MARLA DOUGLASS
Basketball, 1985-87
Asst. Basketball Coach, 1989-94
Inducted February 7, 2004

Marla Douglass transferred to SMS from Oklahoma State University after two seasons with the Cowgirls. She was a standout her two seasons in an SMS uniform for the basketball Lady Bears of coach Valerie Goodwin-Colbert. A native of Mountain Grove, Mo., Douglass was a second team all-Gateway Conference pick her senior year when she averaged 13.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 5.1 assists. She led SMS and the Gateway in free throw accuracy at .868. SMS rebounded from a seventh-place league finish in 1985-86 to come in second in the 1987 GCAC race behind the 28-3 season enjoyed by Southern Illinois. SMS finished with an 18-10 record which netted Goodwin-Colbert league Coach of the Year laurels. Douglass appeared in all SMS 54 games during her two-year career and remains atop the SMS career free throw percentage chart .860. She led SMS in three-point field goals in the first year the long-range statistic was added. She also excelled in the classroom at SMS as she was named to CoSIDA’s Academic All-District VII team as a senior. Douglass was named to the SMS basketball all-decade team in 1992 when SMS moved from the Gateway to the Missouri Valley, and received the Dr. Mary Jo Wynn Senior Scholar Athlete Award upon her SMS graduation. After her playing days, Douglass was an SMS student coach a year, spent two seasons as a graduate assistant coach and was a full-time assistant for the Lady Bears of head coach Cheryl Burnett from 1989 to 1994. That tenure included the Lady Bears’ 31-3 NCAA Final Four season in 1991-92. Douglass was at the University of Tulsa from 1995 to 1999 as the first women’s basketball coach at that school.