CULTURETECHLENSLynette Woodard
VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)
Combined Graph record U-07736 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6864.
Lynette Woodard (born August 12, 1959, in Wichita, Kansas) is a guard who scored 3,649 points at the University of Kansas — the Division I women's career scoring record for more than four decades, set under the AIAW before the NCAA governed women's basketball, and surpassed only in 2024. A two-time Olympian, she captained the United States team that won the first U.S. women's basketball Olympic gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. In 1985 she became the first woman to play for the Harlem Globetrotters, a claim supported here by the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the University of Kansas Athletics, playing with the team through 1987. Woodard also played professionally in Italy and Japan and, in her late thirties, in the WNBA's first seasons with the Cleveland Rockers (1997) and Detroit Shock (1998). She entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005.
Answer summary · this record in brief, from its own record text
Lynette Woodard (born August 12, 1959, in Wichita, Kansas) is a guard who scored 3,649 points at the University of Kansas — the Division I women's career scoring record for more than four decades, set under the AIAW before the NCAA governed women's basketball, and surpassed only in 2024. A two-time Olympian, she captained the United States team that won the first U.S. women's basketball Olympic gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Notes
Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0358. Firsts disposition: 'First woman to play for the Harlem Globetrotters' ASSERTED — supported by the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and University of Kansas Athletics. Also documented: captain of the 1984 U.S. Olympic gold-medal team (both sources). Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Woodard's record scoring career predates the NCAA's record book for women, and her Globetrotters first came only after an open tryout she treated as a birthright. The Hall record now carries both the points mark and the barrier in one place. Photo: CLEARED — File:Lynette Woodard, Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year Awards, cropped.jpg, Public domain (Library of Congress, Bernard Gotfryd).
Sources
- Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. "Lynette Woodard" (Class of 2005). WBHoF.com. Accessed 2026-11-03. https://www.wbhof.com/member/lynette-woodard (primary source · build store)
- University of Kansas Athletics. "Woodard Named Naismith Outstanding Contributor to Basketball." KUAthletics.com, May 7, 2015. Accessed 2026-11-03. https://kuathletics.com/news/2015/5/7/woodard-named-naismith-outstanding-contributor-to-basketball (primary source · build store)
Photograph · rights-cleared record, CultureTechLens Photo Rights Log
Lynette Woodard at the Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year Awards, 1986
Lynette Woodard at the Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year Awards, 1986 — Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Source: CultureTechLens · view at source
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.
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Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Lynette Woodard (CTL-E-6864).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6864/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Lynette Woodard (CTL-E-6864) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Combined Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6864/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Lynette Woodard (CTL-E-6864).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6864/
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