Photo: Tony Duffy/Allsport / Getty Images
On October 7, 1985, Lynette Woodard, captain of the gold medal-winning US Olympic women’s basketball team in 1984, becomes the first player of the Harlem Globetrotters.
“I got chills,” said Woodard, of years, after selection. “I just shook my head and said, ‘It’s me, I know it’s me.'” She beat out nine other finalists for the historic honor.
Perhaps it was fitting that Woodard became the first female globetrotter, as her obsession with basketball began when her cousin, Herbert “Geese” Ausbie, then a member of the barnstorming team, visited her when I was 8 years old.
After seeing Ausbie spin the ball on her finger and show off other Globetrotter moves, she was thrilled.
Woodard toured with the Globetrotters for two years and received a “Legends” ring at 1996, joining her Ausbie cousin to receive the team’s most prestigious honor.
After wearing Wichita North High School to two state championships, Woodard became a star at the University of Kansas. However, when he finished college at 1984, he had limited options in women’s professional basketball: The first season of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) did not start until 1997.
So, Woodard played two seasons in the Italian women’s league, leading all players in scoring.
Woodard led the US Olympic team from 1984 to a gold medal, but did not play in the Olympic Games of 1980 in Moscow due to the American boycott.
After his retirement from professional basketball at 1995, Woodard left of his retirement to play two seasons in the WNBA for the Cleveland Rockers and Detroit Shock.
In 2004, Woodard was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
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