By Harry Minium
It had the feel of a pep rally and church revival at the same time. There was passion, celebration, wisdom, testimony and even a few tears.
The tears came from Nancy Lieberman, aka Lady Magic, the New York native who came to ODU in 1976 and transformed a team we then called the Lady Monarchs into a national powerhouse.
"I choose to come back here because whoever you think I am and what I have, I am a product of Old Dominion University," she said.
She stopped to dab away tears. After about 10 seconds of silence, the nearly 200 people in the Big Blue Room at Chartway Arena, including President Brian O. Hemphill, Ph.D., and First Lady Marisela Rosas Hemphill, Ph.D., broke out into a thunderous applause.
It was billed as a night with Lieberman, ESPN sportscaster Jay Harris, also an ODU alumnus, and Women's Basketball Coach DeLisha Milton-Jones to celebrate the past and look forward to the future.
Lieberman said she has ODU to thank for all of the blessings in her life, including winning two national titles and two Wade Trophies at ODU and a long professional career as a player and coach. She was the first woman to play professionally with men and to coach a men's team.
She was called Lady Magic because she was considered the female version of Earvin "Magic" Johnson.
"You guys changed my life," she said after regaining her composure. "You helped give me more than I ever thought I would have.
"And it started right here."
Harris and Lieberman helped arrange this event so that Milton-Jones could have a proper introduction to the Monarch fan base and to the media. When she was named head coach a year and a half ago, her press conference was held on Zoom because of the pandemic.
Attendance at games was limited to 250, and there was no face-to-face interaction allowed with fans or the media.
"We are Monarchs for life," Harris said. "We see this as an opportunity to usher another Monarch into the family, because she really hasn't had her coming out party, and to talk about a program that is legendary."
The legend began when Lieberman came to ODU's campus in 1976.
Lieberman grew up poor in the Queens borough of New York. The electricity was sometimes turned off and at times she didn't have enough to eat. But the young Jewish girl had moxie. As a teenager, she traveled from Bronx to Brooklyn to play against the very best on the playgrounds.
She was often the butt of jokes because she was a lanky girl trying to play basketball with inner city ballers at a time when that just wasn't done. But she earned the respect of those on the playgrounds because every time she got knocked down, she got right back up.
She made the Olympic team at age 18 and chose ODU over more than 100 other schools.
She didn't come to ODU because it was a powerhouse. In fact, she acknowledged, she chose ODU because it didn't have much of a program. ODU was 14-12 in 1975-76, when Lieberman was a high school senior, and lost its final game to Immaculata, 89-53.
She wanted to create a legacy. And did she ever.
ODU was 23-9 under coach Pam Parsons in Lieberman's first season. Parsons left and was replaced by Marianne Stanley, who led ODU to a WNIT championship and 30-4 record the next season and national titles in 1979 and 1980. ODU was 72-2 in Lieberman's last two seasons.
Lieberman and Harris met 17 years ago on an ESPN set in Bristol, Connecticut and immediately hit it off. They call each other brother and sister and speak often. He annually emcees a charity event in Dallas, the Nancy Lieberman Charities Virtual Dream Ball, that raises millions of dollars to help needy kids.
Nancy Lieberman Charities website
The camaraderie between Harris and Lieberman was evident as they held court and cracked jokes during an event that lasted nearly an hour and a half.
The setting was relaxing – Harris, Lieberman and Milton-Jones, in that order from left to right – each sat on a couch on a stage with microphones in hand. They were flanked on either side by ODU national championship trophies and a manikin wearing a retro ODU t-shirt.
The magic begun by Lieberman, Inge Nisson and Anne Donovan continued through 2007-08, when ODU won its 17th Colonial Athletic Association championship
and thus claimed its 17th NCAA bid in a row.
ODU hasn't been back to the NCAA tournament since. Coach Nikki McCray-Penson, hired in 2017, rebuilt the program into a winner and might have taken the 2018-19 team to the NCAA tournament had the pandemic not forced officials to cancel all tournament play.
She left for Mississippi State before last season, and Athletic Director Wood Selig then hired Milton-Jones away from Syracuse, where she was the recruiting coordinator.
