Mary Camille "Kamie" Ethridge (born April 21, 1964) is a former American basketball player and current basketball coach. She was an All-American point guard at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and won a gold medal at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

. She is considered one of the best women's basketball players in history and was inducted into the

Women's Basketball Hall of Fame The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame honors those who have contributed to the sport of women's basketball. The Hall of Fame opened in 1999 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA. It is the only facility of its kind dedicated to all levels of women's bask ...

in 2002. Ethridge is currently the head coach at

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...

High school

Born in

Hereford, Texas Hereford ( ) is a city in and county seat of Deaf Smith County, Texas, United States. It is 48 miles southwest of Amarillo. Its population was 15,370 at the 2010 census. It is the only incorporated locality named "Hereford" in the country. Here ...

, Ethridge played guard for Monterey High School, in

Lubbock, Texas Lubbock ( ) is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the northw ...

. She led her team to a state championship (5A) in 1981.

College

Ethridge attended the University of Texas, where she played for Hall of Fame coach

Jody Conradt Addie Jo "Jody" Conradt (born May 13, 1941) is a retired women's basketball coach. She was the head coach for the women's team at University of Texas at Austin (UT). Her coaching career spanned 38 years, with the last 31 years at UT from 1976 to ...

. The Longhorns were one of the more powerful teams in the country at the time Ethridge joined the team, and she would help strengthen that position. Ethridge arrived at Texas in 1982. In her first two years, the team earned a two seed at the

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

and the 1984 NCAA basketball tournament. In 1984, the team was strong enough to earn the number one ranking in the regular season final AP poll. The team suffered knee injuries to five key players in 1984, including injuries to center Annette Smith so severe she was in rehabilitation for well over a year. In 1985, the team would also end the season ranked number one in the poll. That year, the team went 28–3 in the regular season, and looked forward to a Final Four held at their own arena, the

Erwin Center The Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center (commonly known as Frank Erwin Center or UT Erwin Center and originally Special Events Center) is an inactive multi-purpose arena located on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas. It is also ...

. The Longhorns were stunned by a buzzer beating shot by

Western Kentucky Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state. ;Always included * The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...

, and lost 92–90 in the Mideast Regional semifinals. Despite earning lofty rankings, the team entered the 1985–86 season without having won a National Championship. Ethridge was one of six seniors, including Fran Harris, who were in their last year of college ball with one last chance for a championship. Ethridge was considered very competitive she once competed in a triathlon, riding the 9-mile bicycle leg with a flat tire for the last three miles. The team was again ranked very high, prompting Sports Illustrated to refer to their arena as "the best little scorehouse in Texas". That year, the team entered the tournament undefeated, and won all their tournament games, finishing the season as the first undefeated NCAA Division I women's basketball team (34–0), and national champions. Ethridge was the 1986 winner of the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in th ...

for basketball and the overall

Honda-Broderick Cup The Honda-Broderick Cup is a sports award for college-level female athletes. The awards are voted on by a national panel of more than 1000 collegiate athletic directors. It was first presented by Tom Broderick, an American owner of a women's sports ...

winner for all sports. She was also the winner of the

Wade Trophy The Wade Trophy is an award presented annually to the best upperclass women's basketball player in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I competition. It is named after three–time national champion Delta State University coac ...

, reflecting leadership and character in addition to athletic ability. Etheridge was the 1986 recipient of the Frances Pomeroy Naismith award, which is presented by the WBCA annually to "the nation's most outstanding NCAA Division I female basketball player who stands 5'8" tall or under". While at Texas, she had 776 assists, setting a school record. On September 7, 2019, Kamie Ethridge's number 33 was officially retired at halftime of a Texas–LSU football game and she became the first female Longhorn athlete to receive this honor.

Texas statistics

Source

USA Basketball

Ethridge played for the USA World University Games team in

Kobe, Japan Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, which ...

in 1985. The team brought home a silver medal, after falling to the USSR. The team trailed by 18 points at one time, mounted a comeback attempt but fell short, losing 87–81. The following year, Ethridge played for the USA team at the World Championships, in Moscow. This time, the USA team would meet the USSR in the title game and emerge victorious, winning the gold medal with a score of 108–88. Ethridge was a member of the gold medal-winning USA team competing in the Pan American games held in Indianapolis, Indiana during August 1987, although she saw limited action due to a knee injury sustained in the first game. Ethridge finished her USA basketball playing career with a gold medal win in the 1988 Olympics held in

Seoul, Korea Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

Coaching

Ethridge was a graduate assistant at Texas in 1987–88 after completing her bachelor's degree, then played professionally in Italy for the team OECE in 1988–89. Ethridge became a graduate assistant at

Northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by th ...

in 1989 and was promoted to assistant coach in 1990. She then moved on to Vanderbilt and was part of the coaching staff under Jim Foster to help the team to a 1993 Final Four appearance. She then moved on to Kansas State, first as an assistant, then as associate head coach, where she helped the team become competitive. Ethridge landed her first head coaching job in 2014 at

Northern Colorado Northern Colorado is the name for a region in the state of Colorado and a proposed state in the northeastern portion of Colorado. Region Northern Colorado is a region in the northern portion of Colorado. It borders northwestern Colorado, nort ...

, and enjoyed immediate success, leading the Bears to a school-record 22 wins in her first season. She went on to lead the team to two additional 20-win seasons, capped off by a 2017–18 season that saw a school record of 26 wins,

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...

regular-season and

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

titles and the program's first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament as a Division I member. At the end of the regular season, Ethridge was named the Big Sky coach of the year. After the tournament appearance, she was hired away by

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

to replace the fired June Daugherty.

Awards and honors

* 1986—Winner of the

for basketball * 1986—The

winner for all sports. * 1986—The

* 2000—University of Texas Women's Athletic Hall of Honor * 2002—Women's Basketball Hall of Fame * 2022—Pac-12 Coach of the Year * 2023—National Coach of the Year by The Athletic

Head coaching record

Notes

References

External links

Northern Colorado athletic site bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ethridge, Kamie 1964 births Living people All-American college women's basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Italy American women's basketball coaches American women's basketball players Basketball coaches from Texas Basketball players at the 1987 Pan American Games Basketball players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Basketball players from Texas Kansas State Wildcats women's basketball coaches Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Northern Illinois Huskies women's basketball coaches Northern Illinois University alumni Olympic gold medalists for the United States in basketball Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in basketball People from Hereford, Texas Point guards Sportspeople from Lubbock, Texas Texas Longhorns women's basketball players Universiade gold medalists for the United States Universiade medalists in basketball Vanderbilt Commodores women's basketball coaches Washington State Cougars women's basketball coaches Medalists at the 1987 Pan American Games United States women's national basketball team players Northern Colorado Bears women's basketball coaches