|
Margaret Wade, namesake of the trophy honoring the best women's college basketball player
History of Women's Basketball
The name Margaret Wade may or not be familiar to you, but it should. For it is her surname that graces the Wade Trophy which annually honors the best women's college basketball player.
The National Association for Girls and Women in Sports votes on the award and the criteria includes not only performance on the basketball court, but excellence in academics and community service. The NAGWS presented the first Wade Trophy in 1978 to current New York Liberty Senior Vice President and General Manager Carol Blazejowski following her senior season at Montclair State.
Delta State began its collegiate basketball program during the school's first year of existence in 1925. Sadly for supporters of the Delta State program, the school dropped the sport in 1932 because it was deemed too strenuous for women. Protests that involved the burning of uniforms went unnoticed. Following her career at Delta State, Wade began playing semi-pro basketball with the Tupelo Red Wings leading the team to the Southern Championship as team captain, but a knee injury ended her playing career after just two seasons. While a member of the Red Wings, Wade also coached at the high school level first with Marietta High School (1933-34) and Belden High School (1934-35). Those teams combined to go 23-5. Following her retirement from semi-pro ball, Wade returned to her high school alma mater to coach the girls basketball program from 1935-54. During that time, her legions compiled a record of 453-89. She retired from coaching following the 1953-54 season, but in 1959, Wade returned to Delta State as the school's director of women's physical education. It took another 14 years, but in 1973, the women's basketball team made a triumphant return to Delta State after a 41-year hibernation. And to lead Delta State back into the ranks of the women's basketball elite, the administration tabbed none other than 60-year-old Margaret Wade. And lead them she did. Wade's first season at the helm produced a record of 16-2. The following three campaigns brought with them three AIAW national championships and an overall record of 93-4 that included a 51-game winning streak. Wade hung up her coaching whistle for good following the 1978-79 season, retiring with a 157-23 mark at Delta State, and in 1984 she was among the first class of women to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. The Charlotte Sting coaching staff remembers Margaret Wade: Anne Donovan -- "When I grew up the Delta State-Immaculata rivalry was pretty big, so everybody knew the program and everybody knew that Margaret Wade was the architect of the program. I think she recruited my sister actually. The Wade Trophy was a goal for every college player -- every bit as big as the Wooden Award or any other national honor. She was one of the pioneers that helped put women's basketball on the map." Trudi Lacey - "Back in, I think 1975, Delta State played Immaculatta at James Madison University for the national championship, and that was the first college game I ever attended in person. I grew up an hour and a half from there, and my coach took me. It really gave me a taste of college basketball and what it was like to compete at that level. "Although I never actually met Margaret Wade, she was still one of those figures in the sport that everyone recognized as a roll model."
Bibliography:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
