Full Press Conference

WICHITA, Kan. - Linda Hargrove, who has junior college, college, professional and Olympic coaching experience will be on the sidelines again for the Shockers for the remainder of the 2016-17 season, being named Head Coach on Jan. 22 in a press release and announced today in a press conference.

Hargrove coached the Shockers to 113 wins from 1989-98 as the then-winningest Shocker women's basketball head coach before moving on to the professional ranks as a head coach, then general manager.

Hargrove, a Udall native who resides in Derby, has 36 seasons of coaching experience. She was also an assistant coach on the 1992 Olympic team that won a Bronze Medal in Barcelona. She compiled a collegiate coaching record of 429-248 in 26 seasons as a head coach. 

In 2010, she served as a consultant to the WNBA Tulsa Shock, following her WNBA career. She has continued to work as a basketball consultant and in real estate since retiring from coaching.  

She began the women's program at Cowley Community College in 1972, and won 74 percent of her games at Cowley and won 11-of-12 league championships, and had four NJCAA tournament appearances. In 1987, Cowley had a best-ever 28-4 record. In 1988, she was honored with the Women's Sports Foundation Coach's Award, and in 1989 she was the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year.

Hargrove also filled many roles coaching and administrative roles at Cowley County, including head volleyball coach (1976-86), women's track and field coach (1972-76), Director of Admissions (1982-89), Director of Intramurals (1975-78). Her volleyball teams went 305-114-8, winning league titles in 1981, 1985, and 1986, and a Region VI Championship in 1978. She also coached the softball team from 1977-78.

In 17 years at Cowley, she coached the women's basketball team to a 316-112 record (73.8 percent) which established her as one of the premier coaches in the country.  In addition, her teams went 137-12 in conference play at Cowley County. She coached four All-Americans and three Academic All-Americans.

In the Fall, 1989, she was named as an assistant coach for the 1990 U.S. Senior National women's team, which captured the FIBA World Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and won the Gold Medal at the Goodwill Games in Seattle, Washington. She also was on the coaching staff for the Junior National team that played in Sao Paulo, Brazil and at the Junior World Championships in San Sabastian, Spain.

A year later, Hargrove was named an assistant coach for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Team which captured the Bronze Medal. The Olympians breezed through pool play in Barcelona only to suffer a loss to the Unified Team in the semifinal round before rebounding to defeat the Cubans. She coached Teresa Edwards, who holds the basketball record for Olympic Medals with four golds and a Bronze, and Teresa Weatherspoon, an All-American at Louisiana Tech. 

Hargrove was named the fourth head coach in Shocker history in April, 1989. She guided the Shockers to their first winning season in a decade in 1993, and was named the Valley's Coach of the Year. WSU also won a then-school record 17 games in 1997 and advanced to the Missouri Valley championship game. 

At WSU, she coached Kareema Williams, the first of two Shockers who earned MVC Player of the Year honors; Kim Evans, the Shockers' first three-time All-Valley First Team; and Tootie Shaw, the first Shocker to drafted in the WNBA. Williams was also the first Valley Newcomer of the Year from WSU. Twenty-two Shockers earned MVC Scholar-Athlete honors under Hargrove. 

Hargrove's final combined college record was 429-248.

Hargrove left WSU in 1998 to coach the American Basketball League's Colorado Xplosion, and after that league folded 13 games into her first season, she was hired as Head Coach and General Manager of the Portland Fire.

In three seasons in Portland, Hargrove went 37-59. Her best mark was 16-16 in 2002, where she coached Kansas native Jackie Stiles.

The Fire disbanded after the 2002 season, and Hargrove joined the Washington Mystics as a scout, before working her way up to general manager from 2005-08.

Hargrove has served in many professional organizations in her career, including the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and the USA Basketball Senior National Team Committee. While at Cowley County, she was vice-president of the NJCAA Basketball Coaches Association, NJCAA Region VI Director and was on the Amateur Basketball Association games committee.

Hargrove graduated magna cum laude in 1975 from Southwestern College in Winfield, Kan., with a bachelor of science degree. She earned a master's degree in education from Wichita State in 1985. Hargrove was inducted into the Southwestern College Athletic Hall of Fame in Nov., 1992, and is also in the Cowley County CC, NJCAA and Kansas Sports Hall of Fames.

At Udall, she was champion hurdler on the Udall High School track team, and she competed in the hurdles at the 1968 U.S. Olympic Trials in Los Angeles. She just missed qualifying for the Mexico City Olympic Games, and was the national high school record holder in the hurdles in 1967. 

Hargrove, and her husband, Ed, reside in Derby. The couple has two grown children, a daughter, Tara, and a son, Brian, and five grandchildren, Jacob, Brynn, Halle, Grace and Rylan.