Louisiana Tech, 1984
• 1982 Academic All-America® Third Team
• 1983 Academic All-America® First Team
• 1984 Academic All-America® First Team
Kim Mulkey was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 2003.
Kim Mulkey, born in Santa Ana, Calif., and raised in Tickfaw, La., was a star athlete in the sport of women’s basketball before becoming a coach in the NCAA game. She helped lead her Hammond High School basketball team to four consecutive state championships.
Mulkey went on to play college basketball for Louisiana Tech University, helping the Lady Techsters win two national championships (AIAW in 1981 and the inaugural NCAA Championship in 1982). In her senior season with Louisiana Tech she was awarded the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, which is given to the nation’s top college senior under 5’6”. That year she would also go on to represent the gold medal-winning United States team in the 1984 Summer Olympics.
After graduating from Louisiana Tech, Mulkey served as an assistant coach from 1985-1996 for the Lady Techsters before being promoted to the associate head coach of the program in 1996 and serving in that capacity through the 1999-2000 season.
In 2000-01, Mulkey was given her first shot at head coach when she took the job at Baylor University, a program that finished the previous season with a 7-20 record and took last place in the Big 12. In her first season at the helm she guided the Lady Bears to their first ever NCAA tournament berth, and has coached the team to eight consecutive 20+ win seasons as well. The 2004-05 campaign was a historic season for Mulkey as she led the Lady Bears to a 33-3 final record and the NCAA national championship. She became the first woman to have ever won a national championship as both a player and a coach, and only the third person ever to do so (Bob Knight and Dean Smith).
Mulkey was enshrined in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 for her accomplishments in the game as a player.