NC State Athletic Hall of Fame: Trudi Lacey
4/3/2019 8:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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RALEIGH, N.C. -Â Trudi Lacey learned more than just basketball in her four years playing for legendary head coach Kay Yow.
One of the best players in program history, Lacey scored 1,957 points and grabbed 1,051 rebounds, both of which rank in the top five of those statistical categories. She's one of just three players in program history to be reach 1,000 career points and rebounds.
The pioneering player from Clifton Forge, Virginia, was the first African-American woman to receive a four-year scholarship in a program that has been integrated since it became a varsity sport in 1974.
She helped Yow and the Wolfpack win the school's first ever ACC women's basketball title in 1979. In fact, she was at her best in the postseason, becoming the first player in ACC history to earn four consecutive all-tournament honors.
To this day, as she prepared for her induction into the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame on April 13, Lacey believes she learned as from practice as she did from games, during an informal apprenticeship of long hours and hard work under Yow while also pursuing a bachelor's degree in business administration and master's degrees in education and recreation.
"Coach Yow was such a perfectionist," Lacey says. "This was before all the NCAA rules about practice limitations and we could practice for as many hours as she wanted. She would say 'One more time, one more time.' She would have to send the manager down to the Case cafeteria to ask them to keep it open so we would have an opportunity to eat dinner.
"What I learned from that was the ability to work hard and the desire to get it right. That is one of the lessons that I learned that I used in basketball, but something I also use in life as well. I really work hard at trying to do the right thing."
Lacey twice represented the United States at the World University Games, bringing home gold medals in 1981 and '83. After a brief professional career overseas, she followed in Yow's footsteps as a college basketball coach at Francis Marion, South Florida and Maryland.
"Trudi was among the first top-rate athletes we ever recruited," the late Yow once said of Lacey. "I remember going to George Washington and watching her in a camp up there. I said 'Wow, who is that? I want to coach her and I want her to play at NC State.'"
And that's what happened–Lacey spent four years with the Wolfpack and played with an enthusiasm and effort that Yow always appreciated and her teammates recognized.
"I never had this happen with any other player in my career at State," Yow said. "At the end of her senior year, the team voted her as the team Most Valuable Player and for the 110 percent hustle award. That second award usually goes to someone who usually doesn't play a lot.
"I think it speaks volumes about her that she won both those awards."
When the Women's National Basketball League began, Lacey served first as an assistant coach and then as head coach for the Charlotte Sting and as the head coach and general manager of the Washington Mystics.
She's also been head women's basketball coach at Queens College and at Johnson and Wales University, both in Charlotte, and currently serves as NCAA Division II Johnson and Wales' athletics director.
Under her guidance, she has elevated the school's athletic profile and was named the 2018 U.S. Collegiate Athletics Association Athletics Director of the Year after the Wildcats had the highest finish ever in the final director's cup standings.
Last year, Lacey spearheaded the formation of the Eastern Metro Athletic Conference, a collection of southeastern small colleges that began competition this past fall.
Lacey not only learned athletic and administrative leadership from the most prominent coach in NC State women's basketball history, she's helped share those messages to subsequent generations of players and coaches she has touched through a lifetime of mentoring, management and community relations.
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By Tim Peeler
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RALEIGH, N.C. -Â Trudi Lacey learned more than just basketball in her four years playing for legendary head coach Kay Yow.
One of the best players in program history, Lacey scored 1,957 points and grabbed 1,051 rebounds, both of which rank in the top five of those statistical categories. She's one of just three players in program history to be reach 1,000 career points and rebounds.
The pioneering player from Clifton Forge, Virginia, was the first African-American woman to receive a four-year scholarship in a program that has been integrated since it became a varsity sport in 1974.
She helped Yow and the Wolfpack win the school's first ever ACC women's basketball title in 1979. In fact, she was at her best in the postseason, becoming the first player in ACC history to earn four consecutive all-tournament honors.
To this day, as she prepared for her induction into the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame on April 13, Lacey believes she learned as from practice as she did from games, during an informal apprenticeship of long hours and hard work under Yow while also pursuing a bachelor's degree in business administration and master's degrees in education and recreation.
"Coach Yow was such a perfectionist," Lacey says. "This was before all the NCAA rules about practice limitations and we could practice for as many hours as she wanted. She would say 'One more time, one more time.' She would have to send the manager down to the Case cafeteria to ask them to keep it open so we would have an opportunity to eat dinner.
"What I learned from that was the ability to work hard and the desire to get it right. That is one of the lessons that I learned that I used in basketball, but something I also use in life as well. I really work hard at trying to do the right thing."
Lacey twice represented the United States at the World University Games, bringing home gold medals in 1981 and '83. After a brief professional career overseas, she followed in Yow's footsteps as a college basketball coach at Francis Marion, South Florida and Maryland.
"Trudi was among the first top-rate athletes we ever recruited," the late Yow once said of Lacey. "I remember going to George Washington and watching her in a camp up there. I said 'Wow, who is that? I want to coach her and I want her to play at NC State.'"
And that's what happened–Lacey spent four years with the Wolfpack and played with an enthusiasm and effort that Yow always appreciated and her teammates recognized.
"I never had this happen with any other player in my career at State," Yow said. "At the end of her senior year, the team voted her as the team Most Valuable Player and for the 110 percent hustle award. That second award usually goes to someone who usually doesn't play a lot.
"I think it speaks volumes about her that she won both those awards."
When the Women's National Basketball League began, Lacey served first as an assistant coach and then as head coach for the Charlotte Sting and as the head coach and general manager of the Washington Mystics.
She's also been head women's basketball coach at Queens College and at Johnson and Wales University, both in Charlotte, and currently serves as NCAA Division II Johnson and Wales' athletics director.
Under her guidance, she has elevated the school's athletic profile and was named the 2018 U.S. Collegiate Athletics Association Athletics Director of the Year after the Wildcats had the highest finish ever in the final director's cup standings.
Last year, Lacey spearheaded the formation of the Eastern Metro Athletic Conference, a collection of southeastern small colleges that began competition this past fall.
Lacey not only learned athletic and administrative leadership from the most prominent coach in NC State women's basketball history, she's helped share those messages to subsequent generations of players and coaches she has touched through a lifetime of mentoring, management and community relations.
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By Tim Peeler
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