Whalen, Peck headline women's hoops HOF class

Former Minnesota Lynx star Lindsay Whalen and ESPN analyst Carolyn Peck, the first Black head coach to win the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, are among five women who will be inducted next year into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, it was announced Sunday.

The induction will be April 29 at the hall in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Whalen, who was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, in September, led Minnesota to the 2004 women’s Final Four and is now head women’s basketball coach at her alma mater. She won two Olympic gold medals with Team USA.

Whalen helped lead the Lynx to four WNBA titles and also led the Connecticut Sun to the 2004 and 2005 WNBA Finals.

Peck led Purdue to the 1999 NCAA title, a breakthrough achievement for Black head coaches in the women’s game. Peck, who played collegiately at Vanderbilt, also has been a head coach in the WNBA and for the Florida Gators, along with being a collegiate assistant at Tennessee, Kentucky, Purdue and her alma mater.

Peck is a longtime commentator and analyst for women’s college basketball and the WNBA for ESPN.

The other inductees are Illinois State standout and 1984 Olympic gold medalist Cathy Boswell, former Texas women’s athletic director Donna Lopiano and longtime collegiate and WNBA referee Lisa Mattingly.

Lopiano was director of the Women’s Sports Foundation from 1992 to 2007, after being an administrator at Texas from 1975 to 1992. Women’s teams won 18 national championships in six different sports at Texas during her time there.

Mattingly officiated for 38 years, including in 10 NCAA women’s championship games and five WNBA Finals.

The Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame also announced its recipient for the Trailblazers of the Game Award, which will go to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA).