In the National Basketball Association (NBA), before there was LeBron, there was Kobe. Before Kobe, there was Michael. Before Michael, there was Magic. In women's basketball, before there was Pat Summitt, there was 1952 Oberlin College graduate Jim Stockdale.
 
When looking at the history of women's basketball in the State of Tennessee, the story doesn't start with legendary Coach Summitt and her Tennessee Lady Vols, who won eight NCAA championship titles during her tenure from 1974-2012.
 
The story of women's basketball in the State of Tennessee begins at the University of Tennessee College of Nursing in Memphis. It was there that Stockdale built a dynasty of his own as the volunteer head coach of the UT Nurses for 26 years from 1955-81.
 
Stockdale, who graduated from Oberlin with a degree in physical education, was drafted into the Army and served for two years before returning to Tennessee, where he earned a master's degree from UT Knoxville.
 
"I wanted to get into teaching and coaching after graduating from Oberlin, but of course the Army got in the way, which was true for everybody back then," Stockdale noted. "Once I got my master's degree, the University of Tennessee Medical Units was looking for somebody that had a physical education degree and a master's. Then one day the call came to the head of the program at Knoxville and he told the gentleman who hired me I got the perfect guy for you."
 
Perfect he was. Stockdale was hired as the assistant director of student welfare, which was the beginning of a 37-year career with the university. After performing an array of different jobs, which included overseeing of the design and construction of Randolph Student-Alumni Center, Stockdale became the first personnel director at the UT Medical Units, which is now known as the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
 
"I had the dean of students job without the disciplinary side to it – that's the best way I could describe it. When you wear all those different hats you learn how to solve a lot of problems and start a bunch different programs. You're really pioneering without even realizing it."
 
In his role as personnel director, he was tasked with integrating the University of Tennessee campuses' non-academic workforce. He and four others also wrote the personnel policies for all the UT branches in the early 1970s.
 
Stockdale eventually became the national president of the University Personnel Association and, in 1992, would retire as the assistant to the vice chancellor.
 
During his distinguished career in higher education, Stockdale was also doing what he'd wanted to do since graduating from Oberlin – coach.
 
"I never got paid a dollar for it, but I got paid back in what is important – getting to know a bunch of wonderful people - and the payback is still happening."
 
After being asked to find a coach for the team, Stockdale discussed with his wife Dorothy the possibility of taking over the role as coach himself. Once he got the okay from her, he returned to his bosses at the school and said "How about me?"
 
The record books will show they made the right hire.
 

Under Stockdale's guidance the UT Nurses won eight Cotton States Invitational Nurses Basketball Tournaments, which ran from 1957-1985. The Cotton States Tournament eventually featured 37 teams across 10 different states.
 
"When we first started, we basically just played the other three schools four times a year for 12 games and that was it, but then we started to do a little traveling to other nursing schools with the approval of the dean, and that evolved into the start of the tournament."
 
By the time Stockdale put away his coaching whistle for good in 1981, the UT Nurses were playing upwards of 20 games per season with two to three road trips a year.
 
"If you wanted to enjoy coaching in the absolutely best situation, that was it because any pressure to win was what we put on ourselves. It wasn't as if I was going to lose my job, so it was all of the good and none of the bad."
 
Stockdale's teams were so strong he was even accused of recruiting, which did not happen during that era.
 
"That was not the case. I never knew who I was going to have until they were accepted into nursing school."
 
Not all states had high school girls' basketball during that era, but Tennessee did, so he admits to having been blessed with talented players out of high school.
 
"You have to remember that back during that time, career choices for women were very limited; you either became a secretary, school teacher, nurse or a stay-at-home mother, so we had all these girls going into nursing school looking for something to do and that is why basketball took off."
 
Stockdale took his team to Indiana in 1967 for what was dubbed the "Super Bowl" of women's basketball because the Indiana squad had not lost in two years. His UT Nurses won 76-10.
 
"I was trying not to run up the score and felt so bad about that because Indiana University was so good to us, but the difference was we had players already developed when they got to us."
 
While the wins and championships were memorable for Jim and his players, it is the relationships they forged that have mattered most.
 
At a recent team reunion Shirley Stagner, who played for Stockdale said, "Other than my father, he was the finest man I'd ever had contact with."
 
"A week won't go by that I don't get an email from one of my players," Stockdale said.
 
His players cherished him so deeply that they have endowed two scholarships in his name. The Coach Jim Stockdale Endowment goes to a student in the UT College of Nursing and the Jim Stockdale Endowed Scholarship funds a player on the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team.
 
With lasting impressions and life lessons taught by Stockdale, it is no surprised that he was inducted into Memphis Amateur Sports Hall of Fame following his retirement from coaching.
 
However, the accolades won't stop there, as he will be bestowed with the "Champion Within Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame on June 18.

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