2023-24 Season: Week 19, Player Spotlight on Lynette Woodard

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I'll be doing a special player spotlight on this legendary icon of the game, Lynette Woodard.

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Okay guys, this is your boy GD back with the all things basketball with GD podcast and guys, as I promised, I wanted to bring you a special episode and this will be that special episode.

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I want to do a player spotlight guys. This player has been in the news quite a bit lately and it's a person we kind of forgot about but with the exploits of Caitlyn Clark passing all these different records first Kelsey Plum and then she passed this lady here.

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That I'm going to speak about and her coach actually Lisa Bluter actually mentioned that the record didn't seem real until she passed the person I'm about to speak about and that's Lynette Woodard.

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So let us begin Lynette was born August 12 1959 in Wichita, Kansas. She was a guard slash forward, but she pretty much played just about every position needed on her team.

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She was about six feet tall, but she played much taller than that guys. Her parents were Lou Jean that was her father and her mother Dorothy.

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Her brother, Darrell introduced her to the game of basketball. Actually, what they did was they use a couple of rolled up socks and they would shoot hoops in the house until her parents bought them a hoop set that they could have out back and that's where it all began for Lynette.

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She would hone her game on that hoop set there and also playing in the local YMCA's and so forth.

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She fast forward to high school. She went to Wichita North and at Wichita North, she helped her team to win two state championships for the state of Kansas.

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Her first season was actually in 1975 as a sophomore and that's where she won her first title and then 1977 as a senior.

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Oh, by the way, it was the same high school that Barry Sanders attended Barry Sanders. We know the NFL great running back who's a Hall of Famer as well.

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In her 39 point performance in the semifinals in 1977 versus Wichita Heights stood as the all time state record for 10 years until it was broken and her 113 point run in that same season was an all time record for 13 years before being broken by another Kansas legend, Jackie Styles.

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She decides to stay local by attending the University of Kansas despite receiving many letters from different universities and colleges across the country.

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But with that would come traveling to those places to visit. So Lynette and her family, they took a bus ride to the University of Kansas and she fell in love with the university.

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So that's where she ended up attending guys and she was there on the tutelage of legendary coach Marion Washington, who actually is on the ballot for the Hall of Fame herself actually for this coming class of 2024.

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The goal simply was to utilize Lynette in any way they could, meaning that she was able to play all five positions on the team and for her to have the ball in her hands.

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Her teams would make three AIAW.

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That was the governing body for women's basketball at the time because the NCAAs, they did not have control of women's basketball at the time. So her teams would make three AIAW and that stands for Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.

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So she made three of their sectionals, which is the equivalent of the NCAA tournaments. And then once they made a NWIT tournament, which is now known as the women's NIT.

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Her total record during her time at Kansas was 108 wins and 32 losses guys as 77 win percentage.

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She was a four time All-American. She won both the Wade Trophy and the Broderick Award, which we now know as the Honda Sports Award.

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And she won those both as a senior guys in 1981. She graduated from Kansas with a bachelor's in speech communications and human relations.

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She became the all time leading scorer in women's college basketball when she passed Cindy Brogdon in a game versus Stephen F. Austin.

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And this took place on January 6, 1981, a record that she held for 43 years.

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So Lynette obviously had a prestigious career at the University of Kansas guys.

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She began playing for Team USA in 1979 at the University Day Games that will later become the FISU World University Games.

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And that's where she won her first gold medal. She was set to make her Olympic debut in 1980, but that was the year where the U.S. boycotted the 1980 Olympics that were held in Moscow.

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So Lynette was not afforded an opportunity to participate in those Olympics.

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But she would then have to wait until 1984 to play in the Olympics for Team USA coached by the late great Pat Summit.

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And on that team, first of all, she was the captain of that team.

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But on that team was Teresa Edwards of Georgia, the great Cheryl Miller. I've highlighted her on this podcast before playing out of USC along with her teammate Pam McGee and Donovan who played for Old Dominion.

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Janice Lawrence who played for La Tech. Denise Curry as well was on that team and also Kim Mulkey who we now know.

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She played at La Tech, but now she's the LSU coach.

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And that team won gold guys.

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I'll talk more about her gold medal exploits. Well, her Team USA exploits later.

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She played overseas after college. She played in countries like Italy. She also played in Japan also.

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In 1982, after coming home from Italy, she would take a job as an academic advisor and volunteer assistant coach at her alma mater, Kansas.

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In between her stints overseas, she became the first woman selected to play with the Harlem Globetrotters.

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And this occurred in 1985.

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At the time, the Harlem Globetrotters were looking for a female player. And thanks to Lynette's cousin, Hubert Geese Orsby, he suggested that she try out for the team, which she did along with 25 other women.

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She would then be whittled down amongst the final 10 ladies. And of course, her play blew them away and she was chosen as the first female Harlem Globetrotter.

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She signed a four year contract, but she only played two of those years, guys, including a tour that took her back to her home state of Kansas, where she was well received.

