The University of Mississippi Athletics
Alumni Weekend Unites Past and Present of Ole Miss Women’s Basketball
1/24/2020 | Women's Basketball
Four Rebel Head Coaches, Nearly 100 Alumni Return to Oxford Last Weekend
OXFORD, Miss. – Long before the sport of women's basketball fell under the banner of intercollegiate athletics, or even the Ole Miss Athletics Department, for that matter, a band of homebred Mississippi girls came together for the love of the sport and laid the foundation of the women's basketball program on campus.
In 1973, as a club team at Ole Miss, the P.E. Department decided that they were going to have their own identity, and thus, their own colors. That year, the women's basketball team wore Carolina blue and gold uniforms.
"We traveled in people's cars. We slept on people's floors," Sheila Sullivan-Hickman, a letterwinner from 1974-77, said. "We didn't have scholarships, but we enjoyed playing. We practiced in the education gym, and we played our games in an old gym. The ones of us that started came to Ole Miss because we wanted to be at Ole Miss. We played basketball for the love of the game, not because we were recruited, and not because it was the best offer."
It wasn't until a year later, in 1974, that the program was officially incorporated into the Ole Miss Athletics Department, ushering in the modern era of the women's basketball team and their first ever season donning the red and navy.
The ensuing decade saw unprecedented success in the women's basketball program, including championship-caliber teams led by a slew of future Hall-of-Famers, U.S. Olympians, and WNBA selections.
Oxford just recently played host to the 2020 alumni weekend and welcomed back all former Rebel players and coaches through the years, including Sullivan and her teammates that started the program, as well as former head coaches Lin Dunn, Van Chancellor, Carol Ross and Renee Ladner. Nearly 100 former players and staff returned to reminisce, including current Oxford residents Peggie Gillom and Armintie Herrington, and even support staff members with ties to the early days of the program like the Voice of the Rebels, David Kellum, and longtime Sports Information Director, Langston Rogers, among many others.
Suffice to say, the weekend brought back plenty of memories.
"NCAA Tournaments, Sweet Sixteens, Elite Eights, we just dominated there for a good stretch," Rogers said. "We have a lot of Hall-of-Famers in here tonight - Lin Dunn, Van Chancellor, Peggie Gillom. A lot of history, a lot of nostalgia, a lot of fond memories."
Kellum began a legendary radio broadcasting career as a freshman in college in 1978 when he started voicing Rebel baseball and women's basketball games. Coach Chancellor and the top-ranked Lady Rebels, however, were Kellum's favorite games to call due to their success and his close relationship with fellow Lafayette High School graduates, Peggie and Jennifer Gillom.
"I felt like I was one of them back in the day, as opposed to today when I'm like a granddaddy to some of these kids," Kellum said. "I just remember all the great relationships I've built, knocking off Pat Head and Tennessee, and all the great memories we made."
In the 1977-78 season, head coach Lin Dunn led the Rebels to their winningest season at that point, a 25-15 record, an AIAW State Championship, and a berth in the AIAW National Tournament. Her journey would lead her on to bigger and better things, including a WNBA Championship and an induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, but she will always remember her time at Ole Miss.
"I remember that we all enjoyed each other," Dunn said. "It was wonderful to win, but we pulled together when we lost, and we stuck together, win or lose. We were able to build a winning tradition here at Ole Miss in women's basketball."
Under Chancellor in the 1980s and '90s, the program experienced highs never before seen at Ole Miss, which included 19-straight winning seasons, 14 trips to the NCAA Tournament, nine Sweet 16's and four Elite Eights. He worked his players hard, and his results spoke for themselves, but it's the many relationships he accumulated that have stuck with him though all the years.
"I would like them to forget all the tough things that I did to them and worked the devil out of them," Chancellor said. "I'd hope they can remember that my wife (Betty) was a great cook and I was a pretty decent guy."
Carol Ross, a Rebel great herself under Dunn and Chancellor, helped bring the Rebels back up to national prominence after the departure of Chancellor, including the team's first Elite Eight appearance in 15 years and a win over the defending national champions in that NCAA Tournament in 2007. She can't take all the credit, however.
"Whether I was playing or coaching, I hope they can remember that I did it the right way, gave it great effort, and had fun doing it," Ross said. "It's really all about the people you surround yourself with. Any of us alone are very insignificant. It's the people you go to work with that make the experience special."
For most of the history of the Ole Miss women's basketball program, these coaches and their teams were a force to be reckoned with across the country, and they did it all without the added luxury of one of the most exciting developments within the program in recent years.
In the early days of the program, the Tad Smith Coliseum was a state-of-the-art arena and a premier destination in all of basketball. Looking back, it's hard for most to imagine that one day the school would undertake and complete the $96.5 million addition of The Pavilion at Ole Miss, cementing Ole Miss as a destination school for any athletes seeking to make their mark on the national landscape of women's basketball.
