by Acacia O'Connor
The Hall of Honor's Tour
The 2007 Women's Basketball Hall of Fame inductees excitedly gathered together this afternoon for the first of this weekend's official events. Flanked by a few family members and friends and followed by a handful of photographers, the inductees took a private tour of the hall and were the first to lay eyes on the newly constructed Class of 2007 display cases.
At the start of the tour, the attendees were ushered into the State Farm Tip-Off theatre to watch a video detailing the history of women's basketball. Starting with the first, three-court game at Smith College, the video ran through famous players from the days of the AAU, to the WBL, to today's college and WNBA super-stars.
From there, the group wandered past cases detailing the early history of the women's game and the inductees took a seat in front of a video of halftime speeches by illustrious coaches, including Andy Landers himself (seen on screen and sitting center to the left of Mel).
And the next shot will come as little surprise to anyone--while all the inductees were seated together, Mel's cell phone rang, and he took a call from one of his many fans.
There were many photo ops along the way, as the inductees posed with their families in front of old jerseys, trophies and team photographs. In hand, several guests held copies of the surprise special-edition publication sent down from the Inquirer: a four-page special section on the man himself. Brother-in-law Perry Swartz perused the pages as he walked toward the Hall of Honor.
The viewing of the cases, which encapsulated the distingished careers of each of the six inductees, was an emotional experience for all. Family members and the honored alike had tears in their eyes as they walked through the hall of history--basketball history and personal history.
"It's hard to pick whatever number of things that encapsulate your career," Andrea Lloyd Curry later said of the display. But it’s a little bit of everything; they really did a nice job."
“I tried to envision this case and I just think its perfect," Daedra Charles-Furlow echoed "I sent in a whole lot of stuff and the things (Karen Tucker) picked out were the things I would have picked out."
Mel sent many things as well-- the difference being many of the chosen pieces (several were used as background during tonight's Storytelling Session), while written by Mel, were about one or more of the other inductees.
On a lighter note, after this afternoon's media session, Jonathan and I took a closer look at half of the Hall's Urban playground. (When the Guru's away, the blogging staffers will play...)
Chronicles and Storytelling
Thunderstorms drove the inductees and their many guests inside a jam-packed Hall of Fame for the Chronicles of Legends Dinner, which was followed by a fun and lively Storytelling Session in the Urban Playground.
The Class of 2007
The basketball fans greeted each other with warm and excited smiles, evidently pleased to be gathered together for such a celebration. Perhaps most excited of all was the massive (and massively red) Georgia contingent present to support inductee Andy Landis. Landis is the only women's basketball coach the school has ever seen and has an overall coaching record of 684-215. He is also a four-time National Coach of the Year and three-time SEC Coach of the Year.
During the storytelling session, the inductees quipped back and forth amongst one another and their former coaches. Perhaps what makes the Class of 2007 so special and unique is the close affiliation of three of the players being inducted. Daedra Charles-Furlow and Bridgette Gordon were teammates at the University of Tennessee, winning a championship together in 1989.
Daedra and Andrea Lloyd Curry were teammates when they played overseas in Europe, and Andrea and Bridgette knew each other as rivals in the UT days (University of Texas/University of Tennessee).
The players' former coaches, 1999 Hall of Famers Pat Summitt and Jody Conradt, jumped in with stories as well, both about the women and the state of the sport in its early days.
All of those who spoke had ample praise for Pamela Kelly-Flowers, a three-time Kodak All-American at Louisiana Tech from 1979-1982. Landers remarked that although Pamela was only six feet tall, she was unstoppable.
"Kelly was like a machine," he said this afternoon. "She was like the little engine that shouldn'tve. She was so strong so powerful so efficient off that block. No one could stop her."
Coach Summitt recounts a story about her former Lady Vols.
The sun sets over Knoxville, and the Hall of Fame, as the guests disperse.
All the speakers agreed on the importance of continuing to carry the coach for women's athletics. Much has changed from the days before Title IX, but without those to champion the sport, the inductees stressed, little progress will continue to be made.
The events schedule for tomorrow includes an autographing session in the early afternoon and the gala dinner at the Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville in the evening.
Stay tuned for multi-media coverage!
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