs and then ran across his parents' house with his sister, throwing them at doors, trash cans and other objects as basket sets. After the children finally simulated basketball games in this way every day and even set playing times with an alarm clock, the parents bought a basket system and sent them both outside to play. Her older brother subsequently proved to be the only way for Woodard to play basketball with others. At the time, girls were not granted access to training halls, among other things, so Woodard regularly asked her brother to play with him and his friends. After a neighbor witnessed how one day Woodard was barred from playing because she was a girl, he gave her her first basketball. With possession of the ball, Woodard's chances of playing with others on a regular basis increased.

Soon, players in the local community saw Woodard's talent, often expressed in the verdict that she would play "as well as the boys." Then, as a teenager in the junior years of her high school , Woodard attracted the interest of the team coach at a neighboring school. He offered her to become a member of the team. Woodard declined on the grounds that she still had to practice and postponed her move to the team at Wichita North High for a year. Woodard describes the cohesion of the community and within her family as well as the local church as defining factors of her childhood in Kansas.

Amateur career

High school

As a member of the Wichita North High selection team, Woodard achieved a total of 59 wins and three losses in three seasons. In 1975 and 1977, the team won the state high school championships. Also in 1977 Woodard was recognized for her achievements as an All-American . In the same year, Woodard also graduated and then moved to the University of Kansas. Although Woodard only completed three instead of four game years at their high school and the team only played eight games in their first year, Woodard's point record of 1,648 is unbroken to this day.

college

From 1978 to 1981 Woodard played for the Kansas Jayhawks of the University of Kansas. She immediately established herself as a versatile top player, which she underpinned, among other things, by top placements in various statistical categories. She led the nationwide statistics for steals alone three times between 1979 and 1981, was the best point collector in 1979 and the most successful rebounder a year earlier.

Because of their achievements, Woodard was appointed to the roster of the US women's basketball team for the Universiade , the world sports games for students, in 1979 . In the first game against the team from Costa Rica , Woodard led all players with 27 points. She then succeeded in establishing herself behind Carol Blazejowski , who, like Woodard, would later be appointed to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and Tara Heiss as part of the offensive core trio of the team. In the final against the team from Cuba , Woodard and Blazejowski were largely responsible for winning the USA title with 11 points each in the second round. The following year, Woodard qualified for the selection that should be sent by the US Association to the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow . The participation of Woodard and the entire team was prevented by the politically motivated boycott of the games by the USA.

For each of her four college years, Woodard was named an All-American . In addition to numerous other honors, she received three times in a row from 1979 to 1981 the award as most valuable player (MVP) of the Big 8 tournament . With a career average of 26.3 points in her college career and Woodard achieved a total of 3649 points by 1981. This point yield not only meant a record in the then Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). To date, Woodard's career score has not been broken in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which replaced the AIAW women's tournament with its own tournament, the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship , from 1982 . In fact, only Pete Maravich has scored more points in the history of US college basketball than Lynette Woodard, which apart from Maravich has scored more points than any other female or male player.

In 1981, Woodard graduated from college with a degree in voice communications and held 24 of the 32 registered school records in basketball at the University of Kansas. In 139 completed games, she had 138 double-digit points. In Woodard's honor, the University of Kansas locked their jersey number 30 for future awards. She was the first female team member to receive this honor.

National team

1981-1983

Woodard played briefly for an Italian professional team in 1981, but returned to the United States a little later. There she worked as a volunteer assistant trainer and as an academic advisor at her alma mater in Kansas. She only played organized basketball in the summer, when she was able to establish herself as the cornerstone of the women's national team.

In July 1983 Woodard took part with the US national team at the Women's World Championships in Brazil . Against the unexpectedly strong opponent from China , the USA had to save themselves into overtime with free throws in the final second before a 101: 91 victory succeeded. Woodard contributed 6 steals in addition to 17 points . In the third game of the tournament she scored 18 points, but could not prevent the narrow defeat of 84:85 against the Soviet team. Until the semi-finals against the team from Bulgaria , the US team finally achieved clear victories. Without further defeat, the team was able to reach the final despite the defeat in the preliminary round. The return match against the Soviet Union for the gold medal was lost with 82 to 84 points. The USA won silver. Woodard achieved a tournament average of 16.3 points and was the second best point collector of her team after Cheryl Miller (17.6 points). With 9 points in the semifinals and 14 points in the final, Woodard remained below their offensive possibilities.