"It's changed a lot. Ole Miss really made a lot of strides academically, and also in the athletics department," Ross said. "Sports really play a big part in bringing a little swagger and pride to a campus in women's basketball and basketball in general."
"When I lived here in 1997, I would have bet you — and I'm not a betting man, mind you — but I might have bet you $100,000 that Ole Miss would never have that," Chancellor said. "The first time I went in there it knocked my socks off. Not only is the floor great, but you go inside, the meeting rooms, the media rooms, it's got everything you would want in an arena. It is absolutely gorgeous."
The reunion weekend, which took part across two days that involved a reception at The Country Club of Oxford and the Rebels' game against Missouri on Jan. 19, helped bring together the storied past of the program with the current staff, led by second-year head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin, which allowed chances for these Rebel greats to impart some wisdom on the current generation.
"Just embrace the moment and take your time," Peggie Gillom said. "She has to have time to get the program back up from where it's been, and she's doing it. She's getting her players in."
"Recruit good people," Ross said. "Character and success-driven people are always going to help you as you lay your foundation. I think she's doing that, but the SEC is a gauntlet. It's tough, but it's also the greatest conference in the country, so if you can make it in the SEC, you can make it anywhere. Be patient, and just keep working. It's all about having a vision and carrying it through."
For what it's worth, Coach Yo has ensured that their advice hasn't fallen on deaf ears.
"It has really helped me and my staff get through," Yo said. "This year is the most I've heard from the alumni, and that's how it should be when times are tough. It has been tough. This has not been an easy year for me, but it is a necessary year for the story that we will write here, for what our legacy will be with me at the helm here. It's necessary to go through what we're going through."
All of the legendary alumni of the women's basketball program have already written their pages in the history books. They each believe that when Yo's time has come and gone, her legacy will be just as celebrated. And just as the alumni believe in her, Yo believes in herself.
She has promised four things to the alumni in attendance that Ole Miss players will receive under her leadership: they will be equipped with the skills and tools to succeed in life, they will graduate, they will have great experiences, and they will win championships.
"If I can do all four of those things, and that's my legacy, with a championship being the cherry on top, then my story is well written," McPhee-McCuin said.
Follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissWBB, Facebook at Ole Miss WBB and on Instagram at Ole MissWBB. You can also follow head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin on Twitter at @YolettMcCuin
In 1973, as a club team at Ole Miss, the P.E. Department decided that they were going to have their own identity, and thus, their own colors. That year, the women's basketball team wore Carolina blue and gold uniforms.
"We traveled in people's cars. We slept on people's floors," Sheila Sullivan-Hickman, a letterwinner from 1974-77, said. "We didn't have scholarships, but we enjoyed playing. We practiced in the education gym, and we played our games in an old gym. The ones of us that started came to Ole Miss because we wanted to be at Ole Miss. We played basketball for the love of the game, not because we were recruited, and not because it was the best offer."
It wasn't until a year later, in 1974, that the program was officially incorporated into the Ole Miss Athletics Department, ushering in the modern era of the women's basketball team and their first ever season donning the red and navy.
The ensuing decade saw unprecedented success in the women's basketball program, including championship-caliber teams led by a slew of future Hall-of-Famers, U.S. Olympians, and WNBA selections.
Oxford just recently played host to the 2020 alumni weekend and welcomed back all former Rebel players and coaches through the years, including Sullivan and her teammates that started the program, as well as former head coaches Lin Dunn, Van Chancellor, Carol Ross and Renee Ladner. Nearly 100 former players and staff returned to reminisce, including current Oxford residents Peggie Gillom and Armintie Herrington, and even support staff members with ties to the early days of the program like the Voice of the Rebels, David Kellum, and longtime Sports Information Director, Langston Rogers, among many others.
Suffice to say, the weekend brought back plenty of memories.
"NCAA Tournaments, Sweet Sixteens, Elite Eights, we just dominated there for a good stretch," Rogers said. "We have a lot of Hall-of-Famers in here tonight - Lin Dunn, Van Chancellor, Peggie Gillom. A lot of history, a lot of nostalgia, a lot of fond memories."
Kellum began a legendary radio broadcasting career as a freshman in college in 1978 when he started voicing Rebel baseball and women's basketball games. Coach Chancellor and the top-ranked Lady Rebels, however, were Kellum's favorite games to call due to their success and his close relationship with fellow Lafayette High School graduates, Peggie and Jennifer Gillom.
"I felt like I was one of them back in the day, as opposed to today when I'm like a granddaddy to some of these kids," Kellum said. "I just remember all the great relationships I've built, knocking off Pat Head and Tennessee, and all the great memories we made."
