Making a strong statement

Friday, February 15, 2008

We think of Wilt Chamberlain, Paul Pierce, Clyde Lovellette and many others went it comes to KU men’s’ basketball. When it comes to KU women’s basketball, it is without a doubt Lynette Woodard comes to mind.

Woodard, a Wichita native, played at KU from 1978 to 1981. She left the Jayhawks as the leading scorer in women’s’ basketball history, with 3,649 points total as a Kodak All-American.

Life after college only furthered Woodard’s success. In 1984, she joined the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team, which proceeded to win the gold medal that year.

In 1985, Woodard became the first ever woman to join the legendary Harlem Globetrotters.

“Every player has a dream team so to speak, someone they want to play for or play like, and the Globetrotters was always the team I chose. Then it was dream come true. I said from a baby that I was going to play for this team,” Woodard said to NBA.com in 2005 in regards to joining the Globetrotters.

Woodard spent some time overseas playing in Italy until 1993. In 1997, the newly formed Women’s National Basketball Association, the WNBA, was formed and the Cleveland Rockers signed her to a contract.

In the 1998 WNBA Expansion draft, the Detroit Shock chose Woodard in the fourth round. She played 27 games for the Shock before retiring in 1999.

She returned to the University that same year as an assistant coach for the women’s basketball team. In 2004, was named interim head coach as a replacement for Marian Washington, who retired for medical purposes.

Currently, Woodard resides in Wichita and works as a financial consultant.

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