Former NC State player and Cary native Debbie Antonelli is part of the eight-person Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2022.
Antonelli, who has been a college basketball television analyst for 34 years, is being honored as a contributor to the game. She has also helped start numerous in-season tournaments around the country and been the play-by-play voice of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever since 1996. Antonelli played at NC State in mid-1980s for legendary coach Kay Yow.
The other members of the class, which will be inducted June 11, are Becky Hammon, Penny Taylor, Doug Bruno, Alice “Cookie” Barron, Delisha Milton-Jones, Paul Sanderford and Bob Schneider.
Sanderford guided Louisburg College to the JUCO national championship in 1981 before leading Western Kentucky to three Final Fours. WKU was runner-up in 1992. He went 453-189 in his 25 seasons as a college head coach.
Hammon is being honored for her playing career in the WNBA and at Colorado State. She was a six-time All-Star and was voted one of the WNBA’s 15 greatest players of all-time in 2011.
Taylor starred both with the Phoenix Mercury and the Australian national team. She helped the Mercury win three WNBA championships and Australia to its two Olympic silver medals.
Bruno has coached at DePaul for 36 years, guiding the team to 24 NCAA Tournament appearances. He’s a three time Big East Coach of the Year and also has coached USA Basketball at nearly every level, leading them to gold six times.
Barron played for the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens and lead the Plainview, Texas, team to an undefeated mark of 104-0 in her time there from 1954-1957. Wayland won three national championships.
Milton-Jones won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. national team and also helped the Los Angeles Sparks to two WNBA titles. She won the Wade Trophy in 1997.
Schneider was the third-winningest coach in Division II history with 634 wins. In his 40 years of coaching at the collegiate and high school level, he only had two losing seasons while amassing 1,045 victories.
The Hall of Fame also is giving its 2022 Trailblazers of the Game award to Title IX, the federal law that requires athletic departments to provide general equivalence for men and women that turns 50 this year.
“Without Title IX, our past and future inductees and trailblazers would not have had the opportunity to blaze those trails,” Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Board of Trustees Chair Carol Stiff said. “It is only fitting that we honor Title IX as it has impacted so many female athletes not only in women’s basketball but in all sports.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
