By Harry Minium
It took 75 years, but the Norfolk Sports Club has finally asked a female to be the featured speaker at its annual jamboree.
And sports club President William Emerson couldn't have asked a more accomplished former local athlete and coach to break this glass ceiling. On Dec. 7, former Old Dominion University women's basketball star Nancy Lieberman will be the speaker when the 75th annual jamboree is held at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott.
In keeping with COVID-19 restrictions, the jamboree will be limited to 250 people. Past jamborees have attracted crowds far larger.
"I applaud the sports club," Lieberman said. "It shouldn't have taken this long but at least change is happening and I'm supportive of that.
"I'm thrilled to be asked."
While there have been many great athletes at ODU, it's difficult to argue that anyone was more accomplished than the woman nicknamed "Lady Magic," a reference to former Michigan State and Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson.
A three-time first team All-American, she was twice named national player of the year and led ODU to two national titles and a WNIT crown. She scored 2,430 points, had 1,167 rebounds and 562 steals while playing point guard. Her 961 assists remains a school record.
Enough said.
Lieberman grew up poor in the New York City area – Brooklyn and then Far Rockaway -- and was a teenager during the 1970s, a time when young ladies playing basketball, or any other sport, were frowned up. She got teased in grade school for being a "tom boy," and her Mother, Renee, wasn't thrilled that she played basketball.
"People would tell me that I'm stupid, I'm dumb, that girls don't play sports," Nancy said. "People would say to my Mom, 'why is your daughter playing basketball with the boys?' "
But that didn't stop her, nor did the lack of a major women's pro league stop her when she left ODU in 1980. She played the Dallas Diamonds of the Women's Pro Basketball League, but as had been her habit throughout her life, she also played with the guys in the United State Basketball League and with the Washington Generals, the permanent opponent of the Harlem Globetrotters.
When the WNBA was finally formed in 1997, Lieberman played for the Phoenix Mercury. At 39, she was the league's oldest player in the league.
A year later, she was named head coach and general manager of the Detroit Shock for three seasons. Ever a history maker, in 2009,she became the first female head coach of a male team when the Texas Legends of the NBA Development League hired her. Six years later, she became the NBA's second female assistant coach when hired by the Sacramento Kings.
She is a broadcaster for the New Orleans Pelicans and head coach of the Power in the Big3 League, but she also focuses on philanthropy through the Nancy Lieberman Foundation.
Through it all, she has retained close ties with ODU and especially her former teammates.
"I would be nothing without my teammates," she said. "To this day we have a close-knit group. One day a month or so we come together (on a group phone call or Zoom call). And we should do that.
"In good times and when people are struggling, where else can you go but to your family? And the Old Dominion family is pretty powerful. We are thicker than thieves and will do anything for each other."
And not just for their female friends. They all remain close to male athletes from that time, including Ronnie Valentine, the former ODU basketball star who fell on hard times.
We Found Ronnie Valentime After Years of Being Homeless
Two years ago, when ODU graduate Wes Lockhard and I found Ronnie Valentine in Miami after he had been homeless for years, Wes called Nancy and put her on speaker phone while we were driving with Ronnie in the car. I've told this story before, but feel like it needs to be repeated.
Nancy had no idea I was in the car, so she was speaking from the heart. She spoke sweetly to Ronnie, offering to help him, to try to get him help from the NBA and promising to be there for him. Not everyone who claims to be a philanthropist does so for the right reasons. But Nancy has worked with Wes behind the scenes to take care of Ronnie, ODU's all-time leading men's basketball scorer. She's given of her time and money.
I've learned over the last two years that Nancy has a very kind, generous heart.
Ronnie Valentine, Lieberman, Wes Lockard and Renee Lieberman
She's also been out front publicly with her Dream Courts project. She has raised more than $7 million and built 97 basketball courts around the country. Jay Harris, the ODU graduate and ESPN announcer, and Lieberman expect to home the 98th in Portsmouth sometime in 2021.
She says 98 percent of the money raised goes directly into building the courts with only two percent for administration. That's an impressive number. Many charities claim at least a fourth of proceeds for administrative costs and fundraising.
The courts are built in neighborhoods Lieberman says are "underserved" when it comes to athletic and academic amenities for young kids. Her foundation has sent 70 kids to college on scholarships and provided more than 2,000 students with I-Pads.
They are called Dream Courts because that was Nancy's dream as a kid, to play on a court, away from the kids teasing and making fun of her.
"There were kids on the court of all ethnicities and religions and we all got along," she said. "We just wanted to play basketball."
Many years ago, Lieberman described herself as "just a poor, skinny, redheaded Jewish girl from Queens," and like so many American Jews, lost family members in the Holocaust. Some of her great grandparents were killed and her paternal grandparents were in concentration camps.
Her son, T.J., a former University of Richmond star, plays professionally in Israel and recently obtained his Israeli citizenship. "I'm proud of him for doing that," she said.
As with all of us, the pandemic has limited Nancy's activities a bit, but COVID-19 became a very personal thing for her in April.
She had worked out on a Saturday morning and said she felt more tired than usual. She spent the afternoon sitting by the pool with T.J. and the symptoms grew worse.
By 10 p.m. "I was on the phone telling T.J. he needed to come home and take me to the hospital," she said.
"I had chills, my muscles were sore and they never get sore. I felt awful," she said.
She received treatment after testing positive for COVID-19. T.J. Took care of her for the next week or so. "He was my nurse," she said.
Predictably, T.J. also came down with COVID-19, so they quarantined in their house for two weeks.
"I had a chest cold for about two weeks," she said. "But I never lost my sense of taste and smell and I feel very fortunate because I'm in the high-risk age group.
"T.J. is young and healthy. He never had an symptoms.
"I don't know how I caught it. I've been very careful about social distancing, wearing masks all the time, washing my hands".
When I spoke to her Friday night, she initially declined to give a hint as to what she will speak about in December, but then added that a big part of the message will be her lifelong affection for ODU and her former teammates and classmates.
"When I came to Old Dominion, I was a little raw," she said. "I left with a better understanding of life and how to be a gatekeeper to the game.
"I learned how to be a great teammate and a winner. And not everyone can win. Winning is hard."
Speaking of winning, she's pumped that Delisha Milton-Jones is ODU's new coach. Although we don't yet know when the season will begin or how many people will be allowed to enter Chartway Arena, a season will be played and Lieberman said it will be a good one for the Monarchs.
"She's going to be tremendous," Nancy said. "You don't earn the nickname 'D-Nasty' because you weren't a great.
"She played so hard and was so aggressive, people hated playing against her and she will bring that same mentality to ODU. The fans are going to love her.
"I hope to see her when I'm in Norfolk. I have so many friends there I want to see.
"I can't wait to get back there."
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu
Minium: Lady Magic Breaks Another Glass Ceiling as First Female Featured Speaker at Norfolk Sports Club Jamboree