In the 1977-78 season, head coach Lin Dunn led the Rebels to their winningest season at that point, a 25-15 record, an AIAW State Championship, and a berth in the AIAW National Tournament. Her journey would lead her on to bigger and better things, including a WNBA Championship and an induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, but she will always remember her time at Ole Miss.
"I remember that we all enjoyed each other," Dunn said. "It was wonderful to win, but we pulled together when we lost, and we stuck together, win or lose. We were able to build a winning tradition here at Ole Miss in women's basketball."
Under Chancellor in the 1980s and '90s, the program experienced highs never before seen at Ole Miss, which included 19-straight winning seasons, 14 trips to the NCAA Tournament, nine Sweet 16's and four Elite Eights. He worked his players hard, and his results spoke for themselves, but it's the many relationships he accumulated that have stuck with him though all the years.
"I would like them to forget all the tough things that I did to them and worked the devil out of them," Chancellor said. "I'd hope they can remember that my wife (Betty) was a great cook and I was a pretty decent guy."
Carol Ross, a Rebel great herself under Dunn and Chancellor, helped bring the Rebels back up to national prominence after the departure of Chancellor, including the team's first Elite Eight appearance in 15 years and a win over the defending national champions in that NCAA Tournament in 2007. She can't take all the credit, however.
"Whether I was playing or coaching, I hope they can remember that I did it the right way, gave it great effort, and had fun doing it," Ross said. "It's really all about the people you surround yourself with. Any of us alone are very insignificant. It's the people you go to work with that make the experience special."
For most of the history of the Ole Miss women's basketball program, these coaches and their teams were a force to be reckoned with across the country, and they did it all without the added luxury of one of the most exciting developments within the program in recent years.
In the early days of the program, the Tad Smith Coliseum was a state-of-the-art arena and a premier destination in all of basketball. Looking back, it's hard for most to imagine that one day the school would undertake and complete the $96.5 million addition of The Pavilion at Ole Miss, cementing Ole Miss as a destination school for any athletes seeking to make their mark on the national landscape of women's basketball.
"It's changed a lot. Ole Miss really made a lot of strides academically, and also in the athletics department," Ross said. "Sports really play a big part in bringing a little swagger and pride to a campus in women's basketball and basketball in general."
"When I lived here in 1997, I would have bet you — and I'm not a betting man, mind you — but I might have bet you $100,000 that Ole Miss would never have that," Chancellor said. "The first time I went in there it knocked my socks off. Not only is the floor great, but you go inside, the meeting rooms, the media rooms, it's got everything you would want in an arena. It is absolutely gorgeous."
The reunion weekend, which took part across two days that involved a reception at The Country Club of Oxford and the Rebels' game against Missouri on Jan. 19, helped bring together the storied past of the program with the current staff, led by second-year head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin, which allowed chances for these Rebel greats to impart some wisdom on the current generation.
"Just embrace the moment and take your time," Peggie Gillom said. "She has to have time to get the program back up from where it's been, and she's doing it. She's getting her players in."
"Recruit good people," Ross said. "Character and success-driven people are always going to help you as you lay your foundation. I think she's doing that, but the SEC is a gauntlet. It's tough, but it's also the greatest conference in the country, so if you can make it in the SEC, you can make it anywhere. Be patient, and just keep working. It's all about having a vision and carrying it through."
For what it's worth, Coach Yo has ensured that their advice hasn't fallen on deaf ears.
"It has really helped me and my staff get through," Yo said. "This year is the most I've heard from the alumni, and that's how it should be when times are tough. It has been tough. This has not been an easy year for me, but it is a necessary year for the story that we will write here, for what our legacy will be with me at the helm here. It's necessary to go through what we're going through."
All of the legendary alumni of the women's basketball program have already written their pages in the history books. They each believe that when Yo's time has come and gone, her legacy will be just as celebrated. And just as the alumni believe in her, Yo believes in herself.
She has promised four things to the alumni in attendance that Ole Miss players will receive under her leadership: they will be equipped with the skills and tools to succeed in life, they will graduate, they will have great experiences, and they will win championships.
"If I can do all four of those things, and that's my legacy, with a championship being the cherry on top, then my story is well written," McPhee-McCuin said.
Follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissWBB, Facebook at Ole Miss WBB and on Instagram at Ole MissWBB. You can also follow head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin on Twitter at @YolettMcCuin
PRESSER | Women's Basketball - Postgame vs. Minnesota (03-22-26)
Sunday, March 22
CONDENSED GAME | Ole Miss vs Minnesota - NCAA Tournament 2nd Round (03-22-26)
Sunday, March 22
PRESSER | Yolett McPhee-McCuin - NCAA Tournament Round 2 Preview (03-21-26)
Saturday, March 21
PRESSER | Lattasha Lattimore & Debreasha Powe - NCAA Tournament Round 2 Preview (03-21-26)
Saturday, March 21