Lynette Woodard

Lynette Woodard

Guard
Born	August 12, 1959 (1959-08-12) Wichita, Kansas
High school	Wichita North High School
College	University of Kansas
Allocated	1997, to the Cleveland Rockers
WNBA Teams
Cleveland Rockers (1997) Detroit Shock (1998)
Awards and Honors
Two-time Olympic gold medalist (1984, 1990)

Medal record
Women’s Basketball
Competitor for the United States
Olympic Games
Gold	Los Angeles 1984	Team competition
FIBA World Championship
Gold	1990 Malaysia	Team competition
Pan American Games
Bronze	1991 Havana	Team competition

Lynette Woodard (born August 12, 1959 in Wichita, Kansas) is a retired American basketball player who made history by becoming the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters and who tasted success abroad before finally reaching, at age 38, her dream of playing in an American women's professional basketball league.

While at Wichita North High School, Woodard won two state basketball titles.

Woodard went on to play college basketball with the University of Kansas (KU) in 1978, playing there until 1981. She was a four-time All-American at KU, and she averaged 26 points per game and scored 3,649 points in total during her four years there, and was the first KU woman to be honored by having her jersey retired. She is major college basketball's career women's scoring leader.

In 1981, she was signed by an Italian team, UFO Schio (Vicenza), to participate in their league.

In 1984, she was a member of the United States' women's basketball team that won the gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympic Games.

In 1985, Woodard made headlines when she became the first woman ever to play with the Globetrotters. The news coverage of this event gave her much attention, and the fact that she travelled to many countries worldwide with the Globetrotters, helped women's professional teams from many different parts of the world take notice.

Incidentally, Woodard's cousin, Hubert "Geese" Ausbie, also played for the Globetrotters from 1961 to 1985.

In 1989, she was inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame. In 1990, she was signed by a Japanese women's team to play in their Asian country. She played there until 1993.

In 1997, she was signed by the Cleveland Rockers of the newly-founded Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The following year, she was selected in an expansion draft by the Detroit Shock. During the WNBA's off-season, she began working as a stockbroker in New York City.

She retired from playing in 1999, and returned to the University of Kansas serving as the Assistant Coach of the women's basketball team. In late January 2004, she was named Interim Head Coach filling for the regular coach Marian Washington, who had retired due to medical reasons.

She also served as Athletics Director for the Kansas City, Missouri School District from 1992 to 1994.

In September 2004, she was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. And in June 2005, she was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Woodard now works as a financial consultant for A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., in her hometown of Wichita, Kansas.

External links

• Basketball Hall of Fame biography
• University of Kansas Women's Basketball

Notes

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Darrell Griffith Mark D. Herrmann Donald J. Paige Ronald K. Perry Randy Lee Schleusener	NCAA Top Five Award Class of 1982 Par J. Arvidsson Rowdy Gaines Oliver Luck Kenneth W. Sims Lynette Woodard	Succeeded by Bruce Baumgartner John Elway Richard J. Giusto Charles F. Kiraly David R. Rimington
Preceded by Nancy Lopez	Flo Hyman Memorial Award 1993	Succeeded by Patty Sheehan