ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) —
Two former Western North Carolina basketball stars are set to be inducted this week into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
The group of 11 honorees to be enshrined on Friday, May 10, include:
- UNC Asheville’s Sheila Ford Duncan, the 1984 NAIA National Player of the Year who led UNC Asheville to the NAIA national championship.
- Mars Hill University’s Marilyn “Que” Tucker, a high-scoring member of Mars Hill’s teams of the early 1970s who went on to become a trailblazer off the court as the first female and African-American commissioner of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association in 2015.
According to a hall of fame news release, UNCA’s Duncan was named the 1984 NAIA National Player of the Year as she led the Bulldogs to the NAIA national championship. She scored 41 points and had 19 rebounds in the semifinals and then followed with 26 points and 21 rebounds in the championship game to earn MVP honors. Duncan was the first player in women’s collegiate history to score more than 2,000 points (2,442) and grab more than 2,000 rebounds (2,200). She holds 18 UNCA records and earned first-team All-America honors as a senior. The Clarkton, North Carolina, native played professionally in Spain and was inducted into the UNCA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.
Meanwhile, Tucker said on Monday that she was thrilled to be included among the inductees.
“I’m humbled to be going in with some big hitters in North Carolina,” Tucker told 828newsNOW in a phone call Monday. “I certainly wasn’t expecting it. But I share it with everybody I have rubbed shoulders with. I am here because of them. They are the reason I’m here.”
Tucker (1970-74) remembers when women’s teams consisted of six players and the basketballs were the same size the men used.
The women’s game transitioned to five-player teams when Tucker played at Mars Hill.
“I was a rover in high school,” she said. “I was used to playing all over the court.”
At that time, the governing body was the AIAW, not the NCAA.
“And we didn’t have a big charter bus at Mars Hill,” she said. “We were still going in vans and station wagons.”
Those aren’t the only ways the women’s game has changed.
Female players today are much stronger and faster, she said, primarily because of the way they train.
“Females then weren’t able to get into the weight room. The muscle strength they have now was unheard of then,” Tucker said.
And there has been a change in how female athletes are perceived and treated.
“We’ve come a long way, baby, as they say, but we have a long way to go,” she said.
But Tucker said women and their supporters should not let issues divide them.
For example, there’s the perceived bias in which recent WNBA preseason games have been televised, with many believing the networks have disproportionately focused on scoring sensation Caitlyn Clark.
“Some people are mad because Caitlyn Clark has had successes. That’s not the issue. Let’s point it at the media, the networks. We can’t allow the media to cause us to be divided in our support for one another,” Tucker said.
Clark set scoring records while playing college basketball at Iowa. Tucker also noted the accomplishments of Standford Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer, who retired this year with an overall record of 1,216–271, and the South Carolina Gamecocks, who won their third NCAA title this year.
“It should be one for all and all for one. The successes they’ve had lifts all of us. All of the accolades one person gets, it lifts us all,” Tucker said.
Tucker, who is now the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s commissioner, was inducted into the Mars Hill Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987.
According to a hall of fame news release, UNCA’s Duncan was named the 1984 NAIA National Player of the Year as she led the Bulldogs to the NAIA national championship. She scored 41 points and had 19 rebounds in the semifinals and then followed with 26 points and 21 rebounds in the championship game to earn MVP honors. Duncan was the first player in women’s collegiate history to score more than 2,000 points (2,442) and grab more than 2,000 rebounds (2,200). She holds 18 UNCA records and earned first-team All-America honors as a senior. The Clarkton, North Carolina, native played professionally in Spain and was inducted into the UNCA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.
Other inductees include: Randolph Childress, Caroline Lind, Bob McKillop, Jim Nantz, Pettis Norman, Shea Ralph, Don Skakle, Steve Smith Sr., Tucker and Ron Wellman.
The group of 11 will be enshrined during the 60th annual Induction Celebration on the evening of Friday, May 10, at the Charlotte Convention Center, starting at 5 p.m. Their induction will bring the total number of hall of fame members to 411, the news release said.