Former ISU basketball star and Olympian Charlotte Lewis ’78, ’01, is a 2017 inductee into the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame. A Redbird student-athlete from 1974 to 1978, she died of a heart attack at the age of 52 in 2007.
Lewis holds ISU records for most rebounds in a single game and in a season, as well as having the highest rebounding average. She was a finalist for the nation’s top female athlete in 1977, and represented ISU internationally.
Beyond capturing a silver medal as part of the 1976 Olympic team, Lewis was on the 1975 Pan-American Games and 1977 World University Games teams. She was also a track and field standout at ISU, finishing fourth in the nation in javelin in 1975.
Lewis played professional basketball for 15 years in Italy, Brazil and the U.S., earning top player in Brazil honors in 1989. She also captained the 1986 All-Star American Team in Spain.
One of only three players in ISU women’s basketball to have her jersey retired, she was dedicated in her outreach to youth.
