Mitty girls coach Sue Phillips makes Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame

Legendary prep coach joins 2024 class that includes Maya Moore and Seimone Augustus

Sue Phillips, the legendary Archbishop Mitty High girls basketball coach who has coached at the San Jose school for 30 years, was named to the 2024 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame class on Thursday.

Phillips has a 789-138 record as Mitty’s coach, and she has also been an integral part of USA Basketball, coaching many of the gold medal-winning youth teams.

Phillips is joined in this year’s class by former Minnesota Lynx and USA Basketball teammates Maya Moore and Seimone Augustus.

Former players Taj McWilliams-Franklin and Rita Gail Easterling are among those inducted, as is former official Violet Palmer, the first woman to referee an NBA game, and coach Mary Scovel.

The ceremony will take place on April 27 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The Hall of Fame will also honor Cheyney University as the “Trailblazer of the Game.” The “For the Love of the Game” award will go to the Afghan Resettlement Program.

Moore announced her retirement from basketball in January, five years after her final game with the Lynx.

She had a 150-4 record at UConn. The two-time AP Player of the Year and four-time All-American was a key component of the Huskies’ 90-game winning streak, which was the school’s longest until a 111-game run a few years later.

Augustus was selected first overall by the Lynx in 2006 after winning back-to-back AP Player of the Year awards at LSU. From 2004 to 2006, she led the Tigers to the Final Four.

McWilliams-Franklin, Moore, and Augustus were all members of the 2011 Lynx team. She had previously won WNBA championships with the Detroit Shock in 2006 and 2008.

Easterling played for Mississippi College from 1973 to 1977, where he helped the team win the AIAW national championship game in 1974. She also had a brief career in the Women’s Professional Basketball League, a forerunner to the WNBA.

Scovel coached Gulf Coast State College in Florida, where he won six junior college national titles. She had a score of 646-91.

Palmer has officiated at almost every level of basketball, including the NBA, WNBA, and women’s college basketball. She officiated over 700 regular-season NBA games, making history as the first female to do so in 1997.