Juliene Brazinski Simpson is excited to be part of another showcase for women’s athletics at St. Clair County Community College this weekend as a special guest for the inaugural SC4 Thumbcoast Tip-Off.
The Naismith Basketball Hall-of-Famer and co-captain of the first US Olympic Women’s Basketball team delivered keynote remarks Wednesday at a banquet for the participating teams in the tournament and will perform ceremonial tip-offs before each of Thursday’s games at the SC4 Fieldhouse.
Simpson was also an invited guest at SC4 for the 2023 National Junior College Athletic Association Division II Women’s Basketball National Championships.
“I was here two years ago at the junior college championships, and I loved, not only the area – it’s beautiful – but the people that make it work are unbelievable,” Simpson said. “The experience that the young people had coming to that tournament, and what I experienced two years ago, when they called, there was no doubt I was coming back.”
The SC4 Thumbcoast Tip-Off features eight of the top junior college women’s basketball teams in the country and will run Thursday, Nov. 14, through Saturday, Nov. 16, at the Fieldhouse. Games are scheduled for 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and the championship game will be at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Placement games will be at noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., also on Saturday.
Participating teams include the host Skippers, who climbed to No. 16 in the most recent NJCAA Division II rankings. Also participating are No. 3 Mesa (Ariz.) Community College, No. 4 CCBC Essex (Rossville, Md.), No. 6 Lake Land College (Mattoon, Ill.), No. 8 Mid-Michigan College (Mount Pleasant, Mich.), No. 22 Harcum College (Bryn Mawr, Penn.), Lansing Community College (Lansing, Mich.) and Edison State Community College (Piqua, Ohio).
As a former junior college coach herself, Simpson is excited about the opportunity to be around players at this level.
“I just feel like this is the level that you can really put impressions on young people,” Simpson said. “They didn’t get the opportunity to go Division I, so they are still drivers within themselves and with their team, and so on. If you want to go on, you can. Here’s Division I, II and II that you can look at now to transfer to. Or, some people say, ‘I don’t want to play anymore, but now I want to do this academically for my future.’ There was one individual two years ago that wanted to get into nursing, and she just said, ‘I don’t want to do both.’ But, she had two years of experience as a woman, being in a leadership role as her captain on her team, and getting to be in the role she had to play and all the hard work that goes with it.”
Coaches participating in the event will receive an autographed ball from Simpson, while players will receive posters of the 1976 US Women’s Olympic team, which earned a silver medal and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023. The posters will also be autographed by Simpson.
While Simpson is an attraction herself at the event, she’s just as interested in enjoying the action as a spectator.
“I have a passion for basketball,” she said. “If a women’s game is on, I’m watching it, I’m analyzing it. I go, as much as I can, when games are available around our area. I love to watch young people play, just because the game has changed so much and is so exciting.”
Simpson grew up playing basketball in Elizabeth, N.J., with her brother and his friends. Her first experience with organized basketball was in eighth grade, when a local league for girls was created.
She attended John F. Kennedy College in Wahoo, Neb., “sight-unseen” to continue her basketball career at a time when the recruiting process was basically non-existent. From there, she made and competed on 11 national teams.
That included the 1973 World University Games, in which she won a silver medal, and the 1975 Pan-American Games in which the US won its first gold medal since 1963.
The ultimate honor came in 1976, however, as she was not only one of the 12 selected to play on the first ever US Women’s Olympic team, but named a co-captain along with the late Pat Summit.
In those games, Simpson had the first assist – and first foul – in US Women’s Olympic history. She also was 16-of-16 from the free-throw line. To this day, that remains an Olympic record for most free-throw attempts without a miss.
“(US Coach) Billie Moore had said to us, ‘There’s going to only be one time when you are the first. There are going to be many after you, but you are the first,’” Simpson said. “And I think about that, and it’s kind of a lot of fun now.”
Simpson then transitioned into coaching, getting her start at Amarillo Junior College, before stops at Cincinnati, Arizona State, Whitworth, Bucknell and East Stroudsburg University. She also served as Athletic Director at Saint Elizabeth University from 2009-2020.
Simpson’s list of career accomplishments is a long one, as she has won multiple coach of the year awards.
On top of joining the 1976 Olympic team in the Naismith Hall of Fame, she has also been inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (2000) and the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame.
St Clair County Community College (SC4) was founded in 1923 and is the only public higher education institution in the thumb of Michigan. SC4 is a comprehensive community college that provides certificates and degrees for employable skills and college credits that can be transferred to a four-year college or university. The college provides collegiate arts and athletics for the area and has been an asset for students and the Port Huron community for over one hundred years.
For media inquiries, please contact Sarah Rutallie, Chief of Staff/Senior Vice President, SC4, at srutallie@sc4.edu
