Charlotte Lewis of Illinois State University enters the MVC Hall of Fame in the Institutional Great Category. The Institutional Great distinction honors on an annual basis one player, coach or athletic administrator who competed or worked at a current league school, when the institution was not a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.
Lewis was a four-year letterwinner in women’s basketball from 1974-78. During her career, ISU recorded 63 wins and four-straight AIAW State Championships. In the 1976-77 season, Lewis led the team to a 20-6 record, which included a 3-0 State Championship run, and an 11th place AIAW national finish. She is only one of three players in Illinois State Women’s Basketball history to have her jersey retired.
She holds Illinois State basketball records for most rebounds in a single game (27), most rebounds in a season (345) and highest rebounding average (13.3). And also has the second-most rebounds in a single game, with 22. Lewis set the single-season rebounding record as a junior, helped along by four games that rank in the top-10 on the Redbird single-game rebounding list. She had 12 double-doubles during the 1977-78 season, which ties for the fourth-most double-doubles in a single season and scored the fourth-most points in a game with 37 against Wisconsin-LaCrosse (Feb. 5, 1977).
Lewis is on the top-10 lists in season scoring average and field goal percentage, and she made 243 field goals during the 1976-77 season, which is the third best in program history.
A Kodak All-American and Wade Trophy finalist in 1977, an award that goes to the nation’s top female athlete, Lewis was also a two-time Street & Smith’s First Team All-American, a member of the 1975 Pan Am Games team, 1976 Olympic team and 1977 World University Games team. Notably, the 1976 Olympics marked the first year women’s basketball was a part of the Olympics and the team won the silver medal. She also won medals at the Pan-American games and the World Championships.
She was named the 1976 YWCA Athlete of the year and ISU Outstanding Athlete in 1977 and 1978, and as a track and field student-athlete, finished fourth in the nation in the javelin in 1975.
Lewis played professional basketball for 15 years in Italy, Brazil and the United States, and she was tabbed the top player in Brazil in 1989 and Captained the 1986 All-Star American Team in Spain.
Lewis returned to ISU at age 40 to earn her degree in recreation and parks administration, working three jobs while taking nine to 12 hours per semester. She worked as the program director at Carver Center, where she focused on community outreach, mentoring, education, preventative care and building stronger family units. She passed away at the age of 52 in 2007.