Ms. Lusia Harris-Stewart, a Pioneer of Women’s Basketball and First Female NBA Draft
How one pioneer was born into a family of basketball players and received national and international fame
Mrs. Luisa Harris-Stewart was born February 10, 1955 in Minter City, Mississippi to Ethel and Willie Harris, a cranberry farmer. She is the tenth of eleven children, all of her brothers and one sister played basketball and attended Amanda Elzy High School in Greenwood, Mississippi. Under coach Conway Stewart, she won the most valuable player award three consecutive years, served as team captain and made the state All-Star team. Also, she scored a school record of 46 points in one game and led her school to the state tournament in Jackson, Mississippi. After high school she attended Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi at the request of Melvin Hemphill, the recruiter for coach Margaret Wade, as she was restarting a collegiate women’s team. She attended on an academic scholarships and work study funds.
Ms. Harris led Delta State, the “Lady Statesmen”, to notoriety starting with her first year in the regional tournament, to the national tournament at Harrisonburg, Virginia and then onto wining the championship against the Mighty Macs of Immaculata Unversity, three consecutive AIAW champions, where she scored 32 points and recorded 16 rebounds leading Delta State past Immaculata 90–81. This 1975 championship game was nationally televised and was the first year women's basketball games received coverage by a major tv network. Thereafter, Delta State went undefeated with a 28–0 record, the only undefeated college season that year (men or women). Harris scored a total of 138 points and 63 rebounds in four games at the national tournament and was named the tournament’s most valuable player. Ms. Harris was practically unstoppable, with more wins against Immaculata in the national tournament final. Her other victories, college career record, included Tennessee Tech, Louisiana State university, University of Tennessee, Baylor University, University of Mississippi, and Louisiana Tech University.
Other credits included; National tournament’s most valuable player, All-American first team during Delta State’s three winning seasons, the inaugural Honda Sports Award for basketball, the Broderick Cup, Broderick Cup, an award for outstanding female athletes in college, represented the United States’ national team in the FIBA World Championship for Women in Colombia and the Pan American Games in Mexico City, Mexico, represented the United States at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, and the first women’s basketball tournament in the Olympic Games.
During the Olympic basketball tournament, she scored the first ever points in the women’s Olympic basketball tournament. The United States team won three games and lost two games against Japan and the Soviet Union.
During the 1977 NBA draft, the New Orleans Jazz selected Ms. Harris, and she became the second women ever to be drafted by an NBA team, after Denise Long, who was selected by the San Francisco Warriors in the 1969 draft that was later voided making Ms. Harris the first and only woman ever officially drafted. She was drafted ahead of 33 male players. Never having expressed an interest in the NBA, she declined to try out for the Jazz. Later, it was revealed that she was pregnant and was unable to attend the Jazz’s training camp. Ms. Harris never played in the NBA or any other men’s basketball league but played professional basketball briefly in the 1979–80 season with the Houston Angels of the Women’s Professional Basketball League.
Even while playing basketball throughout her college years, she graduated from Delta State University with a bachelor’s degree in health, physical education and recreation and went on to work for Delta State as an admissions counselor and assistant basketball coach. Later, earned her master’s degree in education from Delta State. Other careers, she served as the head coach at Texas Sothern University in Houston, Texas. Returned to her native Mississippi, worked as a high school teacher and coach at her alma mater Amanda Elzy High School in Greenwood, Greenville Public School District and at Ruleville Central High School.
For her achievements and contributions to the Delta State University, Harris was inducted to the Delta State’s Hall of Fame in 1983, became the first African-American woman inducted in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, inductee into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, and named to the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Ms. Harris basketball career can be summed up as thus: a pioneer of women’s basketball, on the national level; played for Delta State University winning three consecutive Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, National Championships; on the international level represented the United States' national team, wining the silver medal in the 1976 Olympic Games, the first women’s basketball tournament in the Olympic Games; played professional basketball with the Houston Angels of the Women’s Professional Basketball League; the first and only woman ever drafted by the NBA and has been inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
In closing, Ms. Harris was a pioneer and trailblazer in basketball and has been ranked as the most unusual pick in the history of the NBA draft. Currently, there is a film connoting her legacy in the field of basketball.
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