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And then she would become the athletic director at Kansas City, Missouri's school district, and she held that position from 1992 to 1994.

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And then after initially retiring from playing basketball during her days overseas in Japan, she would then go for her stockbroker's license.

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And this is after the experience of playing with the Japan team, which was the Daywa Securities Team.

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So that piqued her interest in the world of finance. So she would get her stockbroker's license and upon receiving it, she was hired by Magna Securities here in New York City.

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While living in New York City as a stockbroker, she was notified that she was being drafted in this new women's league that was formed in the U.S., which was called the WNBA.

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This happened in 1997. She was drafted 10th overall in the second round by the Cleveland Rockers.

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So putting her stockbroking career on hiatus, and she would go back to it in the off season, she pursued her dream of playing pro ball at home in the U.S., playing in the WNBA at the age of 38.

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The year that was older than her was Nancy Lieberman, who was a year older than Lynette.

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Her season with Cleveland, she played in 28 games. She started in 27 of those games.

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She would average 7.8 points per game over four rebounds, 2.4 assists, and over a steal and a half per game, guys.

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After playing the following year with the Detroit Shock, who they got her in a dispersal draft, she decided to officially retire from playing, guys.

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And that was in 1998.

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Upon retiring, she took up coaching as an assistant at her alma mater, the University of Kansas, where she would be the assistant under her former coach, Marion Washington.

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She had a brief stint as a interim coach in 2004 when Marion Washington fell ill, so Lynette would fill in the coaching spot for her and her absence.

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She would then later become the head coach of Winthrop University, and that was in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

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She was there from 2017 through 2020, and this was after she served as an assistant there in 2016.

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That is your story as far as Lynette Woodard goes.

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Now, let's talk about her accolades, guys.

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Let's start with high school.

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High school, I mentioned that she won the two state championships for the state of Kansas in 1975 and 1977.

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As far as her collegiate career at the University of Kansas, she played for four years, guys.

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She played in 139 games.

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Her average, 26.3 points per game, 12.5 rebounds, over three assists, and nearly four steals per game, guys.

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She led the nation in steals actually three times during her four years.

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She also set a single game record in rebounds with 33.

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She was freshman of the year in 1978.

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She was a way trophy award winner and a broader award, which would later be called the Honda Sports Award,

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and she won those as a senior, guys, in 1981.

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She would also win Woman of the Year Award given to her by the NAACP, which she worked out of the Wichita Kansas branch.

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There, she organized Big Brother Big Sister Program as well as she did work as far as the American Cancer Society.

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Also, guys, she was given the NCAA Top V Award in 1982, and that is giving to the best student athlete,

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and she's the first female student athlete to ever win that award.

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She also received the USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year in 1983.

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Also, guys, she won Professional Sports Woman of the Year in 1986, and that was given by the Women's Sports Foundation.

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Her time with Team USA? Five gold medals, guys.

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She won the one I mentioned in 1979 that was played in Mexico.

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Also, she won 1983 Pan Am Games that were played in Caracas, 1984 Olympics that were played in LA, I mentioned that.

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1984 Jones Cup and then in 1990s World Cup in Malaysia, guys.

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She also won Silver Medal, 1983 World Cup at Rio, and then a bronze medal she got in 1991 during the Pan Am Games in Havana.

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Her Kansas Jersey, her number 31 Jersey, was retired during the 1992-93 season.

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She was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.

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She's the first woman to do so, also in the National High School Hall of Fame a year prior, 1989.

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She was inducted into the Naysmith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004, and then the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005.

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She also won the WBCBL Women's Pro Basketball Trailblazers Award in 2015,

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and this was given to 10 of the female icons in the game of basketball, and those included Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper, Nancy Lieberman,

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and someone I actually did a player spotlight on last month, and that's Tamika Katchings.

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So guys, that is my player spotlight on Lynette Woodard.

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And as we know guys, just recently, Caitlyn Clark passed her, and it was a big celebration.

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In fact, Lynette went down for her last game as a senior at the University of Iowa, and she was so well received by the fans there.

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It was great watching it, guys, that she was getting all this love and admiration.

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And it's funny because you have Caitlyn Clark, a Midwest girl breaking the record of a Midwest girl in Lynette Woodard.

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So kind of a passing of the torch, if you will.

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So guys, just want to say Lynette Woodard, we salute you.

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We thank you for your contribution to the game of basketball, all the greatness you brought to the court, and off it as well.

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Being such an ambassador of the game, and such a gracious pro through and through.

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We just salute you.

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We thank you for your contribution to the game, and we wish you well in your future endeavors.

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So with that said, guys, that is it for this episode.

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As always, I thank you for listening.

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Like I said, I wanted to do this special episode.

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I'll get back to the weekly recap.

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Actually, I got one on tap for us, so that'll be coming to you very soon.

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All right, with that said, I thank you for listening as always, and we'll talk soon. Take care.

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Hello, guys.

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Thank you so much for following and supporting the All Things Basketball with GD Podcast.

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