Missouri State

TARA MITCHEM GLASSGOLD
Women's Basketball, 1998-2001
Inducted 2014

Tara Mitchem Glassgold transferred to Missouri State from Ohio State University as sophomore and played on three straight NCAA tournament teams for the Lady Bears of Coach Cheryl Burnett, including the memorable Final Four team Mitchem's senior season in 2001, as MSU posted a 29-6 record. A native of Springfield, she became the basketball career scoring leader at Springfield Glendale High School and won two-time all-state selection and WBCA All-America laurels among a host of other prep honors. Beginning her MSU playing days as a sophomore, Mitchem was a two-time all-Missouri Valley Conference scholar-athlete with all-league first team playing honors as a junior and all-MVC honorable mention her senior season. She finished with 1,139 points over the course of her 99 MSU career games to become the first Lady Bear to top a thousand points in a three-year career. Mitchem was an 83 percent career free throw shooter who scored 40 points vs. Toledo in the 2001 NCAA opener, a point total which ranked fourth best in NCAA tourney history at the time of her accomplishment. The Lady Bears went on to knock off Rutgers, Duke and Washington before falling to Purdue in the national semifinals. Missouri State got NCAA at large bids to reach the tournament second round in Mitchem's sophomore season and the first round her junior year, and won two league regular season titles in Mitchem's three years. As a senior, she averaged 13.5 points and 5.4 rebounds a game. She was drafted in 2001 by the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association and earned her undergraduate degree in biology from Missouri State the same year. She received a clinical doctorate in physical therapy from MSU in 2008 and currently works in that field in West Palm Beach, Fla., where she lives with her family.