Lusia Harris
From Hoopedia
Lusia Harris-Stewart (born February 10, 1955) is a pioneer of women's basketball. She was born in Minter City, Mississippi, the tenth of eleven children. In 1977 she became the first woman drafted by an NBA team.
She always wanted to beat her siblings in basketball and eventually grew to six feet three inches. She planned to attend Alcorn A&M University, which did not have a women's basketball team. She was asked by Coach Margaret Wade, who was starting a women's team, if she would attend Delta State University, in Cleveland, Mississippi. This was before Title IX, so there were no sports scholarships for women. Instead, she attended school on a combination of academic scholarships and work-study.
At 6'3", Harris was a force on the court. She led Delta State to three consecutive AIAW championships (before the NCAA started sponsoring women's sports), and was named tournament most valuable player each time. Her college career record was an outstanding 109-5.
In 1975 Harris represented the US in the FIBA World Championship for Women and the Pan American Games. She played on the first U.S. women's Olympic basketball team in 1976 in Montreal and led the team to a silver medal after just six weeks of practice. She averaged 17.2 ppg and 7.0 rpg, tops on the US team.
The New Orleans Jazz drafted her in the seventh round of the 1977 draft, making her the first female drafted by a NBA team. She was pregnant at the time and unable to attend camp.
After graduation, she worked for Delta State as an admissions counselor and assistant coach. In 1978 she was drafted by the Houston Angels of the Women's Professional Basketball League (WBL), but she opted to stay at Delta State instead.
She was the first player to win the Broderick Cup as the Outstanding Women's Basketball Player. She was the first female player inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and was in the first class inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
