By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Once upon a time, a young girl picked up a basketball. From those first dribbles and shots, something clicked. Something told this girl that she too wanted to play this game. It grew into a love of the game, a competitive spirit and much, much more.
Fifty years ago, Marynell Meadors, a recent graduate from Middle Tennessee, saw an opportunity – give young women the opportunity to play the game, to learn and grow from it and create something that could become not only special to themselves, but to the campus and its community.
The seeds were planted all those long years ago in Memorial Gym. Time has passed and the seeds sprouted, blossomed into something greater than what was probably envisioned.
Fifty years -- it's hard to believe that much time has passed since Meadors led the first Tech squad onto the court in 1970. Since those early days, so much as happened with the team as Tech soared to great heights and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the greatest programs in the sport. Fifty years and 1,526 games later, some of the milestones Tennessee Tech women's basketball has accomplished are staggering.
As the 2020-21 season opens at UAB on November 29, the Golden Eagles stand at 957 total wins and are ranked among the NCAA's winningest teams in Division I basketball – 21st in total wins and 40th in winning percentage with a .627 mark.
To put the win total in perspective, only 14 teams – Tennessee, UConn, James Madison, Louisiana Tech, Stanford, Texas, Stephen F. Austin, Old Dominion, Ohio State, Maryland, Western Kentucky, Green Bay, South Dakota State and Notre Dame – have eclipsed 1,000 wins. Baylor, Georgia, Belmont (including their pre-Division I days), North Carolina, Kansas State, Rutgers and Penn State join the Golden Eagles in standing within 50 games of the next milestone.
Inside the Hooper Eblen Center, the championship banners in the rafters and the trophies in the lobby cite all the years Tennessee Tech was the top team in the Ohio Valley Conference. The sheer number speaks volumes – the Tech women have been dominant. With 18 regular-season championships and nine OVC Tournament titles, Tech stands above its conference peers. The closest was former OVC affiliate Middle Tennessee, who now resides in Conference USA, with 11. The closest active teams are UT Martin with six regular-season titles and Austin Peay with seven OVC Tournament championships.
Tech has been the OVC women's team most ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 and USA Today-ESPN Top 25 polls, including the span of entire seasons in 1976-77 and 1989-90. The Tech women have earned 12 OVC Players of the Year – more than any team in the conference – and nine of the conference-best 10 OVC Female Athlete of the Year honors the University has received.
In the record book, Tech has compiled six 2,000-point scorers with 25 more over the 1,000-point plateau, including current Golden Eagle Jordan Brock. Seven student-athletes have seen their jerseys retired, and 19 players and coaches have earned inductions into the TTU Sports Hall of Fame with Gayle Burgess Hastings becoming the first woman inducted in 1989 and Cheryl Taylor becoming the first woman of color inducted in 1997.
Tech owns three of the OVC's five wins in the NCAA Tournament and is the only active conference program to win a contest in the postseason event. Making an appearance in the inaugural NCAA Women's Tournament field in 1981-82, Tech fell to eventual national champion Louisiana Tech. In 1987, the Golden Eaglettes defeated No. 10-seeded Southern Mississippi 78-66. Two years later, the 11th-seeded Tech squad knocked off No. 6-seed South Carolina 77-73 in one of the program's biggest wins of all time.
The players who have suited up in the Purple and Gold over the last 50 years are legendary. It's hard to go over every single player in such a short space, but the contributions have been many.
In scoring, players like Burgess, Pam Chambers, Jerilynn Harper and Cheryl Taylor were putting up tremendous totals even before the 3-point shot came into play. Harper, in the 1980-81 campaign, led all AIAW scorers with 1,011 points that season, averaging 29.7 per game, then followed it up with another 831 the following year – the first NCAA-sponsored season. Lydia Sawney, Renay Adams and Diane Seng finished campaigns ranked nationally in shooting percentage.
Once the long-range shot was brought into the game, the Tech team found its share of 3-point aces with Mitzi Rice, Allison Clark, Blair Bowens and Jordan Brock knocking down more than 70 in a season.
Helping their teammates find the shot, Tech had players like Chris Moye, Shawn Monday, Cecilia Ramsey, Misty Garrett and Jala Harris collect more than 200 assists in a single season, with many more putting the ball in the right hands.
Defensively, Pam Cassity and Cheryl Taylor averaged more than 12 boards a game, while Melinda Clayton, Roschelle Vaughn, Angela Moorehead, Janet Holt, Emily Christian and Tacarra Hayes put up tremendous numbers on the glass. Recent Golden Eagle Anacia Wilkinson set a new standard in blocked shots with 92, continuing where Clayton, Trish Bell, Taryn Slattery, Kayla Brewer and teammate Mackenzie Coleman had paced with 50 or more.
Then there's the coaches. The first 36 seasons of Tech basketball were overseen by just two coaches as Meadors and Bill Worrell, the program's all-time winningest coach, built a successful dynasty with the program. The two coaches combined for 771 wins, nine OVC tournament championships, 16 regular-season championships, 10 NCAA tournament appearances and five AIAW national tournaments.
Meadors started coaching when she was still a student at Middle Tennessee in the '60s, before basketball was a varsity sport. With a starting budget of $100 – roughly $671 today – she started the team at Tennessee Tech.
Meadors became the first major college women's basketball coach to win 350 games and 300 at the same school, before building the program at Florida State, then help to grow the WNBA with stints with the Charlotte Sting, Washington Mystics and Atlanta Dream.
Worrell continued the tradition and then some as he coached the Eaglettes to a 408-190 record with 20 combined regular-season and tournament titles and eight NCAA tournament appearances, including their three NCAA tournament victories. Including his tenure as an assistant coach, Worrell spent 25 of the program's 50 years on the sidelines.
Amy Brown, Sytia Messer and Jim Davis followed in the footsteps and set the stage for the current crop of Golden Eagles. Under the guidance of current head coach Kim Rosamond, the team has built momentum for future success, including the third-best turnaround in the 2018-19 season that saw Tech go 22-11, tied for 26th in the NCAA for all-time most improved teams.
The future does indeed look bright.
As Tennessee Tech celebrates 50 years of women's basketball, we will take an in-depth look back at some of the legendary figures from the program, some of the teams that helped the program take flight and tell the story of some of the greatest victories recorded through the years.
It's been an incredible ride for the first 50 years. Now, as we celebrate those who took to the court before, we look to the present and future and say that that's only the beginning of the story.