Just a month later, the team was sent to the ninth Pan American Games in Venezuela's capital, Caracas . The USA won the gold medal safely after, among other things, they did not have to play in the first two tournament rounds because the opposing teams did not compete. The USA won the most competitive game with 87:79 points against Canada , led by Woodard's 22 points. In the final victory over Puerto Rico , Woodard also contributed the most points with 20 points to the final score of 112: 65. She finished the tournament with 19.0 points per game, just behind top scorer Cheryl Miller (19.8).

1984 Summer Olympics

In the year after the victorious participation in the Pan American Games, Woodard also made the preselections for the Olympic squad. She was given a place on the team's starting grid and was named captain, along with Cheryl Miller. In contrast to the partly contested ways to the gold and silver placements in 1983, the USA won all six fixtures of the Olympic tournament by a large margin. The average point distance to the opponents was 32.7. The offensive performance was evenly distributed over the entire team, with Woodard as the second best point collector behind Miller with 16.5 points per game. In six games Woodard scored 10.5 points and 4.0 rebounds on average, with a field throw rate of 46.3 percent.

World Championships and Goodwill Games 1990

After Woodard was signed as a professional player by the Harlem Globetrotters in 1985, her national team career did not return to a US selection team until 1990. At the age of 30, she was the oldest player to win the USA title at the 1990 World Cup in Malaysia . Just nine days later, the United States competed in the Goodwill Games basketball tournament in their native Seattle . Although Woodard only came off the bench in the opening game against South Korea , she helped the weakened team with ten points just before the end of the first half to make up an unexpected deficit. The USA finally won the game clearly and subsequently secured the gold medal with four more victories. Woodard averaged 8.6 points per game in five missions.

Professional career

1985–1987 Harlem Globetrotters

After the end of her college career, Woodard was considered a safe new addition to the professional league WBL . There, however, there was not a single deployment, as the league had to cease operations in 1981. Woodard instead relocated overseas to play for Schio's small-town team in the Italian women's league. Although she was the best basket hunter of the 1981/82 season with an average of 31 points and was able to lead her team to the first championship title, Woodard felt uncomfortable and isolated in Italy, so that she returned to the USA after only two seasons. With no chance of being able to play basketball professionally there, Woodard only looked seriously at the prospect of practicing the sport professionally again after winning the Olympic Games in 1984. In a letter, she asked her cousin Hubert Zubie , who was a member of the Harlem Globetrotters, what he would think of the idea if she applied to be a female member of the show troupe. After he didn't answer, Woodard contacted him by phone: Ausbie made it clear that he did not believe that the team or management would be ready for such a step. Just six weeks later, however, Woodard read in the newspaper that the Globetrotters actually wanted to begin a selection process for a female team member.

In the final rounds of the selection process, Woodard stood out from a total of 18 candidates. Among the last nine candidates, the choice was made in a second audition. Woodard had spent weeks preparing himself with cardio, sprint and weight training. As the oldest of all candidates, she finally received a four-year contract that guaranteed her $ 35,000 in the first year. The official decision for Woodard was made on October 7, 1985, just a few weeks after her cousin Aus, after 24 years as a member of the Globetrotters team, was no longer considered for the team. As a result, Aussie sued the Globetrotters for breach of contract. He stated that the management had taken Woodard into the team, but fired him and his fellow player Curley Neal, who had also been fired.

The decision of the management to add a woman to the team was received with skepticism among the Globetrotters themselves. The background to the commitment was to expand the target group of show basketball players to include women and teenage girls. After seeing Woodard play, the team was eventually accepted by the team members. She toured with the Globetrotters as a professional basketball player for two years before terminating her contract prematurely in 1987 due to failed negotiations. As a reason for her exit, Woodard stated that she found her contract terms too narrow, because, among other things, she was not allowed to enter into advertising contracts.

Although Woodard's engagement ended prematurely, her engagement heralded a new era for the Harlem Globetrotters. The increased public interest prompted the team to hire two more professional players at the start of the 1988 season. In addition, with Nancy Lieberman , a star player was brought to the Globetrotters' permanent opponent, the Washington Generals .

1987–1992 International career

Woodard used the departure from the Globetrotters to return to Italy as a player. There she won the Italian championship with Enichem Priolo in 1989 . In 1990 she left Italy to play for Daiwa Securities in Japan . In 1992 the team was able to win a division title with Woodard. In the same year Woodard resigned from active basketball.

