Carolyn Arlene Peck (born January 22, 1966) is an American television sportscaster and former college basketball coach. She was the head coach for the women's basketball teams of

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

and the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, and also the first head coach-

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

in the history of the WNBA's Orlando Miracle. Peck was also an associate head coach for her alma mater,

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

Basketball career

As a senior in high school, Peck, a 6-4 center, was named Tennessee's Miss Basketball after averaging 35 points and 13.2 rebounds per game. She played college basketball at

from 1985 to 1988, averaging 10.6 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. She also blocked 180 shots, to break a Vanderbilt women's basketball career record. Peck graduated from Vanderbilt with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in

communications Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

in 1988. She passed up an opportunity to play professionally in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

to work as a marketing consultant at a

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

television station, as well as sell

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

products for a

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

company for two years. Peck returned to basketball in 1991, quitting her job to play professionally in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

for three weeks, then for

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

’s Nippondenso Corporation for two years. During her second year in Japan, her team won the league championship.

Coaching career

Assistant coach

Peck's coaching career began in 1993. She returned to her home state to serve as an assistant coach for the

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

Lady Vols under coach

Pat Summitt Patricia Susan Summitt (; June 14, 1952 – June 28, 2016) was an American women's college basketball head coach who accrued 1,098 career wins, the most in college basketball history at the time of her retirement. She served as the head coac ...

for two seasons. The Lady Vols posted 30-win seasons and won the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

championship during both seasons: 31–2 in 1993–94, and 34–3 in 1994–95. The latter team lost to the undefeated, Rebecca Lobo-led

Connecticut Huskies The UConn Huskies (or Connecticut Huskies) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Connecticut, located in Storrs. The school is a member of the NCAA's Division I and the Big East Conference. The university's fo ...

in the NCAA Championship game, the school's and head coach

Geno Auriemma Luigi "Geno" Auriemma (born March 23, 1954) is an Italian-born American college basketball coach and, since 1985, the head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team. , he has led UConn to 17 undefeated conference sea ...

's first National Championship. Peck went on to serve as an assistant coach at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

during the 1995–96 season. After this season, she received another assistant coaching job, this time at

under

Nell Fortner Nell Fortner (born March 3, 1959) is the current women's college basketball coach at Georgia Tech. She is most well known for leading the 2000 Olympics team to a gold medal. She has received numerous awards including the 1997 National Coach of t ...

, who had just replaced the fired

Lin Dunn Lin Dunn (born May 10, 1947) is an American women's basketball coach, currently general manager with the Indiana Fever. She is most known for being the first coach and general manager for the Seattle Storm. She has more than 500 wins to her name. ...

. The Boilermakers finished 17–11 during the 1996–97 season and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. At the end of this season, Fortner was offered the position of head coach of the USA Women's basketball team for the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

and was leaving

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

. She handed over the reins of head coach to Peck, who became Purdue's third head coach in as many seasons. After time as a head coach and in broadcasting, in 2016 Peck joined Vanderbilt's women's basketball team as an associate head coach under Stephanie White.

Head coach

Purdue University

During Peck's first season as head coach (1997–98), Purdue went 23–10 with an Elite Eight appearance. Things appeared to be looking up for the following season; the bulk of the team was returning. Meanwhile, in April 1998 the young WNBA announced that it was expanding from ten teams to twelve, with one of the new franchises to be based in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. Pat Williams, senior executive vice president of the Orlando team-to-be, began his search to find a head coach–general manager. The original list of prospects had six candidates, including Summitt, Duke's Gail Goestenkors and Florida's Carol Ross— but not Peck. After all six candidates turned down the offer, Williams then called Peck upon the recommendation of both Ross and Goestenkors. In June 1998 Peck accepted the job with a four-year contract. Despite accepting this new role, Peck was faced with a dilemma: having to return to Purdue to tell her team that they would once again have to play under a new coach. After she broke the news, some of her players felt betrayed and angry, some of them even telling her so personally. So after struggling with the idea of leaving Purdue after just one season as their coach, Peck again called Williams, asking him if she could remain at Purdue for the 1998–99 season and then go to Orlando for the start of the WNBA season. He granted her request. In July it was announced that Peck would be the first head coach and general manager of the Orlando team (now named the

Miracle A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divin ...

), and coach at Purdue for one last season. The friction between Peck and her players eased, after the team took a preseason trip to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

for exhibition games. By the start of the season, the team was together, and Peck would neither discuss the fact that she was leaving nor answer any questions about Orlando. Led by Katie Douglas, Stephanie White and

Ukari Figgs Ukari Okien Figgs (born March 31, 1977) is an American former collegiate and professional women's basketball player. High School and College years Born in Georgetown, Kentucky, Figgs led the Scott County girls' basketball team to a state title ...

, the Boilermakers posted a 28–1 record during the regular season, the lone loss coming by one point against

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

. The team won the 1999 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament (the first national championship in Purdue women's basketball history, winning all six of its games by at least 10 points, including a 62–45 victory over Duke in the title game. Peck became the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

to coach a women's Division I basketball national championship team; she has since been joined by

Dawn Staley Dawn Michelle Staley (born May 4, 1970) is an American basketball Hall of Fame player and coach, who is currently the head coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks. Staley won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA as a player and later was head co ...

, who coached

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

to the 2017 National Championship. Peck was named Women's Basketball Coach of the Year by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

, as well as becoming the first woman and the first African American to win the Winged Foot Award (which honored the best coach in college basketball) from the

New York Athletic Club The New York Athletic Club is a private social club and athletic club in New York state. Founded in 1868, the club has approximately 8,600 members and two facilities: the City House, located at 180 Central Park South in Manhattan, and Travers ...

