Once upon a time the late Orley Hood was just a sports writer. Back in 1976 when he would head to Delta State to cover basketball, I would drive over from Charleston where I was a weekly newspaper editor to enjoy his company and watch the games.

When there was room, he would let me sit by him at the scorer’s table where I would sort of keep unofficial stats.

That’s how I got to see up close and personal one of Mississippi’s few national championship teams, the Lady Statesmen with starters Lusia “Lucy” Harris, Debbie Brock, Wanda Hairston, Cornelia Ward, and Ramona VonBoeckman and coach Margaret Wade. What a team! What a run – three national championships in a row! What a record – 100-6 over four years!

Miss good times like that. Miss Orley too.

These memories came back last week when the news broke that Lusia Harris-Stewart had passed away. I had forgotten all the honors the Minter City native and Amanda Elzy graduate had won – All-American, inducted into several Halls of Fame, silver medalist and first woman to score a basket in the Olympics, drafted by the men’s New Orleans Jazz team.

Sports writer emeritus Rick Cleveland called her “the Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell of women’s basketball.” I just remembered her stellar play and that team winning and winning and winning.

In 2021 a short film was produced that highlighted the extraordinary life of “The Queen of Basketball.” Watch it on YouTube (https://youtu.be/vPFkcoTfr7g) and you will see there was much more to Lusia Harris than those heady years of basketball.

In addition to talented teammates, Lusia was blessed with a great coach. The late Margaret Wade, “mother of modern women’s basketball” and namesake for the Margaret Wade Trophy awarded annually to the top NCAA women’s basketball player. Yes, hers is a marvelous story worth telling too.

Picked up my copy of Mississippi’s Greatest Athletes by Rick Cleveland with a forward by Archie Manning. Published in 2014, it shows the athletes who had been inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

Read Archie’s forward and Rick’s intro for first time in several years. Lots of great athletes mentioned. But this time I noticed only three women among them – Ruthie Bolton, the Auburn star and two-time Olympics gold medalist in basketball; Peggy Gillom, the all-time leading scorer in Ole Miss women’s basketball and Olympics coach; and Coach Wade, the first woman Hall of Fame inductee. Back in the blurbs on all inductees I found Lusia Harris. No other team members were listed, though there is a tiny team photo in the collage on the cover.

Checked the Hall of Fame website (https://msfame.com). Discovered only 26 female inductees out of over 300 total.

Found that Debbie Brock was added in 2021, but only after her 2020 induction into the national Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Hmmm. Got some more catching up to do guys.

“Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life” – Philippians 4:3.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.