December 7, 2023

Their Claims to Fame: the WBHOF Class of 2024 (Part 3)

The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame recently announced its Class of 2024. After diving in to the basketball careers of Seimone Augustus and Rita Easterling first, followed by Taj McWilliams-Franklin and Maya Moore, now it's on to Violet Palmer and Sue Phillips.

Violet Palmer

25 years after her college coach entered the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, Violet Palmer will join her. Darlene May, three-time national champion as head coach at Cal Poly-Pomona, was inducted as part of the 1999 inaugural class of the WBHoF.

Palmer was a part of two of those championships, starting at point guard for the title-winning squads in 1985 and 1986. The summer prior to that 1984-85 championship run, May made history in the other basketball capacity she was just as successful: she became the first woman to referee an Olympic basketball game.

Post-college, Palmer followed in her coach's footsteps, running the sidelines as a referee at the high school, college, and professional levels. Officiating five women's Final Fours and two championship games along with the WNBA Finals, she made history in 1997 as the first woman to referee in an NBA game.

Over 900 NBA games later, Palmer retired in 2016, since serving as coordinator of officials for multiple NCAA Division I conferences.

In April, the coach-player relationship comes full circle as Palmer's name joins May's in Knoxville, two champions and trailblazers as officials, officially Hall-of-Famers.

More on Palmer in an interview with the NFHS: https://www.nfhs.org/articles/violet-palmer-title-ix-trailblazer-from-california/

Sue Phillips

Softball at Northwestern or basketball at Cal? Sue Phillips had her choice, and you might think the soon-to-be Women's Basketball Hall-of-Famer's decision is obvious, but the Archbishop Mitty graduate decided to concentrate on softball in college.

She was an All-Big Ten player at Northwestern, but fortunately, she made her way to basketball as more than just recreation.

Phillips returned to her alma mater and found quick success; Mitty won the 1995 CIF State Championship, the first of what is now six for Phillips, backed by a 789-138 record and more years with Central Coast Section titles than without.

Among Phillips' many standout players at Mitty are 2019 High School Player of the Year Haley Jones and 2007 CIF State title-winner and WNBA All Star Danielle Robinson. Starring at center on Phillips' 1995 championship team was center Kerri Walsh (now Walsh-Jennings), three-time Olympic gold medalist in beach volleyball.

Six times Phillips has led USA Basketball U16 and U17 teams to gold medals, including U17 Gold in Hungary in 2022.

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Stay tuned for the next edition, where we'll finish out the list of 2024 Women's Basketball Hall of Fame honorees.

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