Oct. 21, 2010

By Jerry Hill

In one breath, LaNita Luckey will tell you that she's proud of the impressive numbers she racked up in a Baylor basketball career that saw her average 16.4 points and 8.3 rebounds per game and shoot a perfect 12-of-12 from the field in a game.

But at the same time, "I would have changed all my stats for a winning season. It just didn't happen that way," said the 40-year-old Luckey, who will be inducted into the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame during Friday's banquet at the Ferrell Center.

"They were struggling even before I came down here," said Luckey, a native of Tulsa, Okla., who played for the Lady Bears from 1988-92. "Even some of the players were like, `Why did you come here?' And I thought maybe they had some potential. But after my freshman year, I just kind of said, hey, if we can't win as a team, I'm just going to be the best I can be and try to set some records and standards at the Ferrell Center, especially since they were coming from playing in a barn."

Despite averaging double-figure scoring in each of her four seasons, Luckey played on Baylor teams that won just 26 games in four years and never finished higher than eighth in the Southwest Conference.

"I played like there were 10,000 fans in the place, even though there were only like 10 or 12," she said. "But I played like, `Hey, I'm going to show y'all that this is possible,' imagining that. And then for it to come true . . ."

Luckey reminisces glowingly about the 2005 Lady Bear team that hoisted the national championship trophy after an 84-62 win over Michigan State in the title game in Indianapolis - 13 years after her last game.

"It was like a dream come true to watch that," she said. "I attended the parade when they came back and congratulated (coach Kim Mulkey) and introduced her to my family. At the time, I didn't have my little girl, so I was introducing her to my boys. And (Mulkey) was like, `OK, you can't do anything for me.' Of course, she was teasing, but she's going to be amazed that I have this little 4-year-old girl now."

While the team struggled during her years, Luckey established a bond with fellow Hall of Famer Maggie Davis Stinnett, an impressive duo that combined for 3,748 points and 2,188 rebounds in their careers.

"Oh, man, she was wonderful! She was a role model for me and challenged me," Luckey said of Davis Stinnett. "If she scored 25 points, I'm going to see what I can do to get that many. And if she got 15 rebounds, let me see if I can get that many. And when we went out there, we went out to win, regardless of what our stats were. She was kind of like a mother hen. She made sure everybody was where they needed to be and always encouraged us."

After Baylor, Luckey went to graduate school at Hardin-Simmons University to study sports recreation management. She served as an adjunct professor and also helped out Julie Goodenough with the women's basketball team.

"People would always make fun of that and ask, `Is Luckey Goodenough?'''

After marrying her high school sweetheart, Lyndon Keys, LaNita returned to Waco and started a family that now includes two sons, Lyndon II (14 years old), and London (12); and one daughter, 4-year-old LaRyssa.

She also started a career with the Doris Miller YMCA, beginning from the ground floor as the infants/toddlers teacher and climbing all the way to the branch's executive director.

"It's funny, because I hadn't told any of them about my Baylor career," she said. "But when I see potential in one of the young students, I'll bring out my collage of things that I did at Baylor that one of my coaches back home made for me and had framed. I try to use that as motivation to let them know that I came from a single-parent and home and not knowing how I was going to get to college. But the summer before my 9th-grade year, I had an uncle that saw me growing like a weed and staying on the honor roll, and he was like, `OK, you're smart and you're tall, let me teach you basketball.'''

A quarter of a century later, Luckey is still playing the game she loves, competing in an industrial league and playing in lunchtime pick-up games at the Waco Family Y with a group of businessmen. "I just love the game of basketball," she said.

When she got the call about her Hall of Fame selection, Luckey said, "I was tickled pink."

"And I was like, `Quit playing!''' she said. "I didn't even realize how big of a deal it was. But it's starting to dawn on me. `OK, maybe this is a big thing.'''

It will be a special weekend for Luckey, who will celebrate her 15th wedding anniversary on Thursday and her husband's birthday on Friday when she's inducted.

"I was like, `Wow! What is God really saying?''' Luckey said. "This is just a special, special time."

Tickets to the 2010 Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame banquet, which will be held on Friday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. in the Ferrell Center, are $45 each ($35 for Baylor letterwinners). Table sponsorships are also available for $450 and corporate sponsorships for $500. Contact the "B" Association's Tammy Hardin at 254-710-3045 or by e-mail at tammy_hardin@baylor.edu.