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Tennessee Lady Vols basketball players these days get their names in lights, as the sport in recent decades has become high profile.
When Gloria Scott Deathridge played, however, she had to find out about team tryouts from a flyer on a telephone pole on campus. But that turned into its own guiding light for both her and the program.
She got to be not only a pioneering women’s basketball player at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in those pre-Pat Summitt days of the early 1970s, but she is also credited as the first Black women’s varsity basketball player at Tennessee.
But, as she remembered that time as the Shopper News concludes its two-part series on the early history of Lady Vols basketball, it all came about almost accidentally.
“We didn’t have [basketball] scholarships, and I came to UT on an academic scholarship,” she said. “And I didn’t know they had a basketball program when I got here. I thought my basketball-playing days were over.”
She had played on the 1970 state championship team of legendary coach Jim Smiddy at Bradley Central High in Cleveland, so that note on the pole naturally caught her attention.
Deathridge, in turn, would quickly catch the attention of the coaches. She went to what is now the Alumni Memorial Building when it was still a gymnasium and saw a player she knew who told then-coach Margaret Hutson she would be an asset to the team. As a result, she was noticed among the roughly 30 other players trying out and going through basketball drills.
“I tried out and they told me I had made the team,” said Deathridge, who is also a former Knox County Board of Education member. “That’s how I got started.”
And she had fun, too. That was in part because it was a new kind of basketball for her after playing only defense in the antiquated style of Tennessee high school girls’ basketball then, in which each player stayed on only one side of the half-court line. “I was excited to be able to play both sides,” she said with a laugh. “It was exciting.”
Somewhat surprisingly, the experience was also a little new for coach Hutson, who was kind of thrust into coaching the women’s basketball program as part of her UT physical education graduate degree work.
“Margaret Hutson was not a basketball player. She had never played a day in her life,” said Deathridge. “She made money as a graduate assistant and was asked to take on the basketball coaching. She learned from her players. And she read a lot of books about basketball.”
Coach Hutson had already been at Tennessee a year when Deathridge began playing during the 1971-72 school year. With players from different parts of Tennessee, the team finished 13-5 Deathridge’s first year and 16-5 in 1973.
However, Deathridge said they were still losing to teams due to physical condition, as happened at a North Carolina tournament. Before the 1974 season, they had a new graduate assistant who helped the team focus on conditioning, which included running on the old Tom Black Track near the physical education complex.
The work showed in the North Carolina tournament. “The third year we went up there and ran everybody else in the ground,” she said.
The 1974 team would finish 25-2. Other team members listed that year included Sandy Carter, Nancy Bowman, Dianne Brady, Joy Scruggs, Melinda Borthick, Sue Thomas, Jackie Watson, Aimee Fuller, Jackie Dunbar, Maria Hohne, Gail Dobson, Sue Groves, Kyran Lenahan and Sue Schultze.
Since she joined the team – still known as the Volettes – late, Deathridge played for only three seasons.
She eventually worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority in various fields before retiring and later working in real estate.
While she felt overall fulfilled with those three seasons after thinking her playing days were over after high school, she does have one regret. That is that she did not get to play for coach Pat Head Summitt the next year, when Summitt arrived as a graduate assistant but was quickly thrust into being the head coach after Hutson left to continue her studies.
“I do regret it,” she said, adding that she did get to know Summitt later. “In one of her books, she said she wished she had gotten the opportunity to coach me. A lot of players wanted her to call me because I did a lot of rebounding. But she didn’t call.”
Deathridge heard from former teammates who did play that first year under Summitt that the 1974-75 season was a hard but enlightening year, and that they learned a lot under the future Hall of Fame coach.
Despite this “what if"” Deathridge said she is proud to have been a part of the Tennessee program in its modern era infancy. “I am so proud to be a Lady Vol for life,” she said. “I am so proud of the program and how far it has come.”
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: 'Lady Vol for life' Gloria Deathridge looks back at early '70s team
Continue reading...
