Tulane hoops legend Grace Daley to be Inducted into Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame

NEW ORLEANS – Grace Daley, the all-time leading scorer in Tulane basketball history, has been selected for induction into the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023. FULL STORY BELOW.

Daley is one of four standout local sports figures who will be added to the Hall of Fame this year. Each year’s Hall of Fame class is selected by the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, a group of current and former media members who annually recognize a variety of annual award-winners, as well as the Hall of Fame, the Corbett Awards and the Eddie Robinson Award. The group also selects the Greater New Orleans Amateur Athlete of the Month each month.

Overall, 24 individuals and three teams will be honored this year for their achievements at the Committee’s annual awards banquet on Saturday, August 5. Honorees are currently being announced over a two-week period, wrapping up with the Corbett Awards for the top male and female amateur athletes in the state on July 28.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl will continue announcing its awards tomorrow (Tuesday) with the next member of the 2023 Class of the Allstate Sugar Bowl Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.

Grace Daley
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame, Class of 2023

By Lenny Vangilder of the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee

Lisa Stockton had been Tulane’s head women’s basketball coach for a little more than a year in the fall of 1995 when a guard from Ocala, Florida, decided to sign with the Green Wave.

It would change the immediate course of the program.

Over the next four seasons, Grace Daley would put up numbers unmatched to this day by a Tulane basketball player, male or female, lead her team to multiple conference championships and four straight NCAA Tournaments and become the highest draft pick in program history.

For her career achievements, Daley is one of four inductees in the Class of 2023 into the Allstate Sugar Bowl Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.

As a shooting guard coming out of Lake Weir High School, Daley had narrowed her college choice to two.

“Tulane did their homework,” she said. “I’m a church girl. Tulane took me to the House of Blues for a gospel brunch. I absolutely fell in love with the city and the campus.”

As quickly as Daley was sold on Tulane, she made an impact on the floor.

Stockton “was going to make me into the best player I could possibly be,” Daley said. “The team always came first.”

And while the points would pile up, so would the wins. The Green Wave went 99-23 in Daley’s four seasons in a Tulane uniform.

What made her different?

“Most players can shoot or drive,” Stockton said in an interview during Daley’s junior season, “but she’s a scorer who can do both.

“She has so many aspects to her game. She’s a competitor. When the game gets close, she plays better. If you had two like her, you could probably win a national championship.”

As a freshman in 1996-97, Daley averaged 13.2 points per game as Tulane won the regular-season and tournament championships in Conference USA and earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. She was named the league’s Freshman of the Year.

Her sophomore season, Daley averaged 20.1 points and shot better than 50 percent from the field. She would not only be an honorable mention selection on the Kodak All-American team for the first of three consecutive seasons, but she was named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year after averaging 2.9 steals per game.

After being slowed by a stress fracture in her foot early in her junior season, the scoring average dropped slightly to 19.1 points per game, but Tulane again claimed regular-season and tournament titles in CUSA.

Daley saved the best for last as a senior, averaging 21.6 points per game and earning CUSA Player of the Year honors.

Along the way in that final season, Daley passed Stacey Gaudet as the career scoring leader in Tulane women’s basketball history, and then put the cherry on top by surpassing Jerald Honeycutt’s record in men’s basketball. She would finish her career in the olive and blue with 2,249 points.

“I didn’t even know that record existed,” Daley said, “and I never set out to get it.”

Daley left New Orleans with some great memories and friends.

“We won a number of conference championships and I got a lot of awards,” she said, “but it’s really the camaraderie that I had with my teammates. I was surrounded by so much talent and we actually liked each other and got along. I didn’t realize how unique that was until I left Tulane.”

Following her senior season, Daley would become one of the highest draft picks in any sport in Tulane athletic history, going fifth overall in the 2000 WNBA Draft to the Minnesota Lynx.

“She’s that prototype athlete the WNBA is looking for,” Stockton said on the eve of the draft.

Daley played four years in the WNBA and seven seasons overseas before returning to her hometown to teach and help others.

“My teammates may change and my coaches may change, but my mindset doesn’t change,” she said. “The work ethic was instilled at Tulane. It’s still with me now.”

Daley returned to campus in December 2006 when her No. 4 was retired – only the second Tulane women’s basketball player, along with Gaudet, to earn that honor.

Daley’s latest honor gives her the opportunity to help spread her faith-based message even further.

“It’s absolutely a huge honor,” Daley said of her selection. “It will give me a higher platform to help serve the real MVPs out there – the most vulnerable people.”

Outstanding Boys’ Prep Coach of the Year, New Orleans: Cullen Doody, Jesuit Cross Country
Outstanding Girls’ Prep Coach of the Year, New Orleans: Chris Prator, St. Scholastica Swimming
Outstanding Female Amateur Athlete, New Orleans: Alia Armstrong, LSU Track & Field
Outstanding Male Amateur Athlete, New Orleans: Tyjae Spears, Tulane Football
Jimmy Collins Special Awards: Tulane Football & Lisa Stockton (Tulane Women’s Basketball Coach)
Outstanding Boys’ Prep Team, New Orleans: Carver Basketball
Outstanding Girls’ Prep Team, New Orleans: McGehee Track & Field
Outstanding Collegiate Coach, Louisiana: Kim Mulkey, LSU Women’s Basketball
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 Inductee: Grace Daley, Tulane Basketball
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 Inductee: July 25 (Tuesday)
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 Inductee: July 26 (Wednesday)
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 Inductee: July 27 (Thursday)
Corbett Award – Female: July 28 (Friday)
Corbett Award – Male: July 28 (Friday)

The Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee came together when James Collins spearheaded a group of sports journalists to form a sports awards committee to immortalize local sports history. For 13 years, the committee honored local athletes each month and a variety of annual award winners. In 1970, the Sugar Bowl stepped in to sponsor and revitalize the committee, leading to the creation of the Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame in 1971, honoring 10 legends from the Crescent City in its first induction class. While adding the responsibility of selecting Hall of Famers, the committee has continued to recognize the top amateur athlete in the Greater New Orleans area each month as well as a range of annual awards – the honors enter their 67th year in 2023.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl has established itself as one of the premier college football bowl games, having hosted 28 national champions, 102 Hall of Fame players, 52 Hall of Fame coaches and 21 Heisman Trophy winners in its 89-year history. The 90th Allstate Sugar Bowl Football Classic, which will double as a College Football Playoff Semifinal, is scheduled to be played on January 1, 2024. In addition to football, the Sugar Bowl Committee annually invests over $1 million into the community through the hosting and sponsorship of sporting events, awards, scholarships and clinics. Through these efforts, the organization supports and honors thousands of student-athletes each year, while injecting nearly $2.4 billion into the local economy in the last decade.