'Abouttime':SCSU alums part of 1976 U.S. women's basketball team entering Hall of Fame
Aug. 11—And that they did.
O'Connor and fellow Southern Connecticut State star Susan Rojcewicz along with Cindy Brogdon, Ann Meyers Drysdale, Nancy Lieberman, Patricia Head Summitt, Lusia Harris-Stewart, Nancy Dunkle, Charlotte Lewis, Gail Marquis, Patricia Roberts and Juliene Simpson made history with that silver medal.
"It was surreal," O'Connor said. "Almost like an out-of-body experience because it was just spine-tingling."
Women's basketball made its Olympic debut in 1976 and the U.S.'s silver-medal win that year set the stage for the country's decades worth of success in the sport. Team USA has won seven straight and nine total Olympic Gold medals in women's basketball (out of 11 total Olympic tournaments).
Not only did members of that first Olympic squad go on to change the sport forever (Moore, Harris-Stewart, Drysdale, Lieberman, Summitt, and then-assistant coach Sue Gunter are all Hall of Famers), but it inspired countless women to pick up that orange leather ball and push the sport's limits even further.
Currently, former UConn women's basketball and Team USA greats Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi hold the Olympic record for most consecutive gold medals in women's basketball with five straight because of the impact set by the '76 team. Taurasi just recently became the first-ever WNBA player to surpass 10,000 career points.
And it's because of that immeasurable impact that the 1976 U.S. Women's Olympic Team will officially become enshrined among basketball's most honorable during this weekend's Naismith Hall of Fame ceremony in Springfield, Mass.
"Well, I'd like to say it's about time, how about that," O'Connor said. "It's the pinnacle for us. It's like the Academy Awards of basketball, honestly."
O'Connor, who grew up in Fairfield, didn't pick up basketball until her freshman year at Notre Dame High School. Sure, her mother played at UConn, but O'Connor didn't find a passion for the sport until high school when she was coached by longtime Connecticut high school basketball and softball coach Ann DeLuca.
DeLuca taught O'Connor what a jump shot actually looked like and how to mold her raw athletic talent into strong and competitive skills on the court.
Since Title IX wouldn't pass until a few years later, it was rare to find a competitive team sport for girls.
"Back when we were growing up, as young girls, we couldn't compete in anything. We couldn't play baseball. There weren't any leagues, nothing, no basketball leagues, nothing," O'Connor said. "So, you know, my sister and I would go out and play. We had this hoop on a tree on the side of our house, and we'd watch (New York) Knicks games, and then go out and try and do stuff that we saw on TV."
O'Connor chose to attend Southern Connecticut State because it was local and because it had a good nursing program. When she first enrolled, she wasn't sure what she'd do with basketball. She enjoyed the sport but assumed she'd focus on her professional career after graduating (she never did go into nursing).
But after leading Southern to three-straight top-four finishes in the AIAW Division I Championship (the governing body for intercollegiate women's athletics prior to the NCAA including women), she fell in love with the sport.
O'Connor and Rojcewicz were invited to try out for the U.S. women's national team in 1974. They both made the team and joined its tour as it faced off against the Soviet Union (USSR) across the U.S.
"What an honor," O'Connor said. "I mean, first of all, the fact that two of us from the same school made the Olympic team. I mean, that's pretty outstanding, don't you think? I mean, that just speaks volumes of the type of team we had and the coaching we had."
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O'Connor became friends with the USSR's 7-foot-2 center Uljana Semjonova and saw parts of the country she'd never experienced before. For the first time, she realized how many opportunities basketball could unlock.
"It was so much fun," she said. "And it was such a challenge because they (USSR) were so good. ... It was kinda like a way for me to just experience new things and be around different people. And that appealed to me a lot too."
The following summer in Montreal, Team USA (including O'Connor and Rojcewicz) made its Olympic debut in women's basketball. O'Connor remembers there was a lot of doubt that the women wouldn't do well.
The team finished outside of the top five in the World Championships and had to win a pre-Olympic tournament just to qualify for the Games. Plus, there was still a lot of criticism around women playing the sport.
"People could play basketball, women could play basketball if society thought it was OK," O'Connor said. "But if they thought it was too risqué or something like that, then they would just ban it. So, it was sort of like a barometer for what's happening in society."
Team USA won the silver medal after beating Bulgaria in a tiebreaker thanks to a win over Czechoslovakia. The Soviet Union went undefeated to win gold.
After the 1976 Olympics, O'Connor played professionally overseas in France. She helped other American women find professional clubs internationally during this time since there really weren't any professional, competive leagues yet in the States. The ABL and WNBA didn't form until 20 years later.
"Basketball has given me so much," O'Connor said. "And my life would have been so different if I hadn't gone for it and if I hadn't made the team. If I hadn't been in Montreal, I never would have probably made it to France. I've been able to see the world.
"... I feel like it turned me into a global citizen. And I also felt like I was, you know, coming fresh off the Olympics, I almost felt like a US basketball ambassador. ... It changed my life."
Since retiring from playing, O'Connor has shifted her day-to-day focus to running her own IT firm in the Bay Area. She still loves the sport and makes sure to follow the local college teams, like Stanford and Cal, and tune into the WNBA.
Right now, her favorite players to watch are former UConn star Breanna Stewart and former Tennessee star Candace Parker.
"I love how they are so multifaceted," she said. "How they can almost do everything on the court, right? And not just like a strong forward, you know what I mean? You could put them anywhere. And they play any position like Swiss Army knives."
It's that heightened athleticism in the sport that she admires most about its growth over the last 40-plus years since she was playing on its highest stage. She admits there's still room to grow and wants to see more women coaching at both the college and professional levels.
"The women that play now in the WNBA, I mean, they can jump like crazy. They're so fast, so quick, that you can just tell they take it seriously," O'Connor said. "They train and they treat their bodies really well because they understand what they have to do to to be able to play at the highest level. ... The games are so good. And I think the public is finally catching on, you know that there is something to be seen here and enjoy."
O'Connor and her wife, Ada, are flying in from San Francisco for this weekend's ceremonies. O'Connor says it will be the first time the 1976 team will all be together in person since 1997.
While they couldn't be prouder of the honor, they know there are members of their team that will be missing — Moore, Harris-Stewart, Lewis, Gunter, and, of course, Summitt.
"I'm really glad we're getting in when we are," O'Connor said. "It's too bad we've lost some players, our coaches, like Billie died in December, so that's unfortunate. It would have been great if we had more players and more coaches that were still alive that could attend. So that's the bittersweet side of it."
But O'Connor and her teammates understand that their legacy — what they did in Montreal 46 years ago — truly built something special and will outlive all of them.
It's a Hall of Fame impact that is finally getting its rightful place in basketball history.