When Gloria Scott Deathridge played, however, she had to find out about team tryouts from a flyer on a telephone pole on campus. But that turned into its own guiding light for both her and the program.
She got to be not only a pioneering women’s basketball player at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in those pre-Pat Summitt days of the early 1970s, but she is also credited as the first Black women’s varsity basketball player at Tennessee.
But, as she remembered that time as the Shopper News concludes its two-part series on the early history of Lady Vols basketball, it all came about almost accidentally.
“We didn’t have [basketball] scholarships, and I came to UT on an academic scholarship,” she said. “And I didn’t know they had a basketball program when I got here. I thought my basketball-playing days were over.”
She had played on the 1970 state championship team of legendary coach Jim Smiddy at Bradley Central High in Cleveland, so that note on the pole naturally caught her attention.
Deathridge, in turn, would quickly catch the attention of the coaches. She went to what is now the Alumni Memorial Building when it was still a gymnasium and saw a player she knew who told then-coach Margaret Hutson she would be an asset to the team. As a result, she was noticed among the roughly 30 other players trying out and going through basketball drills.
“I tried out and they told me I had made the team,” said Deathridge, who is also a former Knox County Board of Education member. “That’s how I got started.”
A new experience for player and coach
And she had fun, too. That was in part because it was a new kind of basketball for her after playing only defense in the antiquated style of Tennessee high school girls’ basketball then, in which each player stayed on only one side of the half-court line. “I was excited to be able to play both sides,” she said with a laugh. “It was exciting.”
Somewhat surprisingly, the experience was also a little new for coach Hutson, who was kind of thrust into coaching the women’s basketball program as part of her UT physical education graduate degree work.
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“Margaret Hutson was not a basketball player. She had never played a day in her life,” said Deathridge. “She made money as a graduate assistant and was asked to take on the basketball coaching. She learned from her players. And she read a lot of books about basketball.”
Coach Hutson had already been at Tennessee a year when Deathridge began playing during the 1971-72 school year. With players from different parts of Tennessee, the team finished 13-5 Deathridge’s first year and 16-5 in 1973.
However, Deathridge said they were still losing to teams due to physical condition, as happened at a North Carolina tournament. Before the 1974 season, they had a new graduate assistant who helped the team focus on conditioning, which included running on the old Tom Black Track near the physical education complex.
We 'ran everybody else in the ground' in third-year tournament
The work showed in the North Carolina tournament. “The third year we went up there and ran everybody else in the ground,” she said.
The 1974 team would finish 25-2. Other team members listed that year included Sandy Carter, Nancy Bowman, Dianne Brady, Joy Scruggs, Melinda Borthick, Sue Thomas, Jackie Watson, Aimee Fuller, Jackie Dunbar, Maria Hohne, Gail Dobson, Sue Groves, Kyran Lenahan and Sue Schultze.
Since she joined the team – still known as the Volettes – late, Deathridge played for only three seasons.
She eventually worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority in various fields before retiring and later working in real estate.
One regret: Not playing for Pat Summitt
While she felt overall fulfilled with those three seasons after thinking her playing days were over after high school, she does have one regret. That is that she did not get to play for coach Pat Head Summitt the next year, when Summitt arrived as a graduate assistant but was quickly thrust into being the head coach after Hutson left to continue her studies.
“I do regret it,” she said, adding that she did get to know Summitt later. “In one of her books, she said she wished she had gotten the opportunity to coach me. A lot of players wanted her to call me because I did a lot of rebounding. But she didn’t call.”
Deathridge heard from former teammates who did play that first year under Summitt that the 1974-75 season was a hard but enlightening year, and that they learned a lot under the future Hall of Fame coach.
Despite this “what if"” Deathridge said she is proud to have been a part of the Tennessee program in its modern era infancy. “I am so proud to be a Lady Vol for life,” she said. “I am so proud of the program and how far it has come.”
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: 'Lady Vol for life' Gloria Deathridge looks back at early '70s team
Continue reading...
