Deborah Dillon Lightfoot (March 1, 1956 – June 21, 2007) was an American wheelchair athlete. She was the third woman inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001.

Early life and education

Deborah Ann Dillon was born in

South Windsor, Connecticut South Windsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 26,918 at the 2020 census. History In 1659, Thomas Burnham (1617–1688) purchased the tract of land now covered by the towns of South Windsor and East Har ...

, the daughter of Thomas J. Dillon and Patricia Sullivan Dillon. In February 1971, at age 14, she injured her spinal cord in a sledding accident, and became quadriplegic. Two years later, she was a delegate to the National

4-H 4-H is a U.S.-based network of youth organizations whose mission is "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development". Its name is a reference to the occurrence of the initial letter H four times i ...

Congress in Chicago. She also wrote articles about 4-H Club activities for the ''

Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...

''. Dillon graduated from

South Windsor High School South Windsor High School is located in South Windsor, Connecticut. It currently serves grades 9-12 with approximately 1,364 students and a 13:1 student-teacher ratio. It is the only high school in South Windsor, but also admits students from Har ...

in 1974, and attended the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, where she played on the wheelchair basketball team and won medals in track and field events, including

pentathlon A pentathlon is a contest featuring five events. The name is derived from Greek: combining the words ''pente'' (five) and -''athlon'' (competition) ( gr, πένταθλον). The first pentathlon was documented in Ancient Greece and was part of t ...

, at the National Wheelchair Games in 1976, 1977 and 1978. She and teammate

Sharon Hedrick Sharon Hedrick (née Rahn, born April 26, 1956) is an American former paralympic swimmer, wheelchair racer and wheelchair basketballer. Hedrick was born in Horsham, Pennsylvania. At the age of nine, she was accidentally shot by a 12-year-old b ...

were among the first wheelchair athletes to win the school's George Huff Award for student athletes. Dillon graduated from the University of Illinois in 1979, and earned a master's degree at

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

in 1980.

Career

While she was a college student, Dillon was a member of the United States team at the 1976 Paralympic Games in Toronto. She also represented the United States as an athlete at the

Stoke Mandeville Games Stoke is a common place name in the United Kingdom. Stoke may refer to: Places United Kingdom The largest city called Stoke is Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. See below. Berkshire * Stoke Row, Berkshire Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Stok ...

in England in 1977, and at the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

in Rio de Janeiro in 1978. Dillon Lightfoot was an information systems analyst with the

California Department of Health Services The California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS) is the state agency tasked with administration and oversight of "state and federal programs for health care, social services, public assistance and rehabilitation" in the U.S. state of Califor ...

. She continued active in sports in adulthood, as a founding member of the Bay Area Meteorites (a women's basketball team). She also played with the Sacramento Gold Rush. She was secretary of the

National Wheelchair Basketball Association National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) is composed of 181 wheelchair basketball teams within twenty-two conferences. Founded in 1949 by Timothy Nugent, the NWBA today consists of men's, women's, intercollegiate, and youth teams throug ...

(NWBA) from 1982 to 2000, and in 2001 became the third woman inducted in the NWBA's Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Dillon married David H. Lightfoot in 1992. She died from cancer in

Lincoln, California Lincoln is a city in Placer County, California, United States, part of the Sacramento metropolitan area. Located in an area of rapid suburban development, it grew 282.1 percent between 2000 and 2010, making it the fastest-growing city over 10,000 ...

in 2007, aged 51 years. In 2015, she was posthumously inducted into the South Windsor High School Hall of Fame.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dillon Lightfoot, Deborah 1956 births 2007 deaths American women's wheelchair basketball players People from South Windsor, Connecticut Sportspeople from Hartford County, Connecticut University of Illinois alumni San Jose State University alumni Deaths from cancer in California Illinois Fighting Illini Paralympic athletes 21st-century American women