CC honors two former athletes

Former Clarendon College basketball players Myrna Carney and Joan Crawford were recognized as President’s Ambassadors last Monday night for their continued support of CC.

Myrna Carney attended Clarendon College and played in 1957 and 1958 for the Comets, as the women’s basketball team was then known.

She went on to attend Northwestern Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma, Michigan State University, and the University of Minnesota, and holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from OU.

She worked in a number of roles at the University of Oklahoma for 42 years, and retired as the Assistant Dean at University College at OU in 2008. Ms. Carney holds a number of awards and honors including Outstanding Alumni from Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Leedey High School, and she was inducted into the Dewey County Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2007.

Joan Crawford attended Clarendon College and played for the Comets basketball team in 1956 and 1957.
After leaving Clarendon College, Crawford attended Nashville Business College where she played on an AAU team. Over the next thirteen seasons, the Nashville team would win the National AAU Championship ten times, and Ms. Crawford was named to the All-America team in every year. In 1962, the Nashville team was especially dominant, winning every game in the post-season tournament by at least 14 points, and winning the championship game over Wayland 63–35. She would go on to win the MVP of the 1963 and 1964 AAU National Tournaments.

With the US National team, Ms. Crawford won the World Championship in 1957, and the 1959 and 1963 Pan American Games. The World Championship game was against the USSR, the first time the USA had faced the USSR in a major competition. The USA came into the final with a single loss to Czechoslovakia, while the USSR was undefeated. The USA team was down by three points at the half, but came back in the second half to win the championship 51–48. Ms. Crawford scored a game high 27 points in the championship game against Brazil.

Ms. Crawford has been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the Amateur Athletic Union Hall of Fame, and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Ms. Crawford was in attendance to accept the award, but Ms. Carney was unable to attend. Her sisters accepted the award on her behalf.

Scholarships have been created in each of these player’s names, and future students at Clarendon College will be the recipient of scholarships in their honor and will benefit from their graciousness and financial support for many years to come.