At the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame ceremony in Knoxville, TN last weekend, the 1982 Cheney State University Lady Wolves were honored with the “Trailblazers of the Game” award, celebrated for their 42-year-old accomplishment alongside inductees Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus, Taj McWilliams-Franklin, Rita Gail Easterling, Violet Palmer, Sue Phillips and Roonie Scovel.
We had an INCREDIBLE weekend as SEVEN new inductees were welcomed into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Family. We also honored the 1981-1982 Cheyney State team as “Trailblazers of the Game” and the Afghan Resettlement Group with “For The Love Of The Game” Award. #WBHOF… pic.twitter.com/dnhu2G3wpL
— WBHOF (@WBHOF) April 29, 2024
The women’s basketball team from the nation’s oldest HBCU defied all the odds and made it all the way to the inaugural NCAA women’s national title game in 1982. Though they lost to Louisiana Tech 76-62, they solidified a place in history, although, since then, that place in history too long has been neglected.
The team, comprised of eight high school All-Americans and led by legendary head coach C. Vivian Stringer, epitomized the role of the underdog. They were a small Division II school that played in a small gym with very few resources. Stringer also wasn’t able to provide her players with scholarship money. They may not have been rich, but they were rich with talent. Led by the exploits of Valerie Walker, Yolanda Laney, Faith Wilds and Debra Walker, the Lady Wolves went 28-3 while playing against Division I teams. They would go on to beat their opponents at home by an average margin of 40 points. All the while, Stringer regularly was tending to her 14-month-old daughter Nina, who has hospitalized with spinal meningitis.
Cheyney State was riding high on a 19-game winning streak when the first-ever NCAA women’s tournament began. In the tournament, they eventually defeated Auburn, NC State and Kansas State. They then bested Maryland in the Final Four before their national championship game matchup with Louisiana Tech. Although defeated, the Lady Wolves made history by becoming the first and only HBCU to reach the women’s Final Four and national title game.
In a perfect world, this story would be common knowledge amongst sports fanatics and historians, but, unfortunately, like much of Black history and women’s basketball history, it has largely been erased. But as Debra Walker told Swish Appeal in a phone interview, she and her teammates, who were reunited in Knoxville for the ceremony, will look to go even bigger to ensure that their story is never again overlooked.
“We are looking to get in Naismith (Basketball Hall of Fame),” she said. “We are trying to get the story pushed out. It gave us a sense that we have to get the story out.” She cites the recent surge in popularity of women’s basketball as the perfect time to take advantage of all available opportunities to share their journey.
Powerful message from Cheyney State’s Valerie Walker on her team finally getting recognition for the history they made 42 ago in the first NCAA women’s Final Four pic.twitter.com/LqphFUlQXT
— Cora Hall (@corahalll) April 27, 2024
The story of the Cheney State University Lady Wolves of 1982 is the kind that many sports fans claim to love: an epic tale of the underdog. It is something that Walker wants to see as a catalyst for an appreciation of the women’s game—past, present and future.
“I want everybody to remember we can lift each other up,” she said. “For the game to have grown the way it has grown, if you come to watch the games stay a while. Everybody has a story and everybody’s story needs to be elevated in order for the game to grow. You got to lift up the little girl who can’t dribble the ball, but loves to play.”