Here’s a trivia question for you. Who was the coach of the Roanoke College women’s basketball team prior to Susan Dunagan, who coached the Maroons for 33 years and over 600 wins?
One of the benefits of getting old is remembering stuff like this, and I clearly remember Lynne Agee, who was named to the Southern Conference Hall of Fame this summer. After coaching the Maroons from the fall of 1978 until the spring of 1981 Agee left RC to take a job at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and never left. She won 556 games with the Spartans and the home court at UNC-G is named for Lynne. She’s been in the Spartans’ Hall of Fame since 2004.
Agee coached at William Fleming High School in Roanoke before RC athletic director Paul Griffin grabbed her for the Maroons in ‘78. In three years, playing in the old Alumni Gym, her teams went 46-23, including a 21-6 record in her final season in Salem before leaving for Greensboro.
I dug through our old photos and came up with this photo of Lynne, circa 1978. She’s flanked by all-time RC leading scorer Susan Highfill on the right, and former RC assistant coach Charlene Curtis on the left.
Highfill had an Olympic tryout and Curtis went on to do great things herself, moving on as an assistant at the University of Virginia from 1981 to ’83. She was then head coach at Radford University for six years and Temple University in Philadelphia for five before returning to the ACC as head coach at Wake Forest for nine years. She would later serve 11 years as the ACC Supervisor of Women’s Basketball Officials.
That’s quite a trio, and it all started here in that little gym.
