A lifetime of hoops: Hall of Famer Trudi Lacey on her journey and love for Charlotte

In the months leading up to her introduction to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, Johnson & Wales Director of Athletics Trudi Lacey knows exactly who deserves her deepest appreciation.

“Growing up in Clifton Forge, Virginia, my parents really sacrificed everything so that me and my sister had the opportunity to go to college and get a college degree,” Lacey said. “Their main goal was to give us every opportunity to have a great life. I’m very thankful to them. And, there’s so many people in our small town that supported me.”

That small town forged a basketball legend and lifer. Lacey has experienced nearly everything sports has to offer. She led N.C. State to its first ACC women’s title in 1979. She was an All-American for the Wolfpack and the first Black woman to earn a scholarship from the university. After graduating, Lacey represented the United States at the World University Games and won gold medals in 1981 and 1983. After a brief professional career overseas, Lacey found her calling as a coach.

From the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting and Washington Mystics to Queens University of Charlotte and Johnson and Wales University, coaching allowed Lacey to champion young women and girls basketball players the way her legendary mentor, Kay Yow, did for her.

The late Yow met a then 12-year-old Lacey at a basketball camp hosted by Washington and Lee University. Lacey said she’ll never forget a speech Yow delivered to the campers that summer.

“Most coaches talk about offense and defense. She talked about passing the ball and assists,” Lacey said. “(She said) ‘In basketball, if you have a shot, but you’re willing to give up the ball for a better shot then you win and your team wins.’ And that really just stuck with me. It was very impactful. ... She was my coach, but she was also a mentor, a teacher in life and a friend.”

In that moment, Lacey knew she wanted to play for Yow, which she did six years later. But Yow’s words still guide Lacey. In many ways, Yow is why Lacey has dedicated her life to athletics.

“I’ve often said that basketball was just a vehicle for me to have a positive influence and empower other people. Whether it’s student-athletes or even at the professional level when I coached in the WNBA,” Lacey said. “That is part of my purpose, to be a role model and to holistically develop our student-athletes here. It has been a very rewarding experience.”

Charlotte is Lacey’s home. Her love for the Queen City began far before her Sting coaching days. She thanks N.C. State and the people of North Carolina for welcoming and embracing her. After her time with the Mystics, Lacey found herself back in Charlotte coaching at Johnson and Wales University. She did not expect yet another Wildcats program to become her new home. But Lacey has reinvented herself at Johnson and Wales while simultaneously elevating the university’s athletic programs.

In 2016 she stepped away from coaching to become Johnson and Wales athletics director. In 2018, she was named U.S. Collegiate Athletics Association Athletics Director of the Year. That same year, Lacey helped create the Eastern Metro Athletic Conference. She serves as the commissioner for the NCAA Division I conference that features Johnson and Wales and five other universities from the Carolinas and Virginia. Lacey said she formed the Eastern Metro Athletic Conference so Wildcat student-athletes could compete for conference and national championships, just as she did at N.C State.

On April 21, Lacey will be formally inducted into the N.C. Sports Hall of Fame at the Raleigh Convention Center. The honor has given her a chance to reflect.

“It gives me the opportunity to say thank you to a lot of people. To my family, to friends to the athletes that I had the opportunity to coach. To the people who supported me, and people who didn’t like me and didn’t support me. It is the culmination of it all that has given me this opportunity to be inducted in the Hall of Fame,” she said. “I’m so very grateful. And just very thankful.”

Lacey credits the game of basketball for much of her life’s greatest lessons and relationships. The sport gifted her with a lifetime of purpose and a calling she works daily to satisfy.

“My mission is to empower young women, particularly young Black women,” Lacey said. “You can do whatever you want to do if you’re willing to work hard enough. And if you are willing to take the knocks on the nose then you can get it done.”