Sean Isabella

sisabella@thenewsstar.com

RUSTON — There was a time, almost four decades ago, when Louisiana Tech ruled the world of women’s college basketball.

The program, led by future Hall of Famers and those considered pioneers of the game, helped revolutionize women’s basketball into the product it would later become and still is in the present day.

The Lady Techsters were that good, and it was evident to everyone.

“I remember Pat (Summitt) saying Louisiana Tech should be ranked one and two (in the national polls) and then the rest of it start from there,” said Sonja Hogg, the Hall of Fame coach who helped found the program in 1974 with former Tech president F. J. Taylor. “We had the best two teams in America.”

By the 1980s, business was booming for the Techsters. During that decade, Tech compiled a 320-29 record, an average of 32 wins a season. There were three national championships, eight trips to the Final Four and two runner-up finishes.

One year stands out.

In 1982, Tech, one year removed from winning the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championship, became the first program to win an NCAA women's basketball national championship, a feat that will be recognized Saturday when members of 1982 squad are presented with championship rings.

The 35-1 season is, perhaps, regarded as one of the most successful runs in program history.

“We were setting records and doing things way long before others were. We were visionaries,” Hogg said.

As legendary coach Leon Barmore, who was an associate head coach in 1982, put it, the Techsters were similar to the modern day machine that currently rules women’s college basketball.

“We were Connecticut before Connecticut,” Barmore said.

Making right a wrong

Kim Mulkey never forgets the story.

The year was 1984 at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and Summitt, who doubled as Tennessee’s coach and women’s national team coach, told Mulkey she planned on staying in coaching until she could beat the Techsters.

“We pretty much dominant,” said Mulkey, who was a point guard on the 1982 team.

Tech was ranked No. 1 every single week of the season.

The Techsters ran through their schedule, even against elite competition. They won 35 games by an average of 33 points. Fifteen of the wins came against Top 25 teams with seven over Top 10 teams, and they broke the 100-point barrier in 11 of the 35 wins.

Tech won 54-consecutive games until Old Dominion snapped the streak with a 61-58 victory. If not for the loss, Tech would have recorded 70 straight wins over a two-year period. That record stood for more than 20 years until UConn broke it in 2003.

To this day, Barmore is convinced the Techsters could play with anybody, including UConn’s current dynasty that has won 11 national championships under Geno Auriemma.

“If we played today, I’m sure we’d split. If we played the best of three, I’m not so sure Connecticut could beat this bunch,” Barmore said. “That’s how good they were. I believe we’d beat them three out of five.”

Mulkey, who now coaches at Baylor, took her praise of that team and that era a step further.

The talent, the depth, the coaching situation was so unique that it can't be matched, at least for Tech's own program.

"I don’t say this in a negative way, but there will never be another era like that at Louisiana Tech in women’s basketball," said Mulkey, who is the only person to win a national title as a player, assistant coach and head coach. "They could build the program back up, they could win another national championship, but that era was just so special and you just can’t duplicate that."

Hogg was the visionary, serving in a CEO-type of role as the face of the program and lead recruiter. Thanks to the financial support of Taylor, Hogg traveled the country selling the Techsters program.

Barmore, meanwhile, ran practices and games.

“It was a complete package,” said Angela Turner, a Kodak All-America during the 1982 season. “One without the other would be very difficult for us to be as successful as we were.”

Reliving the origins of Lady Techster basketball

Turner and Mulkey were two mainstays in the lineup along with Pam Kelly, Lori Scott and Janice Lawrence.

Kelly, who averaged 20.3 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, became the first Wade Trophy winner, an award that goes to the top player in the country, in Tech history while also earning her third straight Kodak All-America honors.

The starting five, aided by a strong bench, went on to beat Cheyney State in the championship game, 72-62. The march toward the title witnessed wins over Tennessee in the Final Four and at home against Kentucky in the third round of the NCAA Tournament, which saw 4,850 fans show up for the final game in Memorial Gym.

Women’s basketball was brand new as an NCAA-sanctioned sport, and Tech never received championship rings. Instead, they were given watches.

On Saturday, Hogg, Barmore, Turner, Sue Donohoe, Ann Pendergrass, Lori Scott, Jennifer White, Debbie Primeaux, Debra Rodman, Pam Kelly and Rita Rust all plan to be in attendance to finally receive their rings provided by the NCAA as part of the 35th anniversary of the title.

“I think it was brought to their attention, and I think they wanted to make right a wrong that 35 years ago they probably should have done that for us,” Hogg said.

Moving on up

By 1981, the Techsters were well on their way to building an empire.

Gone were the days of set shots in the women’s game. Programs like Tech had recruited jump shooters, rebounders and women who could block shots.

Thanks to Hogg’s recruiting and Barmore’s on-court prowess, the Techsters made the AIAW Final Four in 1980 and won the championship over Tennessee in 1981.

The AIAW was formed in 1971 to govern women’s collegiate athletics, which is where the Techsters got their start in 1974.

But there weren’t scholarships and recruiting guidelines were strict — Hogg couldn’t use her own car or a school car to recruit.

It had run its course by the early ‘80s, and Taylor made a push to join the NCAA for the 1982 season.

“I never doubted we made the right decision,” said Barmore, noting how Tech moved to the big leagues.

The decision, largely based on financials and the room to grow, was part of the overall program vision. The NCAA paid more and gave more exposure with television opportunities.

Considering the state of the program, it made too much sense to move up.

Tech regularly sold out Memorial Gym, and there was a thirst for Techster hoops in the community and region.

