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On this day in 1977, Lusia Harris-Stewart was drafted by the New Orleans Jazz in the seventh round of the NBA Draft, becoming the first and only woman ever selected by an NBA team.
During her four-year career at Delta State University, Harris-Stewart helped lead the Lady Statesmen to three AIAW national championships as she was a three-time All-American. She averaged 25.9 points and 14.4 rebounds and left with 15 team, single game and career records.
Harris-Stewart was a member of the United States national team that won the silver medal at the 1976 Olympic Games, the first-ever women’s basketball tournament in the Olympic Games. She led the team in points and rebounds that year.
She never suited up in the NBA with the Jazz and would later say that she never intended on participating in training camp but wondered what it would have been like to play in the WNBA had it been around at the time. She briefly in the Women’s Professional Basketball League.
After her accomplishments, Harris-Stewart was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992 and Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
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