April 7, 2010
RUSTON - Louisiana Tech Lady Techster basketball fans will have an opportunity to hear one of the greatest players in the storied program's history when three-time All-American Pam Kelly-Flowers returns to her alma mater next week.
Kelly-Flowers will be the featured speaker at the annual Lady Techster Appreciation Banquet Friday, April 16 at 7 p.m. at the Louisiana Tech Student Center. Tickets for the event are $20 and can be purchased by calling the Marbury Alumni Center at 318-255-7950.
LA Tech's only three-time Kodak All-American and one of three Wade Trophy winners, Kelly-Flowers is considered by many as arguably the greatest player to ever don the Columbia blue and red uniforms.
Her former coach would agree.
"Pam is maybe the all-time greatest Lady Techster," said Techster coaching legend Leon Barmore. "She led us to four Final Fours and two national titles. She was a scoring and rebounding machine. No one could stop her.
"We'd get the ball inside to her, and she was so good at getting position. Her lower body was as strong as I've ever seen in the women's game. We could count on her for 20 (points) and 10 (rebounds) every night. She was a pleasure to coach." If not the best player, Kelly-Flowers was definitely the most dominating.
During her playing career at Louisiana Tech (1978-82), Kelly-Flowers owned the paint like no other, leading the Lady Techsters to a record of 143-10. Despite measuring only 6-feet tall, Kelly was an immovable force inside recording 78 career double doubles.
She scored 2,979 points and pulled down 1,511 rebounds during her career - both marks still rank No. 1 in the Tech record books and both are numbers that will be almost impossible for anyone to ever surpass.
As a true freshman, Kelly averaged 19.0 points and 9.9 rebounds per game for Barmore and Co. - pretty good numbers for any player, but especially for a non-starter.
"One of the best stories about any athlete I can tell is the one about Pam," Barmore said. "As a freshman she didn't start. We started Kay Ford and brought Pam off the bench. About February of that year, a sportswriter asked Pam, `You are the best player on this team, don't you think you should be starting?'
"'Pam's answer was one I'll always remember. `If Coach Barmore doesn't think I should start, neither do I.' That says a lot about her. That told me that as a freshman, she already had her priorities right ... team before self."
Kelly-Flowers would get plenty of opportunities to start during her career, playing in 153 total games - still a Lady Techster record. After leading Tech to Final Four appearances as a freshman and sophomore, she finally helped the Lady Techsters win their first of three national titles in 1981 as Tech posted a perfect 34-0 mark and defeated Tennessee 79-59 for the AIAW title.
As a senior, the Columbia, Louisiana native helped Tech set a record 54-game winning streak - a mark that was snapped by Old Dominion 61-58 in Norfolk in 1982. However, it was the only loss of Kelly-Flowers' senior year as Tech repeated as the national champions claiming the inaugural NCAA title by virtue of a 76-62 win over Cheyney State.
Following a senior year that saw her average 20.3 points and 9.1 rebounds while shooting 64 percent from the field, Kelly-Flowers earned the Wade Trophy as the nation's top player.
Kelly-Flowers - whose number 41 is retired - is enshrined in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Tech Athletics Hall of Fame.
