Kentucky WBB honors 1982 SEC Champions during Sunday's game

The 1982 Kentucky Wildcats Women’s Basketball team did something that no other group in program history has accomplished: win the SEC Tournament.

On Sunday afternoon, during halftime of the current Kentucky team’s matchup against the Ole Miss Rebels, that legendary group of women was honored during halftime.

The 1982 squad, which finished with a 24-8 overall record, won the school’s only SEC Tournament title at Memorial Coliseum, knocking off rival Tennessee and head coach Pat Summitt by a score of 80-74. UK would make it to its first-ever NCAA Tournament Elite 8 that season before falling to Lousiana Tech.

Welcome home 1982! 🤩

In 1982, these ladies won the @SEC Championship for the Wildcats. pic.twitter.com/sZCpJu6RwC

— Kentucky WBB (@KentuckyWBB) January 23, 2022

The 1982 Champs are back in Lexington! 💙

Thank you for being an inspiration to us every day.

1982 x #CommitToIt pic.twitter.com/xi3lnZjgIX

— Kentucky WBB (@KentuckyWBB) January 23, 2022

The most noteworthy member of that record-breaking team features the program’s all-time leading scorer, Valerie Still, who registered 2,763 points during her four-year career with the ‘Cats from 1979-1983. That group also included some of Kentucky WBB’s other all-time greats, such as Patty Jo Hedges, Lea Wise, and many others. The team was coached by the late Terry Hall, who passed after succumbing to cancer in 1997.

The 1982 team was special for several reasons, setting individual records that still remain to this day. Still poured in 794 points across 32 games, a single-season program record, and also hauled in the most rebounds in a single season with 457, while Jo Hedges dished out the most assists in a single season with 209. Wise, along with Still, was voted to the All-SEC Team by the coaches.

To this day, that team is the most successful in Kentucky Women’s Basketball history.