Nikki McCray-Penson, who helped lead the famed 1996 Olympic team that started the United States' current run of seven consecutive gold medals, has died at the age of 51, it was announced Friday.
McCray-Penson starred for the Lady Vols in the 1990s in her native state of Tennessee before playing in the ABL and WNBA and later becoming a college basketball head coach.
She served as an assistant women's basketball coach last season for Rutgers, which confirmed her death. The cause of death has not been announced. McCray-Penson and her husband, Thomas Penson, have a son, Thomas Jr., who turned 10 in February.
McCray-Penson was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2013, during her tenure with South Carolina, where she was an assistant to her close friend and Olympic teammate Dawn Staley. She was part of Staley's staff as the Gamecocks won the 2017 NCAA championship. Soon after, she took her first head-coaching job, with Old Dominion.
In all, including last season at Rutgers, McCray-Penson had 16 years of college coaching experience, serving as head coach at Mississippi State and ODU. After consecutive 20-win seasons, she left the Monarchs to take over the Bulldogs, who went 10-9 during the COVID-19-impacted 2020-2021 season. In October 2021, before the start of what would have been her second season at MSU, she stepped down to focus on her health.
She returned to coaching this past season, becoming an assistant to Coquese Washington at Rutgers.
"Heart hurts like crazy over this one," two-time WNBA MVP and Las Vegas Aces standout A'ja Wilson, star of South Carolina's 2017 title team, wrote on Twitter. "Such a fighter and a warrior with the sweetest gentle soul! Coach McCray you've helped me in many, many ways and you were a true gift from God! Truly will be missed! No more suffering, no more pain! God got a good one."
Heart hurts like crazy over this one! ???? such a fighter and a warrior with the sweetest gentle soul! Coach McCray you've helped me in many many ways and you were a true gift from God! Truly will be missed! No more suffering no more pain! God got a good one ???? #oranges pic.twitter.com/zRCu4zXXdv
— A'ja Wilson (@_ajawilson22) July 7, 2023
A native of Collierville, Tennessee, McCray-Penson helped the Lady Vols win three SEC regular-season championships, two SEC tournament titles, and make a women's Final Four appearance in 1995, when Tennessee fell in the championship game to Connecticut.
McCray-Penson was then named to the U.S. national team, which trained and toured together from the fall of 1995 until going to the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. That U.S. team's popularity and success was seen as the springboard to the launch of the WNBA in 1997, and was chronicled in the ESPN 30 for 30 special "Dream On," which was released last year.
McCray-Penson played nine seasons in the WNBA and won gold medals with Team USA in the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics.
"We are heartbroken to hear this news," Indiana Fever general manager Lin Dunn said on Twitter. "Nikki was a part of our first Fever playoff team; our thoughts and prayers go out to her family."
McCray-Penson also led the Columbus Quest to the 1997 ABL championship, as she played in that league before moving to the WNBA. She was the ABL's MVP in 1997.
"Nikki was a tremendous competitor," Brian Agler, who coached McCray-Penson with the Quest, told ESPN. "She could dominate a game with her defensive abilities and her aggressive offensive style. She had such a tremendous work ethic. I know her Columbus Quest family, friends and fans respect her and will miss her."
She was inducted in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.