“If you went anywhere in town, you were just a celebrity. I don’t know another way to say it,” said Primeaux, who joked how she sat on the bench as a reserve. “People would ask for your autograph, even those of us who didn’t play.”

Fans flocked from small towns in north Louisiana. Barmore remembers speaking at Lions Clubs in Jonesboro, Bernice, Homer and Farmerville, to name a few.

The fan base was rabid. Barmore now attends funerals where Techster fans who passed away have Tech flags or banners in their caskets.

“There we sat in little ol' Ruston, Louisiana. People didn’t have a whole lot to do except come out and watch the Lady Techsters play,” Hogg said. “I give a lot of credit to our fan base and how they followed us. They would follow us all over the country.”

Not everyone joined the NCAA, though.

Texas and Rutgers, two AIAW powers at the time, stayed behind one final year. They played for the AIAW championship in 1982 during the same time Tech won the 1982 NCAA title.

Amid the transition, Tech kept its head down on the court and powered to 34 wins. Little changed with the program.

Tech ran through the NCAA field using a mix of homegrown Louisiana talent and Hogg’s ability to recruit nationally, like the addition of Pam Gant from Illinois to the 1982 roster. Seven of the 14 players hailed from Louisiana. Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois were also represented.

And Tech didn’t shy away from the top competition.

Part of Taylor’s vision included operating as an Independent school to provide scheduling flexibility and the ability to travel nationwide.

“We would have beaten conference teams our men were in 30 or 40 points a game,” Hogg said. “We were probably the Notre Dame of women’s basketball at the time and scheduled whoever we wanted to.”

By seasons end, Hogg and Barmore realized the significance of the first-ever NCAA national championship. Their place in history was cemented regardless of what happened from there.

It didn’t register for players like Mulkey and Turner. Mulkey didn’t realize what Tech had accomplished until 2005 when she took Baylor to the Final Four. There she saw banners of previous champions. The Tech banner hung at the front of the line.

“When you’re in the heat of the moment, a lot of times it’s hard to really step back and say we made history,” Turner said. “Over the years I realized there was something special.”

The loss that changed everything

Coming off an undefeated record and a national championship, expectations were through the roof in 1982.

Tech returned its entire roster from that 34-0 team, plus added Gant, the top shooting guard in the country.

“That puts a little heat on you,” Hogg said.

At first, it seemed like a breeze. The Techsters had fun off the court, relishing in team road trips and weekends of bonding at the dorms when the rest of campus was home during the quarter system.

During games, they were locked in with laser-like focus.

The first 20 games produced few tests, as Tech rolled over the likes of Stephen F. Austin, Rutgers, Old Dominion and Tennessee.

“We had a great balance. Nobody could press us because Kim and Jennifer White were going to get the ball up the floor, then shooting guard in Angela Turner at the two spot,” Barmoe said. “We had a great defender in Lori Scott at the three. Then we had four and five in Pam Kelly and Janice Lawrence. We didn’t have a weakness that you could take advantage of.”

Practices were the blueprint for success.

Primeaux recalls Barmore telling her she’d be sent home if she took a day off from guarding Mulkey. Primeaux didn’t play, but she had one job and that was to make Mulkey better in practice.

“We always said our practices were tougher than the games,” Mulkey said. “We were very deep. We would get more out of practice in 5-on-5 with the first bunch and the second bunch than we did in many games. We were that talented.”

Techsters 1994 squad defined by close bonds, heartbreak

There were times when the Techsters would practice after wins if Barmore wasn’t happy. They’d wait until the men played and practice in their warmups. They knew nobody could touch them if they were on their game, thus the extremely high demands and expectations.

Then came the 21st game when Old Dominion pulled off the upset. No one could believe it. The Techsters’ identity was gone.

The Techsters were on the road, and Hogg remembers getting back to her hotel that night where she was bombarded with messages from reporters wanting to know how they lost.

“You would have thought we lost all the games,” Hogg said.

“We were like a bunch of hornets. Angry and just wanted to get back on our streak.”

The loss served as a wake-up call.

Programs tried to duplicate Old Dominion’s win over Tech but failed. Primeaux recalled how hard teams sought out to dethrone the Techsters, as she told a story of how ODU fans heckle the players by hanging pictures of their bodies with monster faces in the window of the gymnasium.

“People were after us every night. It was a flipping war,” Primeaux said. “There were very few people who could actually do anything about it if we were playing well.”

Tech crushed Maryland the next game by 17 points to start another streak. One win led to two, two led to three, and by the spring, Tech won the national championship with its 15th consecutive victory.

Against Cheyney State, Barmore warned his team how the opponent was capable of jumping on the Techsters. He advised them not to panic if it happened.

They didn’t. Facing early adversity, Mulkey, not known for her outside shooting, jacked up a shot “bigger than Dallas,” Hogg recalled. She hit a few shots that loosened up the defense, and the Techsters took over from there.

They were NCAA national champions, the first of their kind.

Decades later, Primeaux was at a UConn practice where she spoke with Auriemma. The legendary coach asked if Primeaux had ever seen anything like UConn, which is currently amid a run of four straight national championships and six in the last eight years.

Yes, she had. It happened in the 1980s on those Techsters teams.

“In 35 years since that win, I think very few programs operated with the focus our team, our program operated under, the totality of the system. I’ve seen some really good teams, but I haven’t just seen the total package,” said Primeaux, who now serves as coordinating official for the American Athletic Conference and Big East.

“Nobody was doing what we were doing the way we were doing it. The fact they were taking little country kids basically for the most part and making players out of them.”