First and only woman ever drafted by an NBA team Lusia Harris dies age 66

[pwaldo]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Jazz-1977.html

Lusia Harris, the first and only woman officially drafted by an NBA team and the first player to score points in women's basketball history at the Olympics, died Tuesday at the age of 66.

Harris attended Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. She helped the school win three Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women national championships in 1975, 1976 and 1977.

Nicknamed Lucy, Harris also scored the first points in an Olympic women's basketball game after the sport was added to the competition, helping the US team win the silver medal in Montreal in 1976.

Her cause of death was not announced.

The 6 ft 3 in player was selected by the New Orleans Jazz in the seventh round of the 1977 NBA draft - two decades before the WNBA's inaugural season. She was chosen ahead of 33 male players, but turned down the offer to start a family, later saying that she thought it was a publicity stunt.

She married her high school sweetheart George E. Stewart in 1977. They had four children: twins Crystal and Christina and sons Eddie and Christopher.

She briefly played in the Houston Angels for the Women’s Professional Basketball League in the 1979-1980 season, and spent much of the rest of her life coaching basketball and teaching at schools in Mississippi.

[doniceage]

Thanks for sharing that I did not know that.

DON

[bakemeister52]

Very interesting and thanks for sharing Peter!

Bake