Shelly Bowie Bryant is still considered the quintessential center of Millersville women's basketball. When it came to playing the pivot at an all-star caliber level, no other Marauder cager--before or since--has come close.
The Lebanon, Pa. native was integral to the Marauders' success in the early-to-mid '80s. During her outstanding career, MU posted a record of 73 wins and 31 losses for an exceptional 70.2 percent win ratio--the finest four-year totals by victories and percentage in team history.
Bryant made an immediate impact in her freshman season when she helped lead Coach Debra Schlegel's Marauders to the only 20-win season in team annals (20-11 record). That 1981- 82 squad made an impressive run through the AIAW Division III Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships, defeating Dickinson, New Rochelle, Rutgers-Camden and Kean (the latter a 69- 66 Marauder victory in the final).
In the ensuing AIAW Division III National Championship Tournament at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the 'Ville advanced to the Final Four with wins over St. Thomas Aquinas and Knoxville. The Marauders' national title bid was stopped by Concordia (Minn.) in the semifinals, 67-57, and the Black and Gold captured fourth place honors overall--the club's best post-season finish ever.
After a fine 17-4 season in 1982-83, Millersville recorded its first-ever PSAC women's title in 1983-84 capped by a 69-54 title game victory over Shippensburg at Hershey Park Arena. Bryant, who averaged 15.5 points and 10.6 rebounds per game that season, excelled in the PSAC final with 17 points, 20 rebounds, and three blocked shots. That squad, which finished 19-7 overall, advanced automatically to its first appearance in the NCAA Division II Championships.
In her senior season (1984-85), Bryant dominated the opposition, averaging 18.5 points and 12.3 rebounds per game (both personal highs), and she swatted away 46 enemy shots. She scored 30 or more points three times, including a career-high 36 at West Chester, and paced the 'Ville to a share of the PSAC Eastern Division title. Also that season, she tallied a school record 26 rebounds versus Gettysburg.
Bryant is still Millersville's all-time leader in rebounds (971) and blocked shots (200), and