By Vivian Shipe
KNOXVILLE, TN — It was the sixties, it was rural Roane County and they had never had a Black player on the team until one moment changed everything. When the tall Black 6 foot 2 inch lanky and extremely talented 17-year-old girl ran out on the basketball court at Roane County High School, it was the beginning of a stellar career for Carolyn Bush-Roddy. It was a career filled with Olympic gold, playing against and coaching with Pat Head Summit, and traveling the world with the USA All-Star teams.
Bush-Roddy was ready from the beginning. Not only physically prepared, she had been mentally prepared by a strong grandmother. Alice Martin drilled into her granddaughter that she could do and be anything she wanted to be, all she had to do was not be afraid to fail She wasn’t afraid and over the next few decades she would live out her grandmother’s decree over and over
Bush-Roddy would step up and blaze trails for women’s basketball again and again, beginning with the fight to play full- court. A guard who started her career playing half-court ball, she would testify before the Tennessee Federal Counsel; successfully winning the right for women to play full-court ball.
Following 12 MVP moments in high school, she would continue to be an All-Star at Hiawasse College until she was recruited to Wayland Baptist College in Oklahoma; the winningest college women’s basketball team for over 35 years. During her years at Wayland as one of the famous “Flying Queens,” she scored 1,092 points. It was just the beginning.
When the women’s professional basketball league began, Bush-Roddy was on one the first teams, the Dallas Diamonds, again playing and scoring her way into the history books.
Her later years would lead her to successful head coach positions at her alma mater Hiawassee College and at the historic HBCU Knoxville College. She would also coach for 28 years at Pat Head Summit camps.
Inducted into the Wayland College Hall of Fame in 2009, and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019, Bush-Roddy’s career came full circle on Saturday, March 2 when she once again ran out on the basketball court in Roane County, this time to be honored and inducted into the TCCAA, the Tennessee Community College Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
Still tall and lanky, the basketball trailblazer has been married for over 40 years to the love of her life and greatest supporter, Steve Roddy. They have two sons, Brent and Courtney.
Besides the words of her grandmother, when asked what she attributes her successful life to, Carolyn Bush-Roddy, without hesitation will tell you, Philippians 4:13.
I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me.
Indeed she can.
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