Success Solidified in Stone
The University of South Carolina made a statement with the installation of a statue of Gamecocks Women’s Basketball great A’ja Wilson. LSU senior Kit Hanley could not help but be inspired, and decided to act on her motivation.
Looking around her campus, Hanley recognized that LSU has four statues, but all are males. The four are composed of three athletes: Shaquille O’Neal, Bob Pettit, and Billy Cannon, and one coach: Skip Bertman. She acknowledges the validity of this, as LSU has had innumerous male athletes who pursued professional careers and finished highly decorated. Hanley highlights the fact that LSU also had many female athletes who did just the same. However, they seem to lack the representation that male athletes have on college campuses.
Hanley’s primary goal behind creating a video on the topic was to increase awareness of the female athlete statue movement. She targeted social media platforms, such as Instagram and Twitter, knowing these pathways would reach the largest audience. The video was easily accessible in feeds and viewers were able to like, comment and share.
In her video, Hanley mentioned four candidates worthy of recognition on the Baton Rouge campus: Lolo Jones, Seimone Augustus, Sylvia Fowles and DD Breaux. After further research, Hanley discovered LSU’s criteria for implementing a statue:
Along with private funding, the candidate must have…
● Received at least 2 varsity letters
● Earned the highest award in their respective sport (i.e. Heisman Trophy, Honda Award)
● Completed 3 years at LSU or 100 credit hours
● Graduated at least 10 years prior
● Outstanding character inside and outside of sport
● Been unanimously nominated by the Hall of Fame Election Board, at least one year prior to the discussion of statue implementation
● Received a letter of recommendation
After review of the criteria, Hanley views Seimone Augustus as the woman to start with. The Baton Rouge native fulfills all requirements, as she was also the 2006 WNBA first overall pick and the 2006 WNBA Rookie of the Year.
Hanley incorporated the thoughts of current LSU Women’s Basketball guard Domonique Davis. She reached out to Davis in an effort to explore how women like Fowles and Augustus inspired the next generations of LSU Women’s Basketball. Hanley wanted to examine how these women pushed future Tigers to work harder and achieve feats as great as they did throughout their careers.
“It just brings me great joy to see that something that once was impossible is actually possible. When we’re growing up, they tell us the sky is the limit, and when you see somebody reach that, it’s like okay, it’s not as impossible as people make it seem,” Davis said.
Hanley interviewed strength and conditioning coach Earl Chevalier, who worked with both Fowles and Augustus. He believes these women are the spitting image of what an LSU Tiger should be.
Kit Hanley is finishing her final season for LSU Swimming & Diving in February. She can be seen racing the 200-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle. Hanley plans to pursue an internship in broadcasting following graduation. Possibilities include opportunities with ESPN and news stations local to her home in Indianapolis, Indiana.
“Looking back and being able to work with such characters and such talent, such as those women whom you’ve mentioned, it was my pleasure to hopefully, in some way shape or form, help them in any way that I could have to reach their potential,” Chevalier said to Hanley.
Chevalier shares Hanley’s vision for sparking a nation-wide female statue movement, which perhaps LSU could be at the forefront of. Not many men are aware of the movement, since male-only statues have been the status quo. As awareness builds, Hanley is hopeful that the movement will garner the support of both genders.
Hanley suggests that female statues would not take away from the honor and attention awarded to the male statues’ subjects. Implementing female athlete statues at LSU would honor the deserving females in addition to the deserving males. It would show the nation how much of a powerhouse the university is, seen through its ability to produce countless elite, top-level athletes on both the male and female sides.
Chevalier and Hanley’s vision for LSU is to install a mural of the great female athletes that have come through the school, and to add more athletes to the piece when appropriate. She hopes that young boys and young girls will have tangible statues of both genders to look up to and be inspired by on LSU’s campus and nation-wide.
“For all the little girls watching, this could be you one day,” Hanley said.
