#471 Hall of Fame?

The Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee recently announced its new induction class.  One of the inductees is Ruth Riley, who led Notre Dame to an NCAA championship in 2001 and played in the WNBA for 13 seasons. 

Whenever I see the names of the inductees to the women’s hall of fame (and even the Naismith Hall of Fame), I usually see someone I played with or against.  In this class, for example, I played against Valerie Still in the ABL, know Beth Bass from her Converse days, and am familiar with Joan Cronan as the University of Tennessee women’s athletics director.  It’s cool! 

Back to Ruth Riley.  I don’t know her.  I’ve never met her.  But I have something that she doesn’t.  Let me go back in time a bit. 

About 15 years ago, the then-executive director of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, Roger Dickinson, contacted me.  He told me that the hall had a cardboard cutout of Eric Montross in his high school uniform, and they wanted a tall female cutout to stand next to him.  They asked Ruth Riley to pose for the cutout, but she couldn’t do it.  I don’t remember why.  Would I do it?  Absolutely! 

Roger said he’d take care of everything.  He called Warren Central High School to borrow a girls’ uniform, and then we picked a date/time for him to come to my office and take the photo. 

I donned the uniform and pulled my hair back in a ponytail.  The shorts were a lot longer than the ones I wore in the mid-80s.  My hair looked a lot better too (no mullet).  The photographer took some shots and that was it.  Easy.

Roger let me know when my cutout was complete.  I did go visit her (me) and even took my niece and nephew (isn’t your auntie cool?).  I never told anyone besides my family and maybe a couple of friends. 

Fast forward to my induction into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.  The ceremony/dinner is in the evening in Indianapolis, but there is also an announcement/social in the morning at the hall in New Castle.  As the inductees milled around catching up and looking at each other’s displays, people started to notice my cutout.  And everyone kept telling me, “You haven’t changed a bit!”  “You look so great!”  It’s supposed to be Eric and me in high school.  What they didn’t know was that Eric was in high school when his photo was taken, but I was about 35 years old!  I was tempted to bite my tongue, but I did let them in on the secret.  We all had a great laugh. 

Over the years, I’ve received the occasional text from friends who are at the hall.  They send me a photo their kids standing next to “me” and it always makes me smile.  I will never be inducted into the bigger halls of fame like Ruth Riley, but I am more than happy to hang out in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame for as long as they’ll let me. 

Eric and me hanging with a friend's kids.