Knoxville hosts Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2023

The Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame opened in Knoxville, Tenn. in 1999. Since its founding, 44 Black individuals have been inducted into the Hall, a 35,000-square-foot building that also houses the world’s largest basketball that weighs 10 tons and is 30 feet tall.

Carolyn Peck and Lindsay Whalen are part of the Class of 2023, which will be inducted April 29. Peck will be the 45th Black person to join the WBHOF.

Now a veteran broadcaster and basketball analyst, Peck was the first Black woman to win a Division I basketball title when she coached Purdue in 1999, and also the first Black woman head coach to lead a Big Ten school to a national championship. A four-time coach of the year winner, she also coached at Florida (2002-07) and was the second Black head coach-general manager (Orlando, 1999-2001) in the WNBA. 

Whalen goes into her second Hall of Fame (Naismith, 2021) as one of only three sophomores in conference history to win the Big Ten Player of the Year award. The Hutchinson, MN native posted a .650 winning percentage and a 80-43 record during her four-year Minnesota playing career. 

She also won four WNBA championships, was a five-time WNBA All-Star, a three-time first-team All-WNBA, two-time USA gold medalist and three-time FIBA world champion.

Peck (coach) and Whalen (player) are joined this weekend by Donna Lopiano (contributor), a former Texas AD and Women’s Sports Foundation CEO; Cathy Boswell (veteran player), a two-time All American and Wade Trophy finalist and member of the 1984 gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic team; and Lisa Mattingly (official), who was an official for nearly 40 years and officiated 10 Women’s Final Fours and several WNBA championship series. 

Retired Minneapolis teacher and coach Tonyus Chavers will be there welcoming the Class of 2023. She and her fellow Women’s Pro Basketball League (1978-81) members were inducted in 2018 as ‘Trailbrazer of the Game’ honorees.  

“That was the last event my mother attended because she wasn’t able to travel any more,” recalled Chavers of her late mother. “It was my mom, two of her sisters, my brother, my sister-in-law, my nephew. It was a weekend I’ll never forget. That time will always be special,” she said.

Chavers, who now lives in Tennessee and has followed the careers of Whalen and Peck over the years, predicts that this weekend will be unforgettable for both women as well.  

“I just want to hear what they have to say,” in their Hall of Fame induction speeches, said Chavers.  

“I’m glad that I am at a point that I can look at it and say, ‘I watched this game really grow from the roots…to the WNBA and now college players owning their images.’ Oh, my goodness.”

Historical milestone

Last week’s Sports Odds and Ends featured three Black female college softball players. Last weekend the two Black softball head coaches, Sharonda McDonald-Kelley (Michigan State) and Tyra Perry (Illinois), played a weekend series between the two squads, which is believed to be the first-ever matchup between two Black female HCs in the history of Power Five softball.