1997–1999 comeback in the WNBA

At the age of 37, Woodard returned once more as a professional player for the Cleveland Rockers team in the newly formed WNBA. She was able to distinguish herself as one of the best defenders in the league and in 1998 scored an average of 1.64 steals per game. In 1999 she resigned as a player after a stint at the Detroit Shock. She then worked at the University of Kansas until 2004 as an assistant and later interim trainer.

See also

• List of members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

Web links

• Lynette Woodard in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame . On: Hoophall website; Springfield, MA, 2018. Retrieved April 19, 2018 (in English).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Lynette Woodard . On: Hoophall website; Springfield, MA, 2018. Retrieved April 19, 2018 (in English).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} womenshistory.about.com , accessed February 19, 2012.
3. ^ ^{A b c} Kansas Historical Society , accessed February 19, 2012.
4. ↑ Lynette Woodard in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original ), accessed on February 19, 2012.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Women's Basketball Hall of Fame ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 19, 2012.  
6. ↑ ^{a b c} kmuw.org  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 25, 2012.  
7. ↑ ljworld.com , accessed February 25, 2012.
8. ↑ ^{a b} womensfocus.com , interview. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
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13. ↑ ^{a b c d} robinsonlibrary.com , accessed February 26, 2012.
14. ↑ usabasketball.com ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 26, 2012.  
15. ^ Terence Smith: The President Said Nyet. In: New York Times. January 20, 1980, accessed May 9, 2014 .  
16. ↑ Liz Robbins: A Legend Reflects on the Days Before the WNBA In: New York Times . July 12, 2006, accessed May 9, 2014 .  
17. ↑ kansastravel.org , accessed February 27, 2012.
18. ↑ ^{a b} There’s No Knock On Woodard - sportsillustrated.com , accessed February 27, 2012.
19. ↑ usabasketball.com ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 1983 World Championships. Retrieved February 29, 2012.  
20. ↑ archive.fiba.com , FIBA ​​World Championships 1983. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
21. ↑ usabasketball.com ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 1983 Pan American Games. Retrieved February 29, 2012.  
22. ↑ ^{a b} usabasketball.com ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 1984 Olympic Games. Retrieved March 2, 2012.  
23. ↑ archive.fiba.com FIBA 1984 Olympic Games. Retrieved March 2, 2012.
24. ↑ Irvin Harrell: Basketball: Globetrotter trots off. In: Chicago Tribune . October 24, 1987, accessed May 9, 2014 .  
25. ^ Articles.orlandosentinel.com , accessed March 2, 2012.
26. ↑ usabasketball.com ( Memento of the original from September 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Goodwill Games 1990. Retrieved March 2, 2012.  
27. ↑ milkeespress.com , accessed March 4, 2012.
28. ↑ rule13athletics.com ( memento of the original from June 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 5, 2012.  
29. ↑ ^{a b c} Herald-Journal , March 23, 1986. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
30. ↑ icecreamconvos.com ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 5, 2012.  
31. ↑ americanhistory.si.edi , accessed March 5, 2012.
32. ^ ^{A b c} Gary Libman: Lynette Woodard, Miss Globetrotter, Learns to Play Fun-and-Games Way: Olympic Medalist Strikes Gold Again in New Sports Career. In: Los Angeles Times . January 19, 1086, accessed May 9, 2014 .  
33. ^ St. Petersberg Times , October 8, 1985. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
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35. ^ Encyclopediaofarkansas.net , accessed March 5, 2012.
36. ^ Sports People: Two Sue Globetrotters. In: New York Times. September 10, 1985, accessed May 9, 2014 .  
37. ↑ ^{a b c} Is This Georgia Brown? - sportsillustrated.com , Sports Illustrated January 6, 1986. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
38. ↑ articles.orlandosentinel.com , Orlando Sentinel, October 24, 1987. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
39. ^ Former Kansas star Lynette Woodard said Friday she is ... In: Chicago Tribune. October 25, 1987, accessed May 9, 2014 .  
40. ↑ Jack Curry: Women's Style Suits Globetrotters. In: New York Times. February 15, 1988, accessed May 9, 2014 .  
41. ↑ spoke.com , accessed March 7, 2012.