Sooners coach among Hall inductees

Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale, NCAA Division I scoring leader Jackie Stiles and three-time WNBA All-Star Natalie Williams were among six people inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday night in Knoxville.

Also inducted were former official June Courteau, Texas high school coach Joe Lombard and former AAU girls basketball chairman Bill Tipps. Tipps, who died in 2011, was inducted posthumously.

The 1996 U.S. Olympic team that won a gold medal in the Atlanta Games was honored as trailblazers of the game during the ceremony.

“That team and that experience, it was the platform for the WNBA,” said Jennifer Azzi, a 1996 Olympian who played in the WNBA from 1999-2003. “For people in this country to see women play beyond the age of 21 was exciting because everyone thought when you’re 21, you’re done playing and that’s it.”