Roane State alum Bernadette Locke-Mattox enters NJCAA Hall of Fame

Bernadette Locke-Mattox’s road from Roane State to the sport’s biggest stages reached another milestone on June 18, when the former Raider entered the NJCAA Hall of Fame as a Class of 2026 player honoree at Hilton Charlotte University Place in Charlotte, North Carolina. The honor capped the NJCAA Foundation’s Hall of Fame and Awards night, which followed the association’s Summer Seminar in Charlotte and put one of Roane State’s most celebrated alumni back at the center of junior-college basketball history.

Locke-Mattox’s recognition starts with the same place her college career did. She graduated from Loudon High School in 1977, began playing at Roane State under NJCAA Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame coach Andy Landers, and finished her junior-college career there in 1979. In her acceptance remarks, Locke-Mattox said she was grateful to be recognized alongside "legendary names" and said the honor reflected "the coaches, teammates, and supporters who believed in her." That connection matters for Roane State because her rise began with the program’s own development track, one that moved her from the junior-college level into national prominence.

After Roane State, Locke-Mattox followed Landers to the University of Georgia and became part of the 1980-81 WBIT national championship team. Georgia says she became the first student-athlete in school history to earn both All-America and Academic All-America honors, a combination that still underscores how complete her game was on and off the floor. The NJCAA has also credited her with helping Georgia reach the 1985 NCAA championship game, advance to the first 10 NCAA tournaments under Landers, and recruit eventual Hall of Famer Teresa Edwards. For the current NJCAA landscape, that is the kind of pipeline story that gives the league its lasting value.

Locke-Mattox’s impact did not stop with college trophies. In 1990, she became the first woman to serve as an assistant coach for an NCAA Division I men’s basketball program when she joined Rick Pitino’s Kentucky staff, and Georgia says she later became the first African American woman to head a women’s basketball program in the Southeastern Conference in 1995. Roane State says she spent four seasons with the Kentucky men before taking over the Wildcats’ women’s team, where she guided a 20-win season and an NCAA tournament berth in 1998-99, then moved on to the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun in 2003. Roane State athletic director David Lane said her story is the kind of example the college tries to pass on to its players, and her Hall of Fame selection gives that example permanent place in NJCAA history.