Kim Mulkey

Kim Mulkey played basketball at Louisiana Tech University, starring as a point guard. She would become the first person in NCAA history to win a basketball national championship as a player, assistant coach, and head coach. In 1984 she won the first Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, given to the nation’s top college senior under 5-6 (1.68 m).

As a player Mulkey won a gold medal at the 1983 Pan American Games, and a silver at the 1983 World Championships, in addition to her Olympic gold medal. After winning gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Mulkey became an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech, leading them to seven Final Fours and the 1988 NCAA Championship.

Mulkey coached at Louisiana Tech until 2000 when she was named head coach at Baylor University. Baylor had no significant history as a women’s basketball power but that would change under Mulkey. The season before she started the Bears had been 7-20 but Mulkey led them to over 20 wins in her first 12 seasons, leading them to the NCAA title in 2005, and culminating in 2012 with a perfect 40-0 record and the NCAA Championship.

Baylor has won over 32 games each year from 2011-19, and made the Elite Eight for 8 of 10 years in the 2010s. In 2019, Mulkey led Baylor to its third NCAA Championships, defeating Notre Dame in the final game, but in 2021, after 21 years at Baylor, she became head coach at LSU. Mulkey was inducted as a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame for her accomplishments as a player, and in 2021, for her accomplishments as a coach.