'No place is more fitting': Knoxville home to Women's Basketball Hall of Fame for 25 years

If you live in Knoxville, you have probably driven past the giant ball and hoop at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame more times than you can count − and along Hall of Fame Drive even more times than that. But how much do you really know about the world's "only facility of its kind dedicated to all levels of women's basketball"?

The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame celebrates 25 years in June. Its grand opening festivities June 3-5, 1999, drew around 14,000 people for a celebration that included a WNBA game between the Houston Comets and the Washington Mystics, according to News Sentinel coverage.

How the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame ended up in Knoxville

The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame wasn't always going to be in Knoxville. The facility originally was planned for Jackson, Tennessee, of all places. That idea came from the Rev. Mike Gillespie, whose imagination was sparked when the NAIA women's tournament was held in Jackson, the News Sentinel reported.

After plans fell through in Jackson, the project was taken on in 1996 by Knoxville Sports Corp. and its president, Gloria Ray, according to News Sentinel coverage. Ray, who previously served as the first director of women’s intercollegiate athletics at the University of Tennessee, was in many ways the driving force behind the project.

In 1996, Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe shared plans for upcoming city investments, including money he wanted to put toward the proposed Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, the News Sentinel reported. "No place is more fitting," Ashe said, referencing the Lady Vols. "The most successful women's basketball program in history, located here."

Knoxville businessman Pete DeBusk donated land, and Knox County approved some funding. But private donors played a major role in financing the project, according to the News Sentinel, in large part due to Lady Vols Coach Pat Summitt's capital-raising efforts.

Nashville firm 1220 Exhibits, Inc. put together the Hall of Fame's collection. This tall task was led by Valerie Key, whose "three-year search for women's basketball antiquities has made her a sort of Indiana Jones of the sport," the News Sentinel reported in 1997.

Knoxville architectural firm Bullock, Smith and Partners came up with plans for the building, which would be 30,000 square feet across two stories for an estimated cost of $3.5 million, according to the News Sentinel in 1997.

"There will be countless little girls who will say, 'I want some day to be in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee'" Summitt said during a press conference unveiling the plans. "That has a nice sound to it."

By May 30, 1999, the News Sentinel was reporting an additional 2,000 square feet had been added to the building, and the total cost was up to $9.3 million. The street had just been renamed Hall of Fame Drive, and the grand opening was days away.

Scheduled activities for the grand opening in June 1999 included the inaugural induction ceremony, which incorporated a theatrical production about the history of women's basketball, and a free street party. The grand opening also unveiled a 17-foot statue of three female players representing the past, present and future of the sport.

Lady Vols helped pave the way for the future of women's basketball

Women's basketball in Knoxville has been trailblazing since the beginning. Women played the first intercollegiate basketball game at the University of Tennessee in 1903, just 11 years after Senda Berenson first adapted the sport for women at Smith College, according to the Hall of Fame website.

It was the first women's intercollegiate sport at UT, according to UT's Volopedia, and it existed even prior to the UT men's basketball team.

But women's basketball, along with all other women's intercollegiate sports, was discontinued at UT in 1926. Women's basketball did not return to UT until 1961 when it was brought back as a club sport.

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The team eventually rose to prominence, but not without hardship. A lack of funding in 1972 meant the Lady Vols had to sell doughnuts just to afford transportation to games. This was just one small example of the challenges players and coaches had to overcome while trying to establish the team and the sport in the university's eyes.

The program eventually thrived, from the legacy of Summitt to setting the world record for women's basketball attendance. And the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame continues to memorialize the triumphs and setbacks of those who helped grow the sport, from preps to pros.

Hayden Dunbar is the storyteller reporter. Email hayden.dunbar@knoxnews.com.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Women's Basketball Hall of Fame has made Knoxville home for 25 years