The Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (WBHOF) Class of 2026 took their rightful place last weekend in Knoxville, Tenn. Tonyas Chavers drove nearly six hours from her Memphis home to attend the annual ceremony and related events.
“I’m able to take that scenic, nice five-hour drive, clear my head on the way, coming and going,” said Chavers, the retired Minneapolis elementary gym teacher and Minnesota Teacher of the Year winner. She is also the first Black female girls’ high school basketball head coach at Minneapolis North, a role she held in the early 1990s, where she coached a promising freshman and future WNBA lottery pick Tamara Moore.
Chavers’ place in history was further cemented when she and the Women’s Basketball League, a forerunner of the WNBA, were inducted as “Trailblazers of the Game” in 2018. She left school and played on three clubs (1978-81), including the Minnesota Fillies, one of the league’s eight original franchises. After the WBL folded, Chavers stayed in town, returned to college, earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and was eventually hired by Minneapolis Public Schools, where she taught for nearly 30 years.
During a phone call last week, Chavers recalled that she originally thought she would attend the induction just once. “I remember in 2019 one of my brothers asked me, ‘Are you going to Knoxville for this year’s induction?’ I remember telling him, ‘I hadn’t really thought about it.’
“He said, ‘So what you’re telling me is that you have become a part of a legacy that’s going to honor people every year from now on, and you don’t want to continue to go back and support the careers that you’ve seen.'”
Thanks to her brother’s persuasive argument, Chavers has annually made the round trip from Memphis to Knoxville and the WBHOF, the 35,000-square-foot facility and tribute to women’s hoops at all levels that opened in June 1990 and houses the world’s largest basketball, 30 feet tall and weighing 10 tons.
There are 27 total induction classes, including the 1982 Cheyney squad, the first and only HBCU to play for a Division I national title.
“It actually hit me right away,” said Chavers of seeing her name listed in the Hall.
This year’s class features eight individuals, including Candace Parker, Elena Delle Donne and Minnesota Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve, who combined have seven WNBA titles, multiple MVP honors and several Olympic gold medals.
On Parker: “I didn’t get a chance to see her as a high school player,” Chavers said. “I was able to follow her career at Tennessee, and just really be proud of the woman that she is.”
“Elena Delle Donne… I really liked her because she was just so consistent,” she added. “The injury set her back a little bit from time to time. I’m really looking forward to hopefully getting a chance to shake her hand and congratulate her.
“Coach Reeve, they got it right this time,” Chavers said of the veteran coach and basketball executive.
The class also includes Barbara Kennedy-Dixon, who died from cancer in 2018. She is among a select group of NCAA women’s basketball players who scored at least 3,000 points and grabbed 1,000 rebounds, achieving both marks at Clemson in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Chavers also can’t wait to see one more inductee, broadcaster Doris Burke.
“I’m looking forward to meeting Doris Burke, one of my favorites,” the Hall of Famer said excitedly. “She knows the game better than a whole lot of people.”
FINALLY …
Hall of Famer C. Vivian Stringer is this year’s recipient of the Betty F. Jaynes Lifetime Achievement Award, the Women Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) announced last week. Stringer retired in 2022 with a 1,055-426 career record, sixth all-time and the first coach in men’s or women’s basketball history to take three different schools to the Final Four: Cheyney in 1982, Iowa in 1993 and Rutgers in 2000 and 2007.
“C. Vivian Stringer is a pioneer and giant in our game. She is the prominent example for our Black coaches, and her success has inspired future generations of coaches and student-athletes,” said WBCA Executive Director Danielle Donehew.
“I had the great fortune to coach the sport I love for over 50 years,” Stringer said, “to mentor hundreds of young women who played for me, to teach them to respect themselves and each other and to set them on their own journeys to success. That is my lifetime achievement …”
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