North Carolina Central professor earns place in wheelchair basketball hall of fame

Arthritis cut North Carolina Central University professor Andrea Woodson-Smith’s collegiate basketball career short but led her to find another way to participate in the sport – and next month she will be honored as a hall of famer for it.

Woodson-Smith will be inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Hall of Fame on April 13 at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia.

“I’m still on cloud nine about it [getting inducted],” Woodson-Smith told Andscape. “The time is getting closer and closer, and I’m just really excited about it. To get inducted in Richmond, my hometown, it’s just astronomical. Nothing else can really touch this at this moment.”

Her journey to the hall of fame is indicative of “staying the course,” she said.

Woodson-Smith was a sophomore basketball player at James Madison University in Virginia when she was diagnosed with arthritis in both hips. Upon receiving her diagnosis, she told the doctors to “fix it” because she wasn’t willing to give up the sport she loved.

With modifications in her training, Woodson-Smith was able to still play basketball at James Madison, but it didn’t come without a cost.

“I dealt with so much pain during my sophomore and junior years,” Woodson-Smith said. “Most people probably wouldn’t have played with the pain I was in. By my senior year, my coach and I decided it was best not to play and to start volunteering as a student coach.

“Losing my senior year was difficult. At that point, the game was stripped away from me, and it took me 10 to 13 years to get over that.”

That was until Woodson-Smith discovered a different way to play the sport she loved that accommodated her disability.

She was introduced to wheelchair basketball at Texas Woman’s University, where she was recruited to play on the women’s wheelchair basketball team while pursuing a doctorate in adapted physical education.

According to the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, the sport originated in 1946 with several World War II veterans who were being treated for paralysis. In 1949, the association was founded by Tim Nugent, a disability rights activist who started the first adaptive sports programs at the University of Illinois. Mainly men played wheelchair basketball until 1977, when future hall of fame inductee Robert Szyman proposed the creation of a women’s division to association delegates.

In 2004, Woodson-Smith was selected as a member of the U.S. Paralympic women’s wheelchair basketball team and she was named the MVP of the 2005 National Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Tournament. According to Move United, an affiliate of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, she also participated on the 2006 World Cup team, which won a silver medal; the 2010 World Cup team, which won gold; the 2011 Parapan American team, which also won gold; and finished her career on the 2012 U.S. Paralympic women’s wheelchair basketball team.

“Andrea was an amazing teammate,” said Darlene Hunter, Woodson-Smith’s teammate from the 2012 U.S. Paralympic team. “She always made sure you had fun on and off the court. She pushed you to be the best you could be but also was an amazing support system.”

After retiring from wheelchair basketball following the 2012 Paralympic Games, Woodson-Smith now teaches and serves as the interim chair of the department of kinesiology and recreation administration at North Carolina Central.

“Not only does she lead by example, but she is truly relatable and truly cares for her students beyond the classroom,” said Hannah Brodie, one of Woodson-Smith’s students. “She is a top-tier educator, which is why I have pursued higher education at NCCU.”

Woodson-Smith believes the media coverage of disabilities in sports isn’t where it should be. According to Disability Studies Quarterly, the journal of the Society for Disability Studies, the exclusion of women and athletes with disabilities in sports media is true for print and web media, books and television shows.

More publicity is needed for wheelchair basketball to grow, she said.

“I always look at sports networks and see things like poker and cornhole. But we never see any sports shown of people with disabilities,” she said. “Track and field and wheelchair basketball are the two most popular sports within the disability community, and to not have those broadcasted in the U.S., especially when it is broadcasted in Europe, put a damper on who we are as athletes here in the U.S. 

“When the U.S. sports realm starts to recognize the importance of people with disabilities in sports, I think we’ll start to see some growth.”

Nonetheless, friends and family constantly remind Woodson-Smith of the impact she has had on the wheelchair basketball community and people with disabilities.

“Oh my goodness … it’s been a long time coming for her,” said Jeremy Smith, Woodson-Smith’s husband. “I’m looking forward to the honor, the glory, and the recognition for everything she’s done. Not only is she a champion of wheelchair basketball, but specifically for women, she’s a champion of the cause.”