50-Year Women’s Basketball Celebration This Weekend
February 22, 2024 10:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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By: John Antonik
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – An exciting two days are planned for West Virginia University's 50-year celebration of women's basketball this weekend.
The celebration tips off Friday afternoon when former Mountaineer players and their families will be invited to attend the team's practice inside the WVU Coliseum. Then, an alumni social with complimentary food and drinks will take place at Keglers Sports Bar & Grille later that evening.
On Saturday, former players are invited to attend the morning shootaround inside the Coliseum before participating in the Kittie Blakemore Drive dedication celebration.
The street formerly known as Rec Center Drive, which begins at Morrill Way and terminates at the Student Recreation Center, will officially be renamed Kittie Blakemore Drive in honor of her 36 years of outstanding service to West Virginia University.
Blakemore, considered "the founding mother of Mountaineer women's athletics," began her association with WVU in 1960 as a professor in the School of Physical Education and later served as WVU's women's basketball coach for 19 seasons, guiding the Mountaineers to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances in 1989 and 1992 and compiling more than 300 victories during her outstanding career. Kittie Blakemore, pictured here with Lori (Quertinmont) Martin, will have a campus street named after her in recognition of her 36 years of dedicated service to West Virginia University (Submitted photo).
After hanging up her coaching whistle, Blakemore became WVU's first senior woman administrator in 1993 and was responsible for hiring highly successful women's soccer coach Nikki Izzo-Brown when the sport was added in 1996. Blakemore retired a year later but continued to make frequent drives from her family home in Manassas, Virginia, to Morgantown to attend Mountaineer women's sporting events.
She died in Warrenton, Virginia, on July 29, 2020, at age 91.
Many of her former players will be returning to campus, including several from her first WVU team in 1974, as well as Georgeann Wells, who made history when she became the first player to ever dunk in a women's college basketball game against the University of Charleston on Dec. 21, 1984, at the Randolph County Armory in Elkins, West Virginia.
Wells' dunk made national news that year and helped raise the profile of Mountaineer women's athletics.
Former players will be bused to Kittie Blakemore Drive to take pictures and then will return to the Coliseum to participate in the formal dedication in the Clark Mountaineer Club. Natasha Oakes, WVU deputy athletics director and senior woman administrator, will deliver the official welcome with WVU director of athletics Wren Baker and coach Mark Kellogg providing additional remarks.
Former Mountaineer player Lori (Quertinmont) Martin and Sandra Elmore, an assistant coach during the early years of Blakemore's WVU tenure, are scheduled to make brief remarks as well.
At 2 p.m., the 22nd-ranked Mountaineer women's team will take on 24th-ranked Baylor in a key Big 12 matchup. The game has been designated a "Black Out" with the players sporting special black uniforms and fans attending encouraged to wear their black.
Commemorative "Black Out" merchandise will be available at the WVU Team Store located on the concourse level of the Coliseum.
At the end of the first quarter, a special tribute to Blakemore will appear on the video board and all former returning players will be introduced at halftime. Throughout the game, video and photo tributes of key moments in program history will be displayed on the video board.
The first 500 fans in attendance will receive special Black rally towels and a commemorative 50th anniversary pennant.
