By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Recognition for Jane Albright of Graham at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame turned into a special time to reminisce.
During the induction weekend, Albright was honored with a special bench designation in an area outside of the shrine in Springfield, Massachusetts.
“It was the whole total package, it was kind of surreal,” Albright said of the mid-August event.
Albright’s long coaching career in college women’s basketball spurred this honor. The special benches are dedicated to influential coaches, an initiative that was established in 2015.
So while not a Hall of Famer, this seemed close enough for Albright.
“Basketball has been very good to me,” she said.
There was a fund-raising campaign largely without Albright’s knowledge to secure about $75,000 for the bench, which lists Graham High School as part of her background.
“When you’ve coached as long as I have, you know a lot of people,” she said. “For them to raise that, that’s what meant so much to me. I really feel that it’s ‘our’ bench.”
Albright said she re-connected with many coaches from her era along with former players who surprised her by their attendance. She said other ex-players, who are still in their prime working years and couldn’t attend, sent their congratulations.
“It was definitely a reunion on every level,” Albright said.
Albright was one of four women designated for the special bench honor this year.
The drive to attain this recognition for Albright was spearheaded by Chris Goebrecht, whose coaching stops included Washington, Florida State, and Southern California, and Sue Semrau, a longtime Florida State coach who previously was an assistant coach for Albright at Wisconsin. Current Oklahoma State coach Jacie Hoyt, who played under Albright at Wichita State and coached on her staff at Nevada, was among the others with a role in wanting to recognize Albright.
As part of the weekend, Albright and friends toured the Hall of Fame prior to the induction. Albright later attended a VIP reception and the induction ceremony.
“For a basketball junkie, it’s really worth the trip up there,” she said. “They did a really classy job of hosting this.”
Albright said she was pleased to see how women connected to basketball were so well represented at the Hall of Fame.
“I was a great set-up, a really neat thing,” she said. “I was impressed how they incorporated all that into it.”
Albright said she came across 2026 Hall of Fame inductee Candace Parker, who she recruited out of high school but lost that recruiting quest to legendary Pat Summit at Tennessee, for a nice conversation.
Albright’s coaching career began at Spartanburg High School in South Carolina. She was a graduate assistant under Summitt at Tennessee and an assistant coach at Cincinnati before becoming head coach at Northern Illinois from 1984-94. She spent 1994-2003 leading the Wisconsin program and later coached the teams at Wichita State (2003-08) and Nevada (2008-17).
Her career record settled at 512-477.
Since departing from Nevada following the 2016-17 season, Albright said retirement has been good.
“I’m out of that world,” she said. “I’m undefeated the last (nine) years.”
She returned to her hometown, where she owns Things Above, a Christian bookstore and coffee shop in downtown Graham.
Albright, a 1973 graduate of Graham High School, played volleyball and basketball for Appalachian State. She said she remains an interested observer of college basketball.
Ties to Notre Dame associate head coach Carol Owens, who played for her at Northern Illinois, and others keep her in the loop with the Atlantic Coast Conference. She occasionally attends games in the region when former players or coaching colleagues make visits with their teams.
“That’s how I’m connected now,” Albright said. “I’m enjoying Graham and being in the ACC territory.”
