Austin Peay Sports Information
Knoxville, TN – Former Austin Peay State University women’s basketball head coach Lin Dunn will be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, Saturday.
The induction ceremony will take place 6:00pm, at the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville. Dunn will be part of six-member 2014 class that also will include: Michelle Edwards (player), Mimi Griffin (contributor), Yolanda Griffith (player), Jasmina Perazic (player), and Charlotte West (contributor).
She is known for her Southern drawl and snappy quips but Dunn never would have been able to gain her status on the national stage without her tremendous ability to coach, to reach and mentor young people.
Selected to the Austin Peay Athletics Hall of Fame in 1980-81, Dunn is regarded as one of the most successful women’s basketball coaches in history. She began her coaching career at Austin Peay in 1970—prior to Title IX—and went on to compile a remarkable 25-year collegiate record that includes a .635 winning percentage at four schools (447-257). She was inducted into the Tennessee Hall of Fame in 2009.
Best known as the architect of the Purdue women’s basketball program, Dunn guided the Boilermakers for nine seasons and collecting three Big Ten Conferences titles. She led Purdue to seven NCAA tournament appearances, including four Sweet Sixteen’s and a trip to the Final Four in 1994.
Dunn’s first assignment in professional basketball came when she took over the reins of the American Basketball League’s Portland Power in 1996. The following year she won the Western Conference Championship and was named the ABL Coach of the Year. Dunn moved on to lead the WNBA expansion Seattle Storm in 2000. She is currently the coach of the WNBA Indiana Fever, which she has coached since 2008 and led to the 2012 WNBA championship.
During the NCAA Women’s Final Four in Nashville in early April, Dunn was recognized for not only her career accomplishments but her work to help elevate the women’s game.
In addition, the WBHOF will recognize the 1976 USA Olympic Team for their contributions to the game in a display at the Hall entitled “Trailblazers of the Game”. The 1976 team will join the All-American Red Heads, Edmonton Grads, the Former Helms/Citizens Savings/Founders Bank and the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens as the only six groups recognized as “Trailblazers of the Game”.
