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As a five year old, Lynette Woodard watched in horror as a
United States Air Force tanker jet plunged from the sky
into her Wichita, Kansas neighborhood. Killing 30 residents
and destroying 14 houses, it narrowly missed hitting her
home. Apart from the everlasting memory of the tragedy, the
event would change her whole life. The destroyed homes were
never rebuilt and for five years it was just a vacant lot,
but in 1970, across the street from her house, on the site
of the crash, a full basketball court was built. It was there in Piatt Park, a public playground, that Lynette became hooked on hoop and started playing the game religiously. Lynette got into the habit of hitting the pick-up games daily with other neighborhood youngsters all the year round. Playing most of the time with boys, it was not too long before she was in high demand as a neighborhood basketball player and the guys were picking Lynette before their friends...or Lynette would do the choosing herself! |
 | "The houses on my
side of the street were brick and, for the most part, they
were okay. The ones on the other side were made of wood,
and those houses were lost. I realise now that it was the
first thing that I remember. I can remember just everything
going so fast. I was at a neighbor's house, and I saw all
this smoke. This house just burst into fire, and somebody
took me away. I guess the mind has a way of telling you,
'Hey, this is important!.'" ~Lynette Woodard |
| This is an actress portraying Lynette in a Harlem Globetrotter Promotional Video. |
| PIATT PARK |
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| 1959-1977 |
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Lynette Woodard was born August 12, 1959. The daughter of
Lugene and Dorothy Woodard, she was
born and raised in Wichita, Kansas along with her
siblings, an older sister, Dorothy, an older brother
Darrell, and a younger sister, Bonnie. As a
youngster she
played pick-up games with her older brother, Darrell, but
didn't start playing organized basketball until her
sophmore year in high school. Though her parents, a Kansas fireman and a homemaker, were not particularly athletic, Lynette's interest in basketball began early. As a child she played sockball with her older brother, Darrell, using balled up socks or rolled up paper for mini-basketballs and shooting them off the bedroom door. Lynette got her first ball, a blue and gold basketball, with the words, "Go Navy" on it, from a guy who was giving them away in the neighborhood. |
 | "Geese showed us how to spin a basketball
on our fingers and do all the Globetrotter tricks. It was
joy to my heart. I always watched him. I was fascinated by
the things he could do with a basketball. I practiced what
I saw him do. He only did it once, but I was hooked. For
life!" ~Lynette Woodard |
| Hubert "Geese" Ausbie |
| PIATT PARK |
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| 1959-1977 |
| Later when she met her cousin, Hubert
"Geese" Ausbie, a long-time Harlem Globetrotter, he
inroduced the Woodards to Trotter-style basketball.
Although Geese showed them only once how to spin a
basketball and do Globetrotter tricks, Lynette watched in
joy, fascinated by all the things he could do with a
basketball. Later she practiced what she saw him
do. As a ninth grader at Marshall Junior High School, Lynette joined the girls' basketball team and was known as one of the best one-on-one players around. While still in junior high, she was asked by Duane Schmidt, coach of the Wichita North High School girls' basketball team, to join the junior varsity team, but she declined. She prefered to wait until the following year to join the varsity team which she knew in her heart she was already good enough to play on. |
 | "If there's one thing people probably don't understand about me, or maybe I never expressed it enough, it's that when I started playing back in my early days, I mean, basketball was probably the purest love and joy that I had. ~Lynette Woodard | |
| Lynette Woodard, No.30 |
| PIATT PARK |
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| 1959-1977 |
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When Lynette joined the Wichita North High School Redskins, they were the worst team in the city with a previous season record of 0-8. In the 1974-75 season, she turned the team around with a record of 13-1. Lynette led the team in scoring and averaged 25 points per game. For the 5A State Title, Wichita North played Centralia High School in front of a crowd of 2,500 fans. Tied with just under three minutes to play, Lynette put on one of her very first one woman shows, dishing out two assists, grabbing a rebound and scoring a basket on the way to a 68-64 final score and the Redskins� first 5A State Title! The Redskins continued with a 19 game win streak into the 1975-76 season and winning the City League Championship. Although Lynette racked up 384 points by the end of the season, the Wichita North High School Redskins fell just short of a second 5A State Title by losing to Hutchinson High School by four points. |
 | "Now I don't like to talk about it on this level, but really, a fairy tale is what it is. I've always believed the impossible, even when other people said there was no reason to believe. Every dream of mine has come true - the good ones and bad. Every time I've seemed to be at an impasse, someone or something has come along to provide another piece of the puzzle. Along the way, things have just...happened," ~Lynette Woodard |
| Lynette Woodard, Wichita North High School |
| PIATT PARK |
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| 1959-1977 |
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Quickly becoming a big fish in a small pond, Lynette�s senior year with the Redskins became a series of clinics on the double double (and sometimes triple double), with Lynette averaging 33 points and 20 rebounds per game over the 1976-77 season. Wichita North met Hutchison for a rematch in the 5A State Title game. One point down in the last three seconds of the game, Lynette received an inbound pass and dribbled down the court through Hutchinson�s defense. Shooting the ball from twelve feet away with 1 second on the clock, the ball went in and out and around and back in again as the final buzzer went off giving the victorious Redskins a 59-3 record over 3 years. Lynette earned national recognition as the 5A High School Player of the Year and was named to Parade Magazine�s All-America Team as a starter.
In 1977, Lynette was recruited by colleges throughout the country, but due largely to basketball coach, Marian Washington, she decided to attend the University of Kansas at Lawrence. While many coaches had focused on how much Lynette could benefit their teams, Washington stressed how much she could improve and Woodard's fundamental skills. Lynette opted for the Jayhawk's program, where Coach Washington could teach her and groom her as she learned more about the game. Lynette graduated from Wichita North in 1977 and enrolled in the University of Kansas the following fall term. |
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