March 5, 2018

East Central Community College will officially dedicate Lucille Wood Court at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 20, at the college’s new Tennis Complex on the campus in Decatur.

One of the eight courts at the new state-of-the-art complex is being named in recognition of Wood thanks to a gift to the college from members of her family.

The public is invited to attend the dedication ceremony.

A 1951 graduate of then East Central Junior College, Wood was a two-sport star athlete at East Central who also was a championship-winning coach at her alma mater.

Wood, a native of Louisville, served as men’s and women’s tennis coach at East Central from 1957-76, club volleyball coach from 1968-71, and led the women’s basketball team from 1958-85. Two of her women’s basketball teams won state club titles and two won Mississippi Junior College Athletic Association state titles. Several other of her women’s basketball teams won division titles. She also captured a state title in club volleyball in 1970, and five of her tennis players won individual state championships.

She is considered a pioneer in women’s athletics and worked towards the implementation of the Title IX ruling for colleges in Mississippi.

Wood is a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association Women’s Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, Mississippi Community College Sports Hall of Fame, and ECCC Athletic Hall of Fame. The college’s Brackeen-Wood Gymnasium was named in honor of Wood and Denver Brackeen in 1988.

The new ECCC Tennis Complex opened in February 2017 on the north side of campus between the softball and baseball complexes.

The Tennis Complex includes eight lighted courts to serve the ECCC men’s and women’s varsity tennis teams, as well as the campus and local communities. The facility includes parking and spectator areas, which were very limited at the former four-court tennis complex on campus that was originally built in 1969.

A fundraising effort is underway to fund the construction of a building near the main entrance of the new Tennis Complex to house men’s and women’s locker rooms, coach’s office, team meeting room, concessions area, and restrooms, as well as name the remaining seven courts.

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