Lucia "Lucy" Harris, a star in women's collegiate basketball during the 1970s and the first and only woman to be officially drafted by an NBA team, died Tuesday, along with her family members of Delta State University. According to a statement. She was 66 years old.
"We are deeply saddened to share the news that our angel, matriarch, sister, mother, grandmother, Olympic medalist, The Queen of Basketball, Lucia Harris, passed away suddenly today in Mississippi. "
Harris led Delta State to three consecutive Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championships from 1975–1977.
While at Delta State, women's basketball was introduced to the Olympics in 1976. Harris was selected for the team and had the distinction of being the first woman to score a basket in the first game of the competition. The US won the silver medal that year.
Following his collegiate career, the NBA's New Orleans Jazz, which began playing in 1974 and later moved to Utah, selected him in the seventh round of the 1977 NBA Draft.
Another woman, Denise Long, was selected by the San Francisco Warriors in the 1969 draft, but the pick was vacated by the league, making Harris the only woman to be officially drafted.
Yet Harris turned down Jazz's offer to start a family.
"I thought it was a publicity stunt and I felt like I didn't think I was good enough," she said in a short film about her life and career, "The Queen of Basketball". "So I decided not to go. Yeah, I said no to the NBA."
"NBA, I don't regret not going. Not even a little bit," he said.
The Minter City, Mississippi native was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992 and was part of the inaugural class of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.
The university said Harris is still Delta State's career record holder in points (2,891) and rebounds (1,662).
Her family said in a statement: "Ms Harris has been overjoyed in recent months, given the news of her youngest son's upcoming wedding, and the recognition she recently received from a documentary that has taken the world by storm on her story. attracted attention."
"She will be remembered for her charity, for her achievements on and off the court, and the light she brought to her community, the state of Mississippi, her country as the first woman to score a basket at the Olympics, and the women who Play basketball around the world."