By the time she was playing at Hammond High, the Lady Tornadoes went 136-5 and won four state championships. They dedicated the win to her.īasketball came into Mulkey’s life in seventh grade.
Barred from even sitting on the bench, she watched them win from behind the dugout fence. She chose to sit out so her team could play. Her father hired a lawyer, and it came down to either her team forfeiting or her sitting out. Although her All-Star team made the postseason tournament, she was banned from participating because she was a girl. She was the only girl in both leagues and the first player picked in the draft. Softball wasn’t offered in Tickfaw, so she played Dixie Youth League baseball and later, Pony League. It’s hard to remember a time when women couldn’t play sports at the highest level, but it was during Mulkey’s lifetime. Title IX mandated that women have equal access to sports with men. Eventually, she attended Hammond High School.Īlthough racial integration had come to the classroom, gender equality hadn’t come to the field, not until the passage of Title IX in 1972. In the meantime, busing sent Mulkey to different schools. Integration came to her school when she was in second grade, and a lot of white families left in protest. Mulkey grew up when a lot of things were changing. This Louisiana country girl hopes to lead her Lady Bears to this year’s Final Four in New Orleans. That Little Girl with the Pigtailsīorn in 1962 in Santa Ana, California, Mulkey considers herself from Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, which includes the three communities where she grew up: Tickfaw, where her house was located Natalbany, where her family attended church and Hammond, where she went to high school. She’s the Local Celebrity, she’s the Little Girl with the Pigtails, she’s the CEO, she’s the Sparkplug, she’s the Mother and she’s the Coach. “I just smiled, and she smiled back,” she said, “because I’m nothing, and she’s who she is.” I asked my friend if she’d ever stood next to Mulkey in the checkout line, and she said it had just happened. “Or the poor woman can’t buy cotton balls without people asking, ‘How’re the Lady Bears doing, Coach?’” It’s 33 questions in the produce section,” my friend said. That’s what it’s like to be a local celebrity - random announcements at the grocery store.Ī friend of mine who lives in Woodway often sees Mulkey at that same H-E-B. Suddenly, a voice came over the loudspeaker: “National championship head coach Kim Mulkey is in the house today.” Everyone started clapping. Local CelebrityĬoach Mulkey encourages her team from the sidelines.Just days after winning the national championship, a colleague saw Mulkey shopping in the H-E-B on Hewitt Drive. Kim Mulkey is the 2012 Wacoan of the Year. Here at the Wacoan, we already saluted Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III, but we didn’t give enough attention to the Lady Bears winning the NCAA national championship for a second time under Mulkey in a season in which they went an unprecedented 40-0. The 2011-12 season will always be known as the Year of the Bear. She’s even done Community Reading Day at South Bosque Elementary School. You love to see her speak at events around town, including at this year’s Advocacy Center for Crime Victims gala and the Meals & Wheels Sunday Brunch. You love to watch her pace along the sidelines or squat beside the bench during games.
There’s a love between Coach Mulkey and her players, between Coach Mulkey and Baylor, but also between Coach Mulkey and Waco.Ĭ’mon, you know you love her. “One in a Million” is a love song, and I think that in an article about Mulkey, a love song is called for, and not just because of Adkins (who is happily married). In April, he saw the Lady Bears win their second national championship. The Lady Bears even attended an Adkins concert in Kansas City, Missouri, during this year’s Big 12 Tournament, and Adkins got Mulkey up on stage and presented her with a pair of Baylor cowboy boots. Word got back to Mulkey, and the two Louisiana Tech athletes finally met face-to-face. By then, he’d been singing “One in a Million” in his concerts and telling the story of his unrequited love. When he saw the Lady Bears playing in the Elite Eight in 2011, he realized Mulkey was still involved in Division I women’s basketball. There’s another song he didn’t perform that night called “One in a Million,” which he dedicates to the girl he once had a secret crush on - Kim Mulkey.īack in college at Louisiana Tech University, Adkins was a freshman football player, and Mulkey was a senior point guard. On February 11, 2012, when the Lady Bears played Texas A&M University at the Ferrell Center, country music artist Trace Adkins sang the national anthem.
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