Inductees

Born: July 23, 1958

It could be said Kathy Anderson’s athletic life has come full circle. She was an All-America student-athlete at the University of Central Missouri, she’s had her No. 32 retired in Jennies basketball and is a member of the UCM Athletic Hall of Fame.   Now Anderson sees to it that Central Missouri student-athletes achieve their own goals, as she is in her 10th year as an administrator at her alma mater.

Anderson was elevated to Senior Associate Athletic Director for Internal Operations and Senior Woman Administrator in 2011 after serving the previous six years as Associate Athletic Director for Internal Operations and Senior Woman Administrator.

Prior to the 2014-15 school year she was elevated to Senior Associate Athletic Director. Anderson has served previously as Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance and Student Services at Northwest Missouri State University.   Before assuming her role at Northwest, Anderson served a brief stint as admission and eligibility coordinator at the University of Washington. She added those duties in the summer of 2002 to her responsibilities as operations coordinator for men’s basketball for the Huskies.

In addition, Anderson was assistant basketball coach in 2000 for the Seattle Storm and in 1998 for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA. Her coaching career began in 1980, when she was hired as assistant women’s basketball coach at California State-Fullerton. She served there from 1980-85 before moving on to the University of Washington as assistant basketball coach from 1985-96, and as assistant director of basketball operations from 1996-98. Anderson received a bachelor’s degree from UCM in 1980, graduating cum laude in physical education and mathematics. While wearing the Cardinal and Black, she lettered four years in basketball, three years in softball and once in track and field.

In 1979-1980, she was named second-team Academic All-American and, in 1980, was honored as UCM Outstanding Senior Female Student-Athlete and Outstanding Senior in Physical Education.

With the Jennies belonging to the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) and playing today what would be considered a Division I schedule, she helped lead the Jennies to an 82-31 record. She also was named to the Jennies Basketball All-Decade Team for 1970-80 and the Jennies Basketball Silver Anniversary Team for 1970-95. Perhaps her most outstanding accomplishment as an athlete was being a member of the USA Women’s National Basketball program for the three years leading up to the 1980 Olympics, which were boycotted by the USA.

In 1977, Anderson served as captain of the USA Women’s Junior Basketball team that played in Taiwan. In 1978 and 1979, she was a member of the USA Women’s Senior Basketball teams that traveled to China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Russia. In 1979, Anderson also was selected as an alternate to Team USA for the Pan-American Games. During the summer of 2010, Anderson was inducted into the inaugural Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) Hall of Fame class for her outstanding accomplishments at UCM.

Along with her brother, former UCM and current Mizzou head men’s basketball coach Kim Anderson, she was previously honored by the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame as one of the 2011 “Filbert Five” honorees.

She had her number retired by Sedalia Smith-Cotton High School in 2010, along with her brother, and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2012. Anderson also has served as past national chair for the NCAA Division II softball and women’s basketball committees and Chair of the Institutional Representatives for the MIAA.