“Administration thought the game was too tough for young ladies, so we burned our uniforms.” It was a difficult time for Margaret Wade after losing the basketball program at Delta State University in the early 1930’s. This is made apparent in her quote “Losing the program was hard since basketball had been a major part of my life during my youth.” These quotes illustrate that Wade and her teammates loved the game of basketball and were vey passionate about it at that time. Lily Margaret Wade was born in McCool Mississippi on December 31, 1912 but went to school and grew up in a small town called Cleveland, Mississippi. At Cleveland High School Margaret Wade’s basketball journey began and along with it an abundance of achievement and disappointments. …show more content…
To her dismay, her college playing career was cut short when Wade and the rest of the team were informed that the sport had disbanded because it was considered too rough for women. After that Wade soon transitioned out of playing women’s basketball to coaching it after she finished obtaining her post graduate degree and further studies at a third college. Forty years after having her dream of playing college basketball taken away, Margaret Wade would be selected to come back and coach the sport at Delta State University. There Wade would work to help give young women a path to be able to participate in sports that had been deemed to strenuous for women in the past. Ironically, a little over fifty years after having her dream of playing collegiate basketball snatched away from her, Margaret Wade would receive a letter from President Ronald Reagan, congratulating her for her contributions to women basketball. In the letter Reagan states “Stories like yours are encouraging and inspiring, for it is hardworking, dedicated individuals like you who make this nation great.” Nothing illustrates how monumental her contributions to the sport of women’s basketball were more then recognition from the president