June 12, 2009

Jennifer Azzi inducted into Women's Basketball Hall of Fame

Six extraordinary women were inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame Saturday night: Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, Jill Hutchison, Ora Washington, Jennifer Gillom, Sonja Hogg and Jennifer Azzi. They combine for three Olympic gold medals, four WNBA Championships, five NCAA titles, and more than 100 years in the sport of basketball. This photo of the inductees appeared in Jennifer's blog. (The third woman is Brenda Hogue, Ora Washington's grand-niece, who represented her at the ceremonies. Washington died in 1971.) Here is a formal photo at the induction ceremony from the WBHOF: Knoxville TV station WBIR summarizes the inductees' accompishments in this article. Accompanying the article is a video interview before the induction ceremony of Jennifer and her Oak Ridge High School basketball coach, Jill Prudden. This is a larger version of the video clip. Ann Killion (San Jose Mercury) wrote this article about Jennifer that focussed on Jennifer's decision to attend Stanford and on how she and Tara brought each other success. "Tara would have been successful without me at Stanford," Azzi said. "But I'm not sure of the reverse. I would have been pretty good, but it's unlikely that I would have truly reached my potential." "Jennifer put Stanford basketball on the map," VanDerveer said. "She was the catalyst." In another post to her blog, Jennifer reminisces about her freshman year at Stanford and her dad's Christmas gift to her that painful year.

No comments: