My name is Leann Shieldknight Gillaspie. I am from Spearman, Texas. I played on the Flying Queens from 1974-1977. The following is my story.
In September 2018, my husband, Dick, and I were in Niagara, Canada. I initiated a conversation with two ladies that I assumed were sisters. They told me they had met while in school in Plainview, Texas. That led us to discover we were all former Flying Queens. Cookie Barron, Kaye Garms, and I had a short reunion of sorts. I am fulfilling my promise to them to write my story.
I was the youngest of four children. My mom and dad taught us we could achieve anything we set our minds to. If we encountered a challenge, dad would tell us to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” and work through it.
My sister, Marcia Shieldknight, played basketball and was an outstanding athlete for the Spearman Lynxettes. Her four years in high school, the Lynxettes went to state. I was afforded the opportunity to see her, and her teammates play at the state’s highest level. My dream became to also be able to play in the state tournament. That dream drove me to become a student of the game. To be quite honest, I had the best coach, teacher, and motivator – Dean Weese. He taught us leadership, perseverance, positive attitudes and yes, perfection. My team was blessed to qualify for the state tournament all four of my high school years, winning state twice.
It was my senior year, when all the attributes Coach Weese taught us, bloomed to fruition. The previous year, our team graduated five key seniors. And the whole panhandle of Texas was saying the Weese run in Spearman – 7 straight years to the state tournament – had come to an end. However, leadership stepped forward encouraging the less experienced players, persevering through long practices to get better, staying positive and striving for that expected perfection. Against all odds, under the guidance of Coach Weese, we fought through the nay-sayers, and qualified once more for state.
Like any good, little sister, who had just followed in Marcia’s footsteps playing varsity basketball for four years for the Lynxettes, I followed her to Wayland. I also followed my high school coach, Dean Weese, who was taking over the coaching responsibilities from Coach Harley Redin. I soon figured out that full court basketball was definitely a challenge. But I studied, watched and tried to mimic current players, and tried to step up to their level of play. It proved to be quite a challenge. I am so grateful for these ladies and their mentorships that got me started in the right direction! Through my years as Flying Queen, I was blessed and honored to play with some very talented teammates and friends.
During my time at Wayland, the Queens won the National Women’s Invitational Tournament all four years. Our goals of winning a national championship with the AIAW tournament was never achieved. We did win 5th and then 3rd. I recall at the time, I thought we had failed, but as I look back 5th and 3rd in the nation is nothing to be ashamed of. We won the National AAU tournament twice and came in 2nd once. I was fortunate to be named NWIT All-American my junior year. Along with Carolyn Bush, Brenda Moeller, Pearl Worrell, Breena Caldwell, and Rosemary Brown, I was blessed to be named to the US Team that toured Russia. That just may have been the highlight of my basketball days! My Queens career ended with my scoring 1,046 points, just 41 points shy of the Top Ten List at that time. Throughout my college career, I averaged 51.5% from the field and 67.5% from the line. I may not have had a stellar career but frankly, basketball and the Flying Queens instilled in me attributes that would carry me through life.
One funny story I will share was probably my junior year, making Rosemary Brown a senior. We played Mississippi College several times and they like to run the floor like racehorses and lived in our back pockets. We were to face them at a time when I was trying to adjust to contact lens. So, I suggested to Rosemary that when she needed a breather, to let me know and I would fake that my contact was out of place. Late in the game, we were very tired, and Rosemary nodded at me. I proceeded to tell the ref I needed to wash my contact. Going to the water fountain to take care of my contact, I drug my feet, giving us a little extra time to catch our breath. I think the best part of this shenanigan was even though Coach Weese was not in on all this, he let us get by with it! Rosie and I laughed about that for days.
I graduated in May 1977. In June of 1980, I married Dick. 18 months later in December, I discovered a knot just above my left knee. To make a long story short, it was a fibro histiocytoma – cancer. I found myself at MD Anderson in Houston. They painted a pretty ugly picture. During consultations, I declared, “Do whatever you are going to do, because God is going to take care of me. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner I can get on with my life.” The head of my team of doctors swirled on me and gnarled. “Oh, yeah, what about all these other people in this hospital that are dying every day? What is your God doing for them?” Little did he know the fight instilled in me through my basketball days. Little did he know the power of my God.
Through basketball, I learned to set goals, and become determined to reach those goals, to persevere, and remain positive. Through those attributes and a strong faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus, cancer was defeated. And God gave us even more than we had asked for. Because of the chemo, we were told we would not be able to bear our own children. They were wrong. Through His grace, we have four, natural born children. God is good!
My focus became my children as I believe my greatest mission field is my children and now grandchildren. I taught Sunday school, GA’s, Awana, adult classes, and yes, even peewee basket for some years. I enjoyed working with youth wherever I could.
Our children are now obviously grown. Our two daughters are RNs. Our oldest son is a pilot. Our youngest son is an insurance broker. We have 8 grandchildren – 7 girls and 1 boy. We are anxiously awaiting our 8th granddaughter in April.
I am grateful to my parents, Coach Weese, Claude and Wilda Hutcherson, Wayland Baptist University, my teammates and of course, not least of all, Jesus for molding me into who I am today!
If I could offer encouragement to today’s Flying Queens it would be to have a healthy faith in Jesus, set your goals, persevere, and stay positive. You can do whatever you set your mind to do!
Long live the Flying Queens!