She has previous inductions into the National High School Hall of Fame (1985), Louisiana High School Hall of Fame (1986), Louisiana Sports Writers Hall of Fame (1990), Louisiana Tech Athletics Hall of Fame (1992), Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (2000), CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame (2003), Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame (2007) and Texas Sports Hall of Fame (2010).īaylor’s entire resume under the guidance of Mulkey deserves admiration, however, her Lady Bears since the 2010-11 season soared to a new stratosphere. Although the Naismith is the “trump card” for Hall of Fames, Mulkey was able to call herself a Hall of Famer long before her 2020 induction. Mulkey had been nominated several times as both a player and a coach, and the Hall took her as a coach. She joined Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Rudy Tomjanovich, Tamika Catchings, Eddie Sutton, Barbara Stevens and Patrick Baumann as a member of the nine-person class. With the disappointment still looming from a cancelled NCAA Tournament, Mulkey did receive basketball’s highest honor on April 4, 2020, when she was named to the 2020 class for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Other name-worthy coaches on that list included, Pat Summitt (Tennessee, 734 games), Roy Williams (Kansas & North Carolina, 739 games), John Wooden (Indiana State & UCLA, 755 games), Tara VanDerveer (Stanford, 755 games) and Dean Smith (North Carolina, 773 games). UConn’s Geno Auriemma was the next-fastest women’s coach to reach 600 wins in his 716th game. Adolph Rupp was second on the list as the Kentucky Hall of Fame men’s coach achieved 600 wins in his 704th game. She accomplished the feat in 700 games in her 20th season as head coach. 18, 2020, in a win at Texas Tech, Mulkey became the fastest Division I coach (men’s or women’s) to reach 600 career victories. In addition, Mulkey achieved two significant milestones. 1 seed heading into the eventually-cancelled 2020 NCAA Tournament. The COVID-shortened 2019-20 season kept Baylor from defending its national title and its Big 12 Tournament championship, but the Lady Bears collected a 28-2 record, took home their 10th consecutive Big 12 regular-season championship and were a projected No.
Keeping with the theme of sevens, Baylor’s Chloe Jackson hit a game-winning scoop layup to down the Fighting Irish in the 2019 title matchup once again with 3.9 seconds remaining.
Seven years later, the Brittney Griner and Odyssey Sims-led Lady Bears made history with the first 40-0 season in NCAA history, capped with a win over Notre Dame in the 2012 finals. Nearly five years to the day that Baylor brought in Mulkey, she delivered the athletics department’s first women’s NCAA title when the Lady Bears’ 22-point victory over Michigan State on April 5, 2005, capped an improbable run that saw BU take down three No. At Louisiana Tech, she was the starting point guard when the Lady Techsters won the inaugural NCAA championship in 1982, then she was an assistant coach for another title run in 1988. That championship was the fifth that Mulkey had been a part of. The victory placed Baylor in the most prestigious of companies, joining UConn and Tennessee as the only programs with at least three.
Mulkey’s Lady Bears became just the third program in NCAA history to have at least three national titles when Baylor beat Notre Dame, 82-81 on April 7, 2019. Little did anyone know, that hire would lay the groundwork for the third act of Mulkey’s career that has outshined the first two. With already an astonishing resume as a player and assistant coach at Louisiana Tech, Baylor hired Mulkey on April 4, 2000, to overhaul a program that had just seven wins in the 1999-2000 season and 13 losing seasons in the previous 17. Three NCAA national championships, a combined 21 Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles, achieving 600 career wins faster than any other D1 men’s or women’s coach, and the pinnacle of individual basketball honors – she was named to the 2020 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class. So, what’s left to do for the Hall of Fame coach? At this point, any further success for Mulkey is cherries on the top of a giant sundae. They would just buy, hold and watch happily while their investment compounded. If Kim Mulkey was a stock, investors would find few, if any, dips in the market that would keep them from going all-in.
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