Bird, Fowles, Pondexter, Beard headline Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2025

By DOUG FEINBERG The Associated Press
FILE - Minnesota Lynx center Sylvia Fowles rebounds during the fourth quarter of the team's WNBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Sparks on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021, in Minneapolis. One of the league's greatest centers is ready to move on to another career in mortuary science, no longer possessing the energy to stay in basketball shape. (AP Photo/Andy Clayton-King, File)

WNBA greats Sue Bird, Sylvia Fowles, Cappie Pondexter and Alana Beard headline the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2025 that was announced Friday.

Also inducted on June 14 will be Mark Campbell, the longtime Union University coach, as well as Lucille Kyvallos, who led West Chester College and Queens College to early success. Women’s Basketball Coaches Association executive director Danielle Donehew completes the class.

“We are honored to pay tribute to seven distinguished legends of this exceptional sport,” WBHOF President Dana Hart said. “They exemplify the highest standards in women’s basketball and have made substantial contributions to the sport along with shaping the game’s historical trajectory.”

Bird has won at every level, including five Olympic gold medals, four WNBA championships with Seattle and two NCAA titles while at UConn.

“She managed to be the brains behind the curtain and just made sure that everything went exactly the way it was supposed to go,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said Friday night. “And then she did that in the WNBA, and she did that in the Olympics, and did it better than anybody’s ever done it.

“There’s not been a point guard playing the game of women’s basketball that’s played it better, or longer, or had more success.”

Bird, a 12-time All-Star who also won four world championships with the United States, retired in 2022. That was the same season that Fowles ended her playing career.

Fowles won WNBA titles with Minnesota in 2015 and 2017 and was MVP of the Finals both times. She also was on four of the Olympic champion teams with Bird. The former LSU star was on the WNBA all-defensive team eight times.

Beard was a two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year. She won a WNBA title with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2016.

Pondexter won two WNBA championships with Phoenix in 2007 and 2009 and was the Finals MVP the first time. She earned Big East Player of the Year honors while starring for Rutgers and led the Scarlet Knights to a 97-22 record and consecutive conference titles in 2005 and 2006. She won Olympic gold in 2008 with Bird and Fowles.

Kyvallos coached at West Chester from 1962-66 and Queens College from 1968-80 and 1981-82. She won 80.91% of her games, going 311-73. She was coaching Queens when the team was part of the first women’s college basketball game at Madison Square Garden that drew over 12,000 fans.

Campbell has been coaching at Division II Union University for 26 seasons and has gone 742-116 at the NAIA school. His team won NAIA championships in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2010.

Donehew has been the executive director of the WBCA since 2014 and has helped the organization grow over the last decade. Before that, she worked for her alma mater Georgia Tech as well as Tennessee, the Atlanta Dream, the Big East and American Athletic Conference.

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AP Basketball Writer Aaron Beard in Greensboro, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

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