ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – Two-time U.S. Olympian, all-time women’s college basketball career scoring leader, first woman to play for the Harlem Globetrotters – Winthrop University Head Women’s Basketball Coach Lynette Woodard has blazed a trail for women’s basketball. She will discuss her outstanding career during a Q&A session on Oct. 4.
The Winthrop Women’s Coalition will host the Oct. 4 event at 7 p.m. in Dina’s Place (DiGiorgio Campus Center). The Q&A session is free and open to the public. Seating is limited; reserve tickets online today.
Winthrop First Lady Laura Mahony, founder of the coalition that was launched in March, said that she is proud to have such as trailblazer as part of the Winthrop family.
“Lynette has broken through the glass ceiling of the highest levels, making her own path when there wasn’t one to follow. What impresses me about Lynette isn’t just her unbelievable career. It’s also her inspiring leadership, engaging personality, infinite energy and her strong advocacy for Winthrop student-athletes’ academic achievement, well-being and personal growth,” said Mahony. “The Winthrop Women’s Coalition is proud to sponsor this event because providing opportunities to learn from strong, accomplished women, such as Lynette, is one of the main reasons the Winthrop Women’s Coalition was created.”
Known as a pioneer in women’s sports, Woodard achieved national recognition at an early age by winning two state basketball titles during her high school career in Wichita, Kansas. She went on to play college basketball at the University of Kansas (KU), where she was the first KU woman honored by having her jersey retired. The two-time Olympian and former Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) player has been inducted into 10 Halls of Fame, including the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Woodard retired from playing in 1999 and returned to KU, where she served as assistant coach and interim head coach of the women’s basketball team. In 2015, she received the WBCBL Women’s Professional Basketball “Trailblazer” Award, which recognizes women who have helped blaze the trail, shape the overall landscape and pave the way for women’s professional basketball. She became Winthrop’s head women’s basketball coach on March 28.
About the Winthrop Women’s Coalition:
The Winthrop Women’s Coalition was founded on the idea that women’s strength is at
its best when women work together and that a relationship with the institution is
mutually beneficial: the institution fosters the individual to succeed and the individual
helps to support the institution. In the coalition, one will find a connection to
other women of diverse personal and professional backgrounds, and opportunities for
personal and professional enrichment while helping to contribute to the university’s
mission and philanthropic needs.
For more information about the Oct. 4 event or the Winthrop Women’s Coalition, contact Chrissy Catoe ’02, ’04, associate director of development at Winthrop, at catoec@winthrop.edu or 803/323-4903.
