The trophy has seen better days, the head of the player mounted on the base broken off long ago.
But it remains one of Lynette Woodard's most prized possessions. For it was the beginning.
"I cherish the little trophy I got at home with the head broke off now," Woodard said of the hardware earned during the earliest stages of playing basketball. "That was the seed that kept me going."
From that seed sprouted one of the most prolific and legendary basketball careers anyone has ever enjoyed, male or female. Woodard went on to star at every level – in high school at Wichita North, collegiately at the University of Kansas, professionally in the WNBA and globally with the United States Olympic team (twice) and the Harlem Globetrotters.
"You have to follow your dreams," Woodard said during an interview in late November after having the basketball court at her alma mater dedicated in her name. "You can be afraid, but it doesn't matter. Just take that first step and it will go away. …
"You'll find that once you make that step, you've got the courage to make that second step. It's just one step at a time and then all of a sudden, you'll gain a little confidence and that thing will start rolling. You never know when a snowflake will cause an avalanche."
In Woodard's case, the snowball was actually a sock ball. When she was a young girl, her older brother, Darrell, fashioned a ball out of a stuffed sock and began to teach Lynette the game. He made goals on either side of their room on which they would practice.
Eventually, Darrell let Lynette tag along to neighborhood games. When it came time to join a team, there wasn't a girls' one available to the Woodards, so she played with the boys. And was readily accepted with her skills already highly developed.
"I followed him around when he let me play," Woodard said of Darrell. "I didn't know I was good, I just knew I loved to play. He let me play and he encouraged me. I thank God for him."
When Woodard hit the halls of Wichita North in the 1974-75 school year, girls' basketball in Kansas was in its infant stages. The Kansas State High School Activities Association conducted its first state championship only two years prior in 1973 and many schools across the state didn't even field girls' programs.
Woodard recalled the strides the North program made once she arrived and success quickly followed.
"Title IX was just coming into play and our athletic director at the time included us," she said. "Once they saw that we were serious in winning, we didn't get pushed to the corner. We started there, don't get me wrong.
"But the athletic staff recognized that we were making waves. I can remember when they bought us new uniforms. I can remember when we got to go out to dinner. We traveled to Lawrence, stayed in hotels. There's just so many memories. It was the beginning. Where it's gone since then, I'll never forget that. This was the first step out of the gate."
Those initial steps became a sprint toward success. In just three years at North, Woodard scored 1,678 points for an average of 27.6 points per game. She led North to the 1975 Class 5-4A state championship as a sophomore and then to a second title in 1977 as a senior. The 1975 North squad also won the inaugural Grand State championship as well.
A high school All-American and selection on The Topeka Capital-Journal's inaugural Girls' All-State team, Woodard kept her talents in state, signing with the University of Kansas.
As great as her high school career was, her collegiate career at Kansas was legendary. Woodard was a four-time All-American in leading the Jayhawks to three straight Big Eight titles and a 108-32 record in her four years.
When Woodard graduated, she finished her career with 3,649 career points – the most ever scored by a women's college basketball player both before and since. Her record isn't recognized as an NCAA record since the NCAA did not govern women's college basketball until the 1981-82 season – the year after Woodard's final year at KU. The sport was previously governed by the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).
Only Wilt Chamberlain has ever averaged more points per game while wearing a Kansas jersey than Woodard's 26.2 per game. It's why her jersey was the first woman's jersey to be hung in the Allen Fieldhouse rafters. And why she was the first women inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
That alone would have cemented Woodard as an all-time great in women's athletics. But her trailblazing ways were only beginning. She became the first female to play for the Harlem Globetrotters, joining the world-famous club in 1985 after being the captain for the United States' gold medal-winning Olympic team in 1984.
She traveled world-wide with the Globetrotters for two years and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2004, Woodard was inducted into the Hall of Fame individually.
"You play the game and people see you and they recognize you," Woodard said of the honors. "To be remembered, that's the best thing ever."
When the WNBA came into existence in 1997, Woodard came out of retirement to play two seasons with the Cleveland Rockers and Detroit Shock – 16 years after graduating from Kansas. She had also played professionally oversees in an Italian women's league, not surprisingly leading the league in scoring, as well in a league in Japan.
What the game gave to Woodard, she gave back. She coached at Winthrop College, first as an assistant and then as a head coach. She was the first athletic director for the Kansas City (Mo.) Public School District and later worked in the KU Athletics Department, and as an assistant coach for the Jayhawk women's team, briefly taking over as head coach when Marian Washington retired for medical reasons.
In 2015, Woodard receiving the WBCBL Women's Professional Basketball "Trailblazer" Award along with nine other women's basketball icons including Nancy Lieberman and Tamika Catchings. The award recognized some of the most influential people in professional women's basketball, specifically those who helped blaze the trail, shape the overall landscape and pave the way for women's professional basketball.
The avalanche from a snow (sock) ball. A career she never dreamed of having.
"How could it be?" she said. "How could it be? How could it be?"
When North decided to dedicate its new high school court in her honor this year, Woodard was blown away.
"It really melted my heart," she said. "I was shocked. I'm very grateful and it's an honor and a privilege. I'm very proud. I love North High. I had a great coach, I had great teammates. I will cherish this forever.
"It's overwhelming, it's like a dream. I'm just so thankful."
The same could be said for her career in general. Few women have had the impact on women's basketball – in Kansas, the U.S. and the world – as Woodard has had. Her career is so chocked full of accomplishments and milestones that she's hard-pressed to point to any one moment as the defining one in her career.
Rather, it's the complete resume, one she's still building on with her work with youth in Wichita, that leaves her full of pride and satisfaction.
"I cherish the whole journey," Woodard said. "It's a lot of learning. It's either a lesson or a blessing. There were a lot of peaks and valleys, but overall it's been great and I wouldn't trade it for anything."
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