College Drake Role Basketball Player Name Wanda Ford | Nationality USA Sport Basketball | |
Wanda Ford (born c. 1964) is a former American basketball player for the Drake Bulldogs. She was the first woman in NCAA history to collect 1,500 rebounds and set the NCAA career record with 1,887 rebounds. She also played 16 years of professional basketball in Brazil, Italy, France, Sweden and Israel.
Ford played in 117 games at Drake from 1983 to 1986 and finished her career with 1,887 rebounds and 2,636 points. She set several NCAA rebounding records, including: (1) 15.5 rebounds per game from 1983-1986 (still the NCAA record), (2) 1,887 career rebounds (broken by Courtney Paris in 2009), and (3) 534 rebounds in 1985 (broken by Courtney Paris in 2009). Her average of 17.8 rebounds per game in 1985 still ranks as the second highest single season average of all time.
Ford was also one of the leading scorers in the game. She set the NCAA single-season scoring record with 919 points in 1986 (now eighth all time). Her average of 30.6 points per game in 1986 was the second highest at that time (now fifth all time). She also scored 54 points in a February 22, 1986 game against Missouri State, which was the second highest single-game scoring total up to that time (now tied for seventh all time).
Ford grew up in a housing project in Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating from Drake, she played 16 years of professional basketball in Brazil, Italy,Spain (Font Vella Manresa, France, Sweden and Israel. She later returned to Cleveland where she worked with children with behavioral problems.
In 2003, Ford was inducted into the Des Moines Sunday Register's Iowa Sports Hall of Fame.