Written by and through the eyes of longtime Clemson Sports Information Director Tim Bourret
When I retired on July 13, 2018, there was one item on my list that I had not accomplished. It really hit home 10 days later when Clemson women’s basketball great Barbara Kennedy-Dixon passed away after a long battle with cancer.
It bothered me until October 30, 2025, when it was announced that Kennedy-Dixon would be inducted into the National Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame on June 27, 2026.
Former Clemson women’s basketball coach Jim Davis, members of the current Clemson sports information office, and I had joined forces to compile stats, write letters and contact hall of fame committee members about Kennedy’s candidacy.
The timing of Kennedy’s career worked against her. For each of her first three years at Clemson, there was no NCAA women’s basketball; it was run by the AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women).
That meant that when the NCAA finally published a women’s basketball record book, only Kennedy-Dixon’s senior-year stats were included. Her stats that year were significant, as she led the nation in scoring at 29.3 points per game. She also averaged 13 rebounds per game and shot 51.6 percent from the field. That scoring average is still the ACC single-season record 44 years later.
While the NCAA doesn’t recognize her career point total of 3,113 points, the ACC does, and it is still the league record. Ironically, next year it could be eclipsed. Notre Dame rising senior Hannah Hidalgo scored 909 points last year and needs just 654 to break her record this coming season.
Clemson’s first first-team All-American in women’s basketball, Kennedy-Dixon scored all those points with a flare that attracted crowds to Littlejohn Coliseum. I still remember the night she scored 45 points in a game, and that is still the Coliseum record, male or female, Clemson or opponent.
Kennedy-Dixon’s most memorable performance took place in February of 1982 on her Senior Day against North Carolina. Clemson and North Carolina played a men’s and women’s doubleheader. Kennedy-Dixon scored 42 points to match her uniform number in leading Clemson to a resounding victory in the first game of the day. It was an important win because it virtually clinched a bid to the first NCAA Tournament for Coach Annie Tribble’s team. Thousands of Clemson fans came early to see what Kennedy would do in her final game, and she delivered.
But “B’s” day was not over. Well known for her singing talents, Kennedy-Dixon returned for the men’s game and sang the national anthem solo at midcourt. When she finished, she received a lengthy ovation.
As she walked to the scorer’s table to return the microphone, North Carolina Hall of Fame Coach Dean Smith left his bench and greeted her at the scorer’s table and shook her hand. Michael Jordan and James Worthy, two future Hall of Famers, were on that Tar Heels team that would win the national championship, and they took notice of their head coach’s action.
It is one of the top showings of respect I have ever seen from an opposing school for a Clemson athlete.
I wish there had been a WNBA in the 1980s, because Kennedy would have been a long-time pro for sure.
With a Clemson degree in hand, Kennedy returned to her alma mater to work for Head Coach Jim Davis, who hired her as a full-time assistant when he became head coach in 1988. She then served as senior women’s administrator, and then as an academic advisor in Vickery Hall.
Kennedy was inducted into the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989, then in 2000, was inducted into the Ring of Honor, the first female athlete to receive Clemson’s highest athletic honor. She was also inducted into the State of South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame as well.
As she fought cancer in her final years before retirement, she was a driving force behind the implementation of the Tiger Trust Program. It is the program that encourages former student-athletes who left Clemson early to pursue a professional career to return and finish their requirements.
One of the Tigers’ greats who benefited from Kennedy-Dixon’s encouragement and administration of the program was Tree Rollins, arguably the male version of Kennedy when it comes to Clemson basketball greatness.
Rollins told me, “I never would have come back to get my degree without Barbara Kennedy-Dixon’s encouragement. She stayed after me and did so much to help me get with the professors, pick the right courses and get it done.“
Kennedy-Dixon’s funeral was a true celebration of her life and a testimony to her level of respect in the community. The standing room only congregation included a “whose who” of Clemson athletics and administration of the last 40 years. It was a fitting tribute to the woman who had done more for Clemson athletics than any other female in the history of the school.
On June 27, I was honored to be one of the Clemson administrators in attendance for her Hall of Fame induction in Knoxville, TN. Her husband Marvin made a memorable speech that featured a segment in which he spoke as if Barbara was making the comments. It was brilliant and memorable, just as brilliant and memorable as Barbara was in everything she did on and off the court.