Gloucester native Valerie Ellis (shown here at her 2012 induction to the GHS Hall of Fame) will be inducted along with her VUU teamates in the CIAA Hall of Fame later this month.
In 1983, the women’s basketball team from Virginia Union University won the Division II NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.
They were the second women’s team to win the tournament, which had begun the year before, defeating reigning champions Cal Poly Pomona in the finals. With the Lady Panthers’ achievement, the VUU team will be inducted into the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association’s Hall of Fame on Feb. 28. One member of that championship team being inducted is Gloucester native Valerie Ellis.
This is not the first Hall of Fame nod for Valerie Ellis, who was inducted into the Gloucester High School Hall of Fame in 2012. Ellis began playing basketball when she was 10. She would watch her brother and his friends play, but they wouldn’t let her join them. Obviously, this exclusion didn’t stop her from ...