The SEC Digital Network is continuing its “40/40” series, which is a celebration of women in Southeastern Conference athletics since the passing of Title IX 40 years ago. Former Kentucky stars Jenny Hansen (gymnastics) and Valerie McGovern (track and field/cross country) have already been featured as a part of the series, but Tuesday was Valerie Still’s turn.Still is the all-time leading scorer in UK basketball history – men’s and women’s – and was the leader on the school’s SEC title team in 1982. Written by Tim Letcher, this story gives some interesting perspective on Still’s time as a Wildcat:
Still didn’t know exactly what she was getting into when she arrived in Lexington. “I didn’t even know about Kentucky basketball, men or women,” she says. “All we knew was that they had a pretty good football team at the time, because Art was on it. We thought it was a football school,” she says with a chuckle.
In the fall of 1979, Still embarked on what would be a record-breaking career. She led Kentucky in scoring all four years of her career. When she scored her 1,599th point as a junior, she passed Pam Browning to become the leading scorer in Kentucky women’s basketball history.”Pam was in that first group when they brought the program back (in 1974), and she was just inducted into the UK Hall of Fame this September,” Still says. “When I came in, you knew Pam Browning if you knew women’s basketball. She was a pretty special athlete.””Passing Pam was pretty significant for me,” Still says. “When I came to UK, one of the things I liked doing was, I’d take a look at the media guides and I’d look in the back and see who had the records, and she (Browning) had all of the records. And I thought it would be kind of nice if I could get my name in there.”Not only did Still get her name in the record books, she shattered nearly all of the women’s basketball records at Kentucky. In addition to points and rebounds in a career, she holds school records for points in a game (42), rebounds in a game (27), field goals made in a career (1,118) and free throws made in a career (527), just to mention a few.As she started to place her names among the greatest women’s basketball players in Kentucky history, Still accomplished something that most people probably didn’t expect.In a game against Miami (Ohio) on December 5, 1982, Still scored her 2,139th career point, passing Issel as Kentucky’s all-time scoring leader, man or woman.When asked what she remembered about the moment, Still says, “Not a lot. I think when you’re young and doing things, I was sort of limited in my knowledge. I was just doing something that I loved doing, and something incredible happened.”
The story goes on to talk about life after UK for Still, touching on her professional career and now her career as an author. Take a look.Link: SEC 40/40: She’s Still the One
