天美传媒

鈥淒edicate yourself to being great,鈥� Tamika Catchings, a four-time Olympic gold medalist and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, told a 天美传媒 Nov. 22.聽 鈥淎nd every day, dedicate yourself to becoming great. It鈥檚 a process. It takes work, but it will happen if you are determined.鈥�

Catchings, a 10-time WNBA All-Star, is the general manager and vice president of basketball operations for the Indiana Fever women鈥檚 basketball team, as well as an entrepreneur, author and philanthropist. She was at 天美传媒 to deliver a Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture, 鈥淵our Star is Within Reach鈥� in a session was moderated by Kris Huffman, 天美传媒鈥檚 two-time national champion women鈥檚 coach.

Her visit to 天美传媒 included separate sessions with the Tiger women鈥檚 and men鈥檚 basketball teams and a reception with students and alumni.

Catchings, the daughter of NBA player Harvey Catchings, was born in New Jersey into a family that moved a lot, and where basketball was always a backdrop.聽

鈥淲e were uber competitive,鈥� she told the audience of 575 in Kresge Auditorium. 鈥淓ven to this day I want to be first in everything. I want to be first to the door, I want to be first to press the elevator button.鈥�

Her transformation from self-described 鈥渢omboy鈥� to basketball legend was not without struggles.

鈥淚 was born with a hearing disability; my mom and dad found out when I was three years old.聽 And for me, as I grew up I really didn鈥檛 know what that meant,鈥� Catchings said. She got her first set of hearing aids at age 5, 鈥渁nd even at that point I had no idea what that really meant. But then we moved overseas and we lived in Italy for a year, came back when I was in second grade and that was the first time that I knew and that I realized that I was different. Every single day I went to school and got made fun of for the way that I talked, the hearing aids I had to wear, for just being different, for being taller. You name it, I got made fun of.鈥�

Catchings threw away her hearings aids and vowed to herself that she would sit in the front row of every class she attended, stay after to talk with the teacher and learn to read lips.

鈥淚 literally had to figure out how to be successful and get good grades, because my parents wouldn鈥檛 let us play if we didn鈥檛 have good grades. So having to adjust 鈥� I think the tenacity really came from that.鈥�

A national champion at the University of Tennessee, Catchings was the No. 3 draft pick of the Fever. She was named the league鈥檚 Rookie of the Year in 2002 and was a five-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year. She led the Fever to the WNBA title in 2012. Catchings was the fastest player in league history to reach 2,000 career points, 1,000 rebounds, 400 assists and 30 steals.聽

Teammates and mentors have been a key part of her success, Catchings said, pointing to legendary Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt, who, among other things, convinced her to begin wearing hearing aids again.聽

鈥淥ne day your story will impact thousands, maybe millions of people,鈥� Catchings recalled Summitt telling her. 鈥淚 think you need to get back into not only wearing a hearing aid, but going to speech therapy.

鈥淚鈥檓 proud to say, and that was years ago, that now we have the Tamika Catchings Scholarship and we the Amplification Fund for kids who need hearing aids 鈥� we provide money for them 鈥� and the scholarship provides money for those studying audiology, speech pathology, anything that has to do with that.鈥�

In 2004, Catchings created the Catch the Stars Foundation, which empowers young people through programs that promote fitness, literacy and youth development.

Catchings said that excellence is a choice, and must be accompanied by hard work and a belief in yourself.

鈥淵ou have people, and I know we all have 鈥榚m, that tell you you鈥檒l never be great, you鈥檒l never do this, you can鈥檛 do that, you鈥檙e not good enough, you can鈥檛 talk 鈥� like, I鈥檝e heard it all,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd I think it really became something, that inner drive of proving people wrong. But over time it really got to a point where it鈥檚 like, 鈥楤ut I can do this.鈥� So it鈥檚 not about proving somebody wrong 鈥� I don鈥檛 need to prove to you I can do it; I can do it. And not only can I do it, I want to excel at it.聽 And not to get accolades and not to get all these awards, not for any of that. Just so that at the end of the day I can walk away and say 鈥業 did that because I wanted to do it, not because someone told me I had to do it, but because I wanted to do it.鈥欌��

Established in 1986 through the support of 1958 天美传媒 graduates Timothy H. and Sharon Williams Ubben, the lecture series was designed to 鈥渂ring the world to Greencastle.鈥� It has presented 116 events over the past 35 years.聽Previous Ubben lecturers have included Malala Yousafzai, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Spike Lee, Mikhail Gorbachev, Colin Powell, Jane Goodall, Tony Blair, Leslie Odom Jr. and Jimmy Kimmel. See a complete roster of guests here.