The word “pioneer” is being used to appreciate the athletic accomplishments of Lusia Harris, but that doesn’t capture the full scope of her life and achievements at a time when sports options for women were extremely limited.
Harris, who was known as Lucy and died Tuesday at the age of 66, was a member of the United States’ silver medal winning team at the 1976 Olympic Games, scoring the first points in Olympic women’s basketball history. She was the first Black woman inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. She was the first and, so far, only woman officially drafted by an NBA team, and “the GOAT you never heard of,” as Shaquille O’Neal described her last month.
