Hall of Fame
Marcia Pinder, a 1974 graduate, led the Fort Lauderdale Dillard Panthers girls’ basketball team to 10 state titles over four decades,
Pinder had a 996-231 record during her 44-year career at Dillard. Under her watch, the Panthers won state titles in 1980, 1982, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2019.
She was named the Florida Dairy Farmers Girls’ Basketball Coach of the Year five times (2010-2013 and 2015), received the Morgan Wootten Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017 and was inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2014.
Pinder sent many of her Dillard stars to Bethune-Cookman, including Erma Jones, the women’s basketball all-time scoring leader and Gwen Williams, the program’s all-time three-point shooting leader. In addition to her own players, Dillard played a hand in other South Florida players attending Bethune-Cookman, including all-time rebounding leader Rosina Pearson.
“She was the rock that the women’s basketball program at Bethune-Cookman was built upon,” said former Lady Wildcat Head Coach Alvin B. Wyatt, Sr. “She flooded our program with top-rated talent. We never could have had the success we did without her.”
She passed away in 2021 at the age of 70.
