Completed Event: Women's Basketball versus UCLA on March 29, 2026 , Loss , 58, to, 70
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Women's Basketball
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McCallie To Be Inducted Into Maine Sports Hall Of Fame
5/22/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
ORONO, Maine - Welcome back to Maine Joanne P. McCallie!
The Duke women's basketball coach will make a return to the state on June 1 when she is inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame at the Italian Heritage Center in Portland.
It's an honor that excites the Maine native, as it's an opportunity see old friends that she made while leading the Maine women's basketball program to tremendous success from 1992-2000.
“I'm honored, proud and privileged to be inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame,” she said. “I'm so grateful to my parents for making the decision to raise their children in Maine. I have a lot of great memories about Maine. There were a lot of great games and big wins that we were a part of. It was exciting. It was challenging. The fans were terrific to play in front of. Plus, my two children (daughter Maddy and son Jack) were born in Bangor at the Eastern Maine Medical Center.”
McCallie was born in California, but grew up in Brunswick, Maine, and has a deep appreciation for the state and its Black Bear fans.
“They are loyal, great fans,” McCallie said. “Maine fans understand basketball. They like to see their teams get out there and work hard. They appreciate a great work ethic. We had so many great crowds. I don't know where to begin. Mainers are supportive, loyal people.”
Before getting her start as a collegiate head coach, McCallie was a standout scholastic basketball player in the state and the country while attending Brunswick High School. She was the state of Maine's first Parade Magazine girl's basketball All-American during her senior year in 1983. She took her playing talents to Northwestern University where she was a four-year letterwinner for the Wildcats, helping them to the second round of the 1987 NCAA Tournament. As a senior, McCallie was an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention and a first-team all-academic choice.
She got her first full-time assistant coaching job at Auburn from 1988-92. With McCallie on staff, the Tigers reached high levels of success, including appearing in two national championship games and reaching the Elite Eight another season.
The time was right for McCallie to return to her home state and take over the reigns of the Black Bear women's basketball program in 1992. Following her first two seasons of rebuilding, the Black Bears took off in 1995 by earning the school's first trip to the NCAA Tournament. It was the start of six straight years that Maine made the “Big Dance.”
“It was an exciting moment to be at Maine,” she said. “I was also excited for the players that had been a part of great Black Bear teams in the past, but had never had the opportunity to experience the NCAA Tournament. All of us (on the 1995 NCAA team) were excited to be there and playing Connecticut, but we also knew we wanted to be a fixture in the NCAA Tournament for several years. We were able to do that by making the tournament for six straight years. We all aspired to more than just getting there. The team had a hunger to compete and wanted to win in the NCAA Tournament.”
Maine finally broke through with that monumental win in 1999, as the Black Bears knocked off Pac 10-foe Stanford, 60-58, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“The greatest victory I'll never forget was beating Stanford in the first round of the NCAA Tournament,” McCallie said. “That was extraordinary for many reasons, but mainly because it was what we had always strived for at Maine. We played well against Old Dominion in the second round, but fell just short of advancing to the Sweet 16.”
The list of accomplishments that Maine earned under McCallie were extensive, including:
**Four America East Tournament Championships.
**Six-straight trips to the NCAA Tournament.
**A 60-58 win over Stanford in the first round of the 1999 NCAA Tournament (the first NCAA win by an America East team in conference history).
**Three America East Player-of-the-Year awards.
**Two America East Rookie-of-the-Year awards.
**Three America East Coach-of-the-Year awards.
**Nine First-Team All-America East honors.
**Four America East All-Rookie Team selections.
**Twelve (12) America East All-Tournament Team honors.
**Four America East Tournament MVP awards.
**Two players who combined to earn eight All-American or District All-American honors.
**One ECAC Player of the Year.
**Four ECAC Division I All-Stars.
**One GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-American.
“Coach McCallie got it all started and laid the foundation,” former player and current Maine head coach Cindy Blodgett said. “I don't know if people truly realize the effort she put into the program for the two years prior to when we started making all those trips to the NCAA Tournament. She had a passion for the game, the program, the school, and it showed when she spoke about them. She got people excited and wanted to be a part of the program.”
Following eight highly successful seasons in Orono, coach McCallie took over as head coach at Michigan State. Similar success followed, as she guided the Spartans to a berth in the 2005 NCAA championship game versus Baylor. In seven seasons in East Lansing, she compiled a 149-75 record, led MSU to five-straight NCAA Tournament appearances and four-straight 20-win seasons.
Last spring, McCallie was introduced as the new head coach at Duke and quickly made an impact in her first season with the Blue Devils. She led the Blue Devils to a 25-10 record and a berth in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
“The experience I gained in my eight years at Maine was phenomenal,” she said. “There were a lot of different game situations that I had to coach in at Maine. By going through those situations, it helped prepare me for future situations when they arose again.”
Despite coaching at two schools since her time at Maine, McCallie has not forgotten about Orono.
“I have a connection to the program and I won't forget that,” she said. “I will also follow Michigan State because of my connection there. That is what you naturally do. When you work at a great place like Maine, you may move on, but you never forget it because of all the relationships you form with the school and the people there.”
McCallie Career Highlights:
**National Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, Basketball Times and Nike (2005).
**Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan College Coach of the Year (2005).
**North Atlantic Conference Coach of the Year (1995, 1996).
**America East Conference Coach of the Year (1999).
**Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year (2005).
**11 NCAA Tournament appearances as head coach (Maine: 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000; Michigan State: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007).
**Five conference championships (Maine: 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999; Michigan State: 2005).
**FIBA Americas U-20 Gold Medal, 2006.
**Won a gold medal for the second straight summer guiding the USA U21 World Championship team to an 8-0 record in 2007.
**Won a gold medal as coach of Team USA at the FIBA Americas U-20 Championships in 2006.
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