COLBERT, Oklahoma (KXII) – Growing up as a young girl in Colbert, Oklahoma, for Joyce Parker, there was only one thing to do.
“From fifth grade on up, it was basketball, basketball, basketball,” she said. “That was the whole thing.”
And Parker didn’t just play ball, she played ball well.
By the time she got to Colbert High in the early 70s, Parker was ready to take the Leopards game to the next level.
“My junior and senior year, we won the state championship for the first time, and that was like a big, big thing for us,” she said. “We had so many great fans, we had caravans following us from place to place.”
Those back-to-back state championships in 1976 and 1977 helped propel Parker to new heights.
After graduation, she moved up the road from Colbert to Norman, where, alongside teammate and friend Tereasa Turner, she became the first Black female athlete to earn a scholarship at the University of Oklahoma.
“At the time, at 18, I was so young, I didn’t realize the impact of being the first two black females,” Parker said. “It was just this basketball scholarship and we never even thought about the color thing until later on.”
As a Sooner, Parker excelled, earning All Big 8 honors her freshman year.
“That was an exciting thing to go from a senior class of 35 people to a big D1 school,” she said. “That was like a big culture shock.”
And in early February, decades after taking the court in the crimson and cream for the last time, both women were celebrated at their home turf — Lloyd Noble Center.
“While we were coming down the tunnel, I picked up the basketball and just held it up, and it did bring back a lot of memories,” Parker said. “I feel like basketball gave me a little bit more confidence that I needed and knowing that was something I was good at, that made a big difference in my life.”
And for the trailblazers of tomorrow, Parker has a simple message.
“If you’re in any type of sport, first of all, kudos for being in that sport as a female,” she said. “Secondly, don’t let anyone discourage you, if that’s your thing and that’s what you like to do, keep at it.”
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