DETROIT (12/5/2017) -- The University of Detroit Mercy Department of Athletics welcomed back some of the greatest Titan women's basketball teams in school history and honored their head coach, Sue (Kruszewski) Hardy, on Monday for a pregame and halftime ceremony at Calihan Hall.
The Titans honored Coach Sue by naming their head women's basketball coach's office after her with an unveiling Monday afternoon prior to the game against the University of Michigan. Detroit Mercy held a pregame ceremony for those great Titan women's basketball teams, Coach Sue, her assistant coach Lydia Sims as well as others and they were also recognized at halftime of the contest against the Wolverines.
Detroit Mercy held a moment of silence for two players from those teams, the late Lisa Blackburn and Melanie Megge. Lisa Blackburn's brother Les Blackburn was in attendance for the ceremony and the game.
Several Titan greats, including three Hall of Famers, returned for a pregame ceremony honoring Coach Sue and the first three Titan teams from 1977-80. Those from the first women's basketball teams who returned for the ceremony and the Michigan game were:
Davida Boozer
Coretta Daniels
Yvette Harris
Lydia Johnson
Marianne Juif (Masserang)
Mary Lillie (Cicerone)
Linda Tate (Hollie)
Cheryl Williams-Taylor
The first season of Titan women's basketball was 1977-78 and by year two, the Titans posted a school-record 27 victories and won the Michigan Large-College State title and finished second in the Midwest Regional. In 1979-80, the squad earned another state championship and made the AIAW National Tournament, while being ranked for most of the season in the Top 20 in the country.
Click here to check out a photo gallery of Monday's events honoring Coach Sue and her Titan basketball teams.
