Dawn Staley Sets a Trailblazing Legacy for Black Women Coaches

For the third time in seven seasons, Dawn Staley, a 53-year-old Black woman from the Raymond Rosen Homes housing projects of North Philadelphia, has led her University of South Carolina Gamecocks to an NCAA national title.& The former WNBA star also guided the Gamecocks to an unprecedented 38-0 record, becoming the 10th team in NCAA women’s basketball history to go undefeated.& Lastly, Staley is not only the first Black head coach to help her team win three national titles but also the first Black person to lead her team to a perfect record in Division I history.& Black female head coaches have come a long way, from emerging into NCAA basketball as players to making their marks as coaches. This groundbreaking movement started in 1973 when Marion Washington, a West Chester, Pennsylvania native, became the first Black woman to lead a Division I team as head coach for the University of Kansas women’s squad for 31 seasons until 2004.& Twenty-six years after Washington broke the gender barrier, former Purdue University women’s coach Carolyn Peck led the 28-1 Lady Boilermakers to a national championship in 1999. She was the first Black female head coach to win a Division I title. That...