Asked to describe her first season, Milton-Jones said, "it was hell."
It was until the end of the season. Beset with injuries and players electing not to play because of the pandemic, ODU won seven of its last nine games and got to the semifinals of the Conference USA tournament, winning three games in three nights before falling to Rice.
It was an heroic effort from an undermanned team.
Milton-Jones has the bulk of last season's best players back, including Ajah Wayne, the Birmingham, Alabama native named to the All-C-USA tournament team after averaging 22.5 points, 11 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.
Milton-Jones has restocked the roster by recruiting 10 new players, including transfer Iggy Allen, a 5-foot-11 guard who came from Florida Atlantic, where she was named Conference USA Newcomer of the Year and to the All-C-USA first team and All-Defensive team. She set school Division I records with a 22.2-point scoring average and 10.9 rebounds per game.
Last season ODU finished a game against Charlotte with only four players because everyone else on its very short bench fouled out. This season, players are competing hard for what they know could be limited playing time.
"I've seen the women's team practice," ODU men's basketball coach Jeff Jones said. "And they're going to be much better than they were last season. They have a lot of good athletes."
Harris asked all the players to stand and tell the crowd why they chose ODU. Everyone said the family atmosphere was the major factor. For others, the campus was a factor, as were ODU's facilities and the program's rich history, which they got a good dose of Tuesday night.
Lieberman asked all the fans to stand who watched her play more than four decades ago and perhaps 50 or 60 stood.
"You are the people who made me feel so much at home," she said.
Milton-Jones is a former University of Florida star who also won the Wade Trophy and had a long professional career. She played with and against many ODU alumni, including Ticha Penicheiro, Clarisse Machanguana and Adrienne Goodson, and said the bond between the former Lady Monarchs was stronger than anything she'd ever seen.
"I would always admire how they would come together," she said. "There was something special about having that tag, ODU alumnus, attached to them.
"It's a family network. I love how they loved on one another, cared for each other, and the love was always pure, genuine and organic.
"I went to Florida and I didn't feel that type of love from the alumni."
Maggie Robinson, a sixth-year graduate student and junior college transfer who has been at ODU three years, said caring coaches and players helped attract her.
"It felt like family when I came here and I stayed for the same reason" when Milton-Jones was named coach, she said.
"But I came here to win and get a championship. Over the last three years, we have made progress. I think this is the year that we get over the hump and they're going to be talking about us."
Harris recalls being asked in airports or social events where he went to school and when he said Old Dominion, people would always reply, "great women's basketball school."
"It needs to be that way again," he said. "That's why we're here tonight.
"We have so much faith in DeLisha and what she's going to do for this program."
Lieberman said ODU's fans, who often filled the 4,800-seat ODU Fieldhouse were a big part of the Lady Monarchs' success.
It's no secret that women's basketball attendance has waned in recent years. Milton-Jones is determined to turn that around, and says she has the talent, and the chemistry, on her team to put on a great show.
"I'm so thankful for the showing we had tonight," Milton-Jones said. "It really does show you care.
"I beg of you, I plead with you, and I demand from you, bring people out to support these beautiful young women."
She then turned to Dr. Selig and spoke as if it truly was her first press conference.
"Dr. Selig, thank you for giving me this opportunity," she said. "I accept it with all of the honor and pride I have within me and will not allow myself to fail.
"I am accustomed to winning and only know one way to go about it. And I pledge to you my best effort every single day."
Harris then turned to the players and told them about how every time he shows a Washington Football Team highlight of Taylor Heinicke on SportsCenter, he follows it up by saying, "Monarch."
His co-host, Hannah Storm, laughs each time because she knows it's coming.
"I can't wait to do all of your highlights," Harris said.
"I can't wait to say 'Monarch' when we do."
Minium was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in his 39 years at The Virginian-Pilot and won 27 state and national writing awards. He covers ODU athletics for odusports.com Follow him on Twitter @Harry_MiniumODU, Instagram @hbminium1 or email hminium@odu.edu
Minium: Nearly 200 Show up For Part Pep Rally, Part Church Revival for ODU Women's Basketball
