By River Mitchell
@rivermitchell27
From coaching the first ever women’s collegiate basketball game played at Madison Square Garden and the World University Games in Bulgaria, Lucille Kyvallos is a true pioneer for women’s basketball. Along with a plethora of success coaching at the collegiate level, this past August Kyvallos was honored with an induction into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
Notably, she did this without playing a single organized game in high school, college or professionally. This was due to a lack of opportunity for her to play at those levels, which ultimately inspired her to blaze a trail for those in her situation.
“I knew I had to live with that for the rest of my life,” Kyvallos said. “I just channeled my energy in a direction where women could be excellent athletes and have opportunities.”
However, this doesn’t mean she couldn’t hoop. Growing up in Astoria, Queens, Kyvallos began her basketball journey during junior high school. She started by joining recreational leagues which she played in throughout high school and college, while also playing pickup basketball with the local kids in Astoria. Kyvallos showed that her gender didn’t impact her abilities, playing better than many of the boys in the area.
“I always played with boys,” Kyvallos said. “Because I was skilled, I was probably one of the best athletes on my block. When I was playing basketball, I would fake and throw them off balance and score, so I was producing. I was better than a lot of the boys. They didn’t have a problem with it.”
Kyvallos also played on an all-girls team during her youth called the New York Cover Girls, traveling through the Northeast and playing men’s teams for fundraisers and entertainment. They even got to play in Madison Square Garden, a place where she would later coach a historic game versus Immaculata College.
Kyvallos started her college journey at New York University, before transferring to Springfield after roughly a year and a half, mainly coming for its physical education program. While not on a collegiate team, Kyvallos played pickup basketball with the other guys in the gym and seeked out more rec leagues to join, even commuting to Long Island from Springfield to play. She got praise from former men’s basketball coach Ed Steitz, who told her she was probably the best basketball player at Springfield College.
Kyvallos graduated from Springfield in 1955, where she taught high school for a few years. She also graduated from Indiana University with a masters in Physical Education. After this, she got a job with West Chester State College, where she coached the girls basketball team as soon as women’s sports began getting integrated into collegiate athletics.
Kyvallos spent four years at West Chester State College, where she led the program to an impressive 52-2 record. Kyvallos had coached at the high school level before, so the coaching aspect wasn’t an issue. But there were a few learning curves along the way.
“Coaching was not a problem for me,” Kyvallos said. “I had experience from a practical point of view. But to break it down and teach it to beginners or people who were unskilled at the college level [was tougher].”
After her impressive run at West Chester, Kyvallos went back to her home borough of Queens, where she became the head coach of the Queens College women’s basketball team from 1968-1981. She amassed a record of 239-77, helping Queens become one of the top teams in women’s college basketball.
The school also hosted the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women National Championship tournament in 1973, where they lost in the final to Immaculata College. The two teams squared off again the following year in a regular season game, where Kyvallos and the Knights beat Immaculata, who had been undefeated for over two years.
These games helped garner attention from the people around New York City, and even attention from Madison Square Garden, where Kyvallos would make history by coaching in the first ever women’s collegiate basketball game at MSG when the Knights faced Immaculata. The event drew just under 12,000 people.
“I remember the day of the game, people were filing into their seats and the teams were on the floor practicing [and] warming up,” Kyvallos said. “All of a sudden, the lights were dimmed. Over on the sound speaker, we heard Helen Reddy’s song, I Am Woman. The first line was, ‘I am women, hear me roar, in numbers too big to ignore.’ Women wanted opportunities in society that had previously not been available. As a result of that, it was a wake up call for the NCAA.”
Due to Kyvallos’ efforts in bringing women’s basketball to the national spotlight and giving women more opportunities for the game she loves, Kyvallos was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame this past summer.
“I was surprised,” Kyvallos said. “I was very happy and excited about it but it didn’t blow me away until I got there. There were about 15 or 16 of my players there, and they had little celebrations planned for me. It was really nice.”
Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics.