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Students, faculty and staff at Indiana University Northwest were treated to a visit from Sylvia Crawley Spann on Wednesday, January 28. A presentation was conducted inside the campus’s Arts and Sciences Building focusing on Spann’s professional athletic career, life-lessons and moments that defined who she is today.
Dr. Arrick Jackson, chancellor at Indiana University Northwest, was thrilled to welcome Spann to campus so she could share her journey with others.
“I was at the WNBA All-Star Game last summer, and my children always tell me that I speak to everybody,” Jackson said. “I got into an elevator and had the good fortune of meeting Sylvia. She took the opportunity to provide some advice and left a memorable impression on me. I came back to campus and was meeting with the student government, and they talked about how they wanted more interaction with athletes on campus.”
Spann is an American former professional basketball player and coach. Known then as Sylvia Crawley, she went to college at the University of North Carolina, where she became an NCAA Champion in 1994 and was named USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year in 1995. Her jersey hangs from the rafters at the University of North Carolina, as she was the team captain and Final Four MVP during the championship run.
She continued to play basketball in the American Basketball League (ABL) for the Colorado Xplosion (1996-1997) and the Portland Power (1997-1998). She also made history as the first-ever winner of the women’s Slam Dunk Contest in 1998, securing a perfect score of 100 with a blindfolded dunk.
The ABL also folded in 1998, and Spann was selected by the Portland Fire for the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played with the team from 2000-2002, before playing her final season in the WNBA with the San Antonio Silver Stars in 2003.
On a global level, Spann was a member of the team representing the United States at the 1995 World University Games in Japan and helped her squad walk away with a gold medal. She also earned a gold medal as a United States team member in 1996 during the William Jones Cup competition in Taiwan. She played for the USA team one last time in the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, contributing to a bronze medal performance.
“She is a world-renowned athlete, coach, best selling author, and trailblazer in every sense of the world,” Jackson said. “Beyond her athletic achievements, Sylvia is one of the most compelling motivational speakers. We’re honored to have her with us.”
Spann also spent many years on the sidelines as a coach for women’s basketball. She was an assistant coach for the University of North Carolina (2000-2002) and Fordham University (2004-2006), before earning her first head coaching role with Ohio University. She coached at Ohio from 2006-2008, posting a 38-25 record overall. Shortly after, she was hired to become the head coach at Boston College from 2008-2012, leading the team to a 67-62 record overall and the Sweet Sixteen of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) in 2011. She also served as an assistant coach for the Indiana Fever in 2014, before returning to the University of North Carolina as an assistant coach from 2016-2019.
While she has been a part of the game both on and off the court, this experience has led her to pursue a path of being a motivational speaker for students and athletes to develop personal skills that can help them become more successful. Spann presented the SLAM (Self-Care, Leadership, Accountability, and Mindset) Program to help ignite leadership and personal growth in others while using basketball as a platform.
When Spann first got to her college campus as a freshman, her coach made a comment about how the team would only be as strong as the weakest player. Spann was singled out as a player who needed to get stronger, as she lifted the least on her team. Additionally, she had always played center growing up. It wasn’t until a conversation she had shortly after this point that taught her how to play to her strengths.
“My home was always on the block,” Spann said. “I was told, ‘It does you a disservice to play near the basket.’ Nobody had ever thought about playing me at the power forward position prior to that, because I didn’t have power. Would you have the weakest player on paper play the power forward position? Once I had this encounter, though, the light bulbs went off. I had been playing my whole life to my weaknesses, when really I should think about what I have here. I can defend, I have a very high basketball IQ, I can run faster than most centers, and I can jump out of the gym. You might not have the money or be tech-savvy, but let’s focus on our strengths. You’re going to work on your weaknesses, and we want to evolve as people.”
Spann encourages not only athletes, but people of all walks to take the advice of playing to their strengths. Whether someone has skills or passions in video games or mathematics, she believes operating on one’s strengths is the secret sauce to maximizing success.
After more than a decade of her life spent professionally as both a player and a coach, Spann has learned a lot about perseverance, leadership, and setting goals. She learned the values of practicing, visualizing success, and having an inner dialogue.
Another key element that Spann has taken away from her basketball career is the ability to learn from her losses. One of her biggest losses was her bronze medal achievement. For some people, a bronze medal might be an impressive accomplishment. For Spann, this was a reminder that she didn’t achieve her goals and how she can learn from this experience.
“We were playing in the tournament, looking forward to the gold medal game,” Spann said. “We overlooked our opponent, and before we knew it, we were down by 10 with less than a minute on the clock. The crowd got into it, and their team was feeding off the energy. When they were playing the winning team’s national anthem over my national anthem, that hurt. It’s a reminder to never take an opponent lightly. I learned from that loss, and that’s how I became a gold medalist.”
Spann orchestrated several drills with student volunteers throughout the program to teach them about the challenges that come with becoming a leader, instilling confidence, and playing with intensity.
Following her presentation, Spann met with IU Northwest student-athletes and coaches to encourage personal growth and leadership development. She participated in a public meet- and- greet with guests at the IU Northwest Athletics Hall of Champions in the Savannah Center. She was also honored prior to the IU Northwest women’s basketball game against Calumet College of St. Joseph.
While Spann has some ties with Indiana from her days as a coach of the Indiana Fever, she is appreciative of the overwhelming support that the IU Northwest community of students and staff members provided her. She’s also grateful for the opportunity to share her story with so many students who are aspiring to get better every single day.
“I’m blessed to travel so many places and even go back to some places,” Spann said. “I’m older, and I’m wiser when I do go back to those places, so I can appreciate it when people give me my roses. When I get someone who says ‘Thank you’ or ‘You changed my life’, it matters to me because it gives me the fuel to keep doing it again and again.”For more information on Indiana University Northwest, you can visit northwest.iu.edu/index.html.
