Women's Basketball Hall of Fame selects Carolyn Peck for 2023 class

Carolyn Peck got her first coaching job as an assistant to legendary Tennessee Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt.

The Jefferson City native played against Summitt for Vanderbilt from 1985-88 before joining her staff from 1993-95. Four seasons after leaving the Lady Vols, Peck became the first Black head coach to win a women's Division I NCAA championship, in her second season.

The first national title for Purdue women's basketball in 1999 also ended Tennessee's streak of three titles in a row. It still stands as the only national title won by a Big Ten team in women's basketball.

Peck takes frequent trips to Knoxville as a basketball analyst for ESPN, but in April she'll visit to be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Peck is joined in the 2023 hall of fame class by Cathy Boswell, Donna Lopiano, Lisa Mattingly and Lindsay Whalen, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this year as well.

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Boswell is a veteran player who won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and was a two-time Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Kodak All-American and two-time Wade Trophy finalist for player of the year.

Lopiano, the longtime chief executive officer of the Women's Sports Foundation, was the University of Texas women's athletics director from 1975-92. In that time, women’s teams won 18 national championships among six sports.

Mattingly spent 38 years as an official. She officiated 10 NCAA women's championship games, seven national semifinals, the WNBA League championship series (2000-07) and the WNBA finals (2002-06).

Whalen, who coaches at her alma mater Minnesota, was one of three sophomores in conference history to earn Big Ten Player of the Year honors (2002). She was a key player in the Minnesota Lynx's dynasty when the franchise won four WNBA titles (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017). Whalen was a five-time WNBA All-Star and won gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

The WBHOF induction will take place on April 29. The inductees and award winners will be honored during the 2023 NCAA Women's Final Four and WBCA National Convention in Dallas.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Women's Basketball Hall of Fame 2023 class includes Carolyn Peck