Hall of Fame
1980 Jennies Basketball Team
The 1980 Jennies' basketball team produced a 26-5 record in Millie Barnes' final season as head coach at CMSU. Playing in an era prior to NCAA affiliation, the Jennies' schedule contained 22 games against schools that are currently NCAA Division I members, including DePaul University, the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, the University of Missouri, the University of Nebraska and Southwest Missouri State University. The season highlight came when the Jennies were selected as one of 24 teams for the AIAW Division I National Tournament. They lost in the first round to a strong Rutgers University team, but finished the season ranked 18th in the nation.
Senior center Margie Nielsen had an outstanding year, leading the Jennies with a 19.6 scoring average and a 10.2 rebounding average. Inaugural Hall of Fame inductee Kathy Anderson was also a senior on the team and was CMSU's second-leading scorer (13.3) and rebounder (8.3). At that time, the Jennies' 26 wins established a school record for wins in a season. Barnes and assistant coach Jorja Hoehn, who succeeded Barnes the following season, were 1997 inductees into the CMSU Hall of Fame. Barnes is also slated for induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., next summer.
