WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Leading Purdue women's basketball to the pinnacle of the college basketball world with the 1999 NCAA National Championship, former Boilermaker head coach Carolyn Peck will be enshrined among the legends of the game when she is inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday night.
Peck will enter the WBHOF alongside fellow Class of 2023 members Lindsay Whalen, Lisa Mattingly, Donna Lopiano and Cathy Boswell.
The induction ceremony in Knoxville, Tenn., will be streamed on ESPN3 starting at 6 p.m. Rebroadcasts will be on ESPNU on May 2 at 8:30 p.m., May 4 at 5 p.m., May 6 at 5 p.m. and May 7 at 7 p.m.
Peck cemented her legacy as one of college basketball's greats when she led Purdue to the 1999 NCAA National Championship, becoming the first Black head coach to win a women's basketball national title. Purdue rolled to a program-best 34-1 record, the regular season and tournament titles in the Big Ten and a record 10 wins over ranked opponents.
The Boilermakers rose to No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time in program history following a 78-68 win over then-No. 1 Tennessee in the State Farm Women's Tip-Off Classic, snapping the Lady Vols' 46-game winning streak. The Boilermakers cruised to a perfect 16-0 to claim the Big Ten regular season title, before rolling to the Big Ten Tournament Championship.
Peck's Boilermakers stormed through the NCAA Tournament, winning every game by double digits. Purdue downed Duke 62-45 in the National Championship Game in San Jose, Calif., to put the Boilermakers atop the college basketball world.
For her efforts, Peck was named the Naismith College Coach of the Year, the Associated Press College Basketball Coach of the Year and the National Coach of the Year by the WBCA and the USBWA. Purdue's national championship remains the only one ever won by a Big Ten women's basketball program.
Peck's enduring impact at Purdue was made in just three seasons in West Lafayette. Joining the Boilermakers as an assistant coach on Nell Fortner's staff in 1996-97. Peck ascended to the head chair the following season. The Boilermakers went 57-11 in two seasons under Peck with a pair of Big Ten Tournament titles, in addition to an Elite Eight appearance in 1997-98.
Peck left Purdue to join the Orlando Miracle for its debut season in 1999. She spent three seasons as a head coach in the WNBA prior to five seasons as the head coach at Florida for five years. Peck joined Boilermaker alumna, 1999 Wade Trophy Winner and current Connecticut Sun head coach Stephanie White's staff at Vanderbilt in 2016 for two seasons.
Prior to her arrival in West Lafayette, Peck played collegiately for Vanderbilt and spent her professional career in Italy and Japan. She got her start in the coaching ranks as an assistant coach for Pat Summitt at Tennessee for two seasons before going to Kentucky for the 1995-96 campaign.
Peck is the third former Boilermaker coach to be enshrined in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. She joins Linn Dunn from the Class of 2014 and assistant Gail Goestenkors from the Class of 2015.