Southwestern Alumnae set for induction into Basketball Hall of Fame
Posted: Jan 06, 2015
Alief Elsik High School coach and 1980 Southwestern University grad and women's basketball player Laura Dawson is being inducted into the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame in May, the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches announced.
Laura Dawson turned Alief Elsik into a basketball powerhouse during a tremendous winning stretch in the 1990s and will be inducted on May 23 along with the rest of the Class of 2015.
After receiving her diploma from Deer Park and then at Southwestern University, she served as head coach at C.E. King High School for eight years, before moving on to Alief Elsik.
That's where she compiled the incredible won-loss record of 400-110 in which the Lady Rams made four state tournament appearances. The fourth time proved to be the charm when Elsik captured the 1998 state championship.
That achievement came on the heels of Dawson's girls playing for the state championship in 1996 and 1997 only to come out on the short end of those title contests. In 1991, her Rams team also reached the state championship tournament.
After coaching, Dawson stayed on at Alief where she served the position as assistant athletic director for 15 years, retiring in 2013.
Joining her for induction into the Hall of Fame will be Wayman "Jiggs" Buchanan, who led the city of Fort Worth in scoring in 1951 and 1952, averaging 22 and 25 points per game, respectively. In 1952, he was selected MVP in the 1952 THSCA All-Star Game.
Willowridge product T.J. Ford, who led the Eagles to back-to-back state titles and later had a strong NBA career.
Mike Smith will join Dawson as the second coach to be inducted with this class. Smith was Victoria High School's coach from 1972 through 1998. In that long stretch, he led the Stingarees to the playoffs 21 times, including two state tournament berths.
The third coach to be honored is Riley Snider, who was Neches High School's girls and boys head coach for 23 seasons. His girls teams won state crowns in 173 and 1976. His 1976 squad went 41-0, finishing with the overall record of 1,396-544.
Leron Larson coached girls and boys teams at five schools, compiling a 1,413-502 won-loss record. His teams made five trips to the state tournament and 33 overall playoff appearances. Thirty of those 33 appearances were due to his squads capturing district championships.
Dawson was a member of the Southwestern women's basketball team in the 1977-78, 78-79, and 79-80 seasons where she averaged 5.8 points per game while shooting 31.9% from the floor and grabbing 5.2 boards per game in her career at SU.
