Former UT basketball star to receive Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award

By Steve Lansdale

AUSTIN, Texas — Former Texas center Imani Boyette is one of five college athletes chosen to receive the 2016 Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award, presented by the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics (N4A).

The award, which honors[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)] “student-athletes who have overcome great personal, academic and/or emotional odds to achieve academic success while participating in intercollegiate athletics,” will be presented Saturday, June 11, at the 2016 N4A Convention Awards Luncheon at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas.

The other four recipients of the award will be Lewis and Clark College football and basketball player Carl Appleton, Elon College Nicole Dennion, Minnesota football player Gaelin Elmore and Tennessee diver Bailey Wind.

“On behalf of the N4A Board of Directors and membership, I would like to congratulate the five recipients of the 2016 N4A Wilma Rudolph Award,” N4A president and Arizona State senior associate athletics director Jean Boyd said. “Like Wilma Rudolph, they have overcome significant obstacles on their journey toward achievement. We applaud their spirit and tenacity as they not only serve as models for their peers, their campuses and their communities, but models for us all. We anticipate how they will continue to grow and have an impact on our world.”

Boyette relied on poetry, basketball and her experiences at UT to help her overcome an upbringing that included multiple suicide attempts and molestation. The recipient of the Honda Inspiration Award and the 2014-15 Big 12 Conference Female Sports Person of the Year, Boyette also received the Texas Exes President’s Leadership Award, which “is presented to undergraduate students who have demonstrated outstanding leadership within the student community at the University of Texas.”

One of the most decorated players in Longhorns history, Boyette is the first Texas women’s basketball player ever to score 1,000 or more points, pull down 1,000 or more rebounds and block at least 200 shots. She graduated (with a bachelor’s degree in accounting) ranking 22^nd on the program’s all-time scoring list with 1,361 points, fifth in program history with 1,036 rebounds and second all-time with 303 blocked shots.

She was drafted 10^th overall by the Chicago Sky in the 2016 WNBA draft.

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