Lisa Stockton honored for 25 years at Tulane in Friday night ceremony

More than 100 former players, coaches and administrators attended an event on Tulane’s campus for Stockton

NEW ORLEANS – Surrounded by more than 100 people whose lives she has touched in her 25 years as Tulane’s women’s basketball coach, Lisa Stockton was honored at the Jill H. and Avram A. Glazer Family Club on Friday night.

The celebration was held to commemorate Stockton’s 25th season leading the Green Wave, and it comes during the same season she reached 500 career victories at Tulane. In her quarter century with the team, Stockton has taken Tulane to 11 NCAA tournaments and seven WNIT appearances while winning six conference regular-season and tournament championships.

But more than those milestones, Stockton said it was the lives she has touched, the people who have supported her and the student-athletes she has mentored who have meant the most to her.

“When you say that I’ve influenced your lives, you’ve really influenced mine,” Stockton said. “To coach and do something you really love and be able to go out there every day, it’s a dream come true.

“Thank you for tonight. This is very humbling, and I am very grateful to still be here. I promise you this: The best is yet to come.”

The Green Wave’s current senior class presented Stockton with a handmade mirror with the number “25” carved out of wood in front of the glass. On the “25,” the players wrote 25 words that described Coach Stockton.

Stockton was also given a Tulane necklace by Ben Weiner Director of Athletics Chair Troy Dannen and Deputy Athletics Director Mónica Lebrón. Terry Werntz, Director of Basketball Operations Lindsay Werntz’s father, also painted a still photo of a locker room session from earlier this season with Stockton at a whiteboard giving players information on an opponent.

Speaking on the stage to honor Stockton were current and former players, coaches and administrators who all played large roles in Stockton’s career at Tulane.

“In so many ways, Lisa has been the model of what we’re trying to do in my three and a half years here at Tulane,” Dannen said.

Also speaking to the attendees were current Penn State Director of Athletics Sandy Barbour, who was an associate athletic director at Tulane in the 1990s and was greatly responsible for hiring Stockton. Rick Dickson, Tulane’s Director of Athletics during a majority of Stockton’s time with the Green Wave and former point guard and assistant coach Christy Thomaskutty spoke as well.

“When you hire people, it’s all about fit,” Barbour said. “Lisa Stockton fit Tulane. Lisa Stockton fit the kind of success that we wanted to have and the kind of young people that we wanted to bring here.”

“I think of the times we went through and the adversity we faced along the way, and in times like that you always turn to people who are dependable,” Dickson said. “For me, that’s who Lisa is. It goes way beyond being a women’s basketball coach. The success she’s achieved here is great, but it only tells a small part of the story. I look around the room tonight, and all the young women that she helped develop and nurture and put on a path to success, to me that’s the legacy.”

Stockton and the Green Wave will continue the #LockedInForStockton weekend on Saturday when the team takes on Wichita State at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse at 2 p.m. The first 250 fans in attendance will receive a free Lisa Stockton pint glass. Alumni will be recognized at halftime, and Stockton will be honored with a game ball commemorating her 500th win with the Green Wave right before tipoff.