. Two weeks after guiding Purdue to the title, Peck was in Orlando preparing the Miracle for their upcoming season. Peck was awarded the US Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Coach of the Year, the WBCA Coach of the Year, the

AP College Basketball Coach of the Year The Associated Press College Basketball Coach of the Year award was established in 1967 to recognize the best men's college basketball coach of the year, as voted upon by the Associated Press (AP). A parallel award for women's coaches was added in ...

and the

Naismith College Coach of the Year Naismith College Coach of the Year Award is an award given by the Atlanta Tipoff Club to one men's and one women's NCAA Division I collegiate coach each season since 1987. The award was originally given to the two winning coaches of the NCAA Divis ...

awards in 1999. To date, Peck, at 33 years old, is the youngest person to coach a women's Division I basketball national championship team. The title is also the only one in women's college basketball by a

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

school.

Orlando Miracle

During Peck's three seasons as WNBA coach, the Miracle, which featured Shannon Johnson,

Taj McWilliams-Franklin Taj McWilliams-Franklin (born October 20, 1970) is a former American professional women's basketball player. A two-time WNBA champion with the Detroit Shock and Minnesota Lynx and six-time all-star, McWilliams-Franklin's professional career has ...

Nykesha Sales Nykesha Simone Sales (born May 10, 1976) is an American assistant coach at the University of Georgia. She is a former professional basketball player in the WNBA, as well as playing in the Bosnian league for the ZKK Mladi Krajisnik club. Her prim ...

and fellow Vanderbilt graduate

Sheri Sam Sheri Lynette Sam (born May 5, 1974) is an American professional women's basketball coach and player who played in the WNBA. She was born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana as the youngest of eight siblings, and where she was a standout at Acadi ...

, posted a 44–52 record, narrowly missing out on the playoffs in 1999 and qualifying for them in 2000, where they lost to the

Cleveland Rockers The Cleveland Rockers were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Cleveland, that played from 1997 until 2003. The Rockers were one of the original eight franchises of the WNBA, which started in 1997. The owner was Gordon Gu ...

2 games to 1.

University of Florida

On April 3, 2002, Peck returned to coaching college basketball, this time leading the

Florida Gators women's basketball The Florida Gators women's basketball team represents the University of Florida in the sport of basketball. The Gators compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The Gator ...

team of the

. During her five seasons at Florida (2002–03 through 2006-07), the Gators posted a 72–75 record with two NCAA tournament berths. The 2003–04 team, which posted a 19–11 record after going 9–19 the season before, was eliminated by Baylor in the second round of the 2004 NCAA tournament, after defeating

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

in the first round before 16,029 fans at

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

. The 2005–06 team posted a 21–7 record and received a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament, but this time New Mexico got revenge on Florida, defeating them by 24 points in the first round. The 2006–07 season was a disaster—the Gators suffered through a 14-game losing streak and finished 9–22. Following the losing streak, the university fired Peck in February but allowed her to finish the season as coach. Former Florida Gators player

Amanda Butler Amanda Kay Butler (born March 6, 1972) is an American college basketball coach and former player. In 2018, Butler was hired as the head coach of the Clemson Tigers women's basketball team. Prior to that, she was the head coach for the Florida Gat ...

replaced Peck for the 2007–08 season. Peck was not out of basketball for long, however:

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

hired her as a

basketball analyst A sports analyst is a person looking through technical, tactical, physiological, and psychological performance metrics /sup> working with the sports coach and sports science team to improve athlete performance. They will often use Video motion a ...

within months. After 9 years of working for ESPN, Peck was hired by her alma mater (Vanderbilt) to be an assistant coach in June 2016. After the 2017-18 season, Peck stepped down from coaching to return to ESPN. Peck's younger brother Michael served as one of her assistant coaches both with the Orlando Miracle and at the University of Florida. He is currently a coaching consultant.

USA Basketball

Peck served as the assistant coach, under head coach Gail Goestenkors, for the USA representative to the 1997

William Jones Cup The R. William Jones Cup (), also known as the Jones Cup, is an international basketball tournament organized by the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA) held annually since 1977 in Taiwan. It was named in honor of basketball promoter ...

competition The event was held in

Taipei, Taiwan Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

during August 1997. The USA team won their first six games. Four of the six were decided by six points or fewer, including the semifinal game against Japan which went to overtime. In the gold medal game, the USA faced undefeated South Korea. The USA team played to a six-point margin early in the second half, but could not extend the margin. South Korea came back, took the lead, and held on to win the championship and the gold medal 76-71.

Head coaching record

, - , align="left" ,

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

, align="left" ,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, 32, , 15, , 17, , , , align="center" , 4th in East, , -, , -, , -, , - , align="center" , Missed Playoffs , - , align="left" ,

, align="left" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, 32, , 16, , 16, , , , align="center" , 3rd in East, , 3, , 1, , 2, , , align="center" , Lost Eastern Conference Semi-Finals , - , align="left" ,

, align="left" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, 32 , , 13, , 19, , , , align="center" , 5th in East, , -, , -, , -, , - , align="center" , Missed Playoffs , -class="sortbottom" , align="left" , Career , , , 96, , 44, , 52, , , , , , 3, , 1, , 2, ,

References

External links

*
Peck on Super-Hair.net "Ultimate 50"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peck, Carolyn 1966 births Living people African-American basketball coaches African-American basketball players American women's basketball coaches American women's basketball players Basketball coaches from Tennessee Basketball players from Tennessee Florida Gators women's basketball coaches Kentucky Wildcats women's basketball coaches Orlando Miracle coaches People from Jefferson City, Tennessee Purdue Boilermakers women's basketball coaches Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball coaches Vanderbilt Commodores women's basketball players Women sports announcers Las Vegas Aces announcers Women's National Basketball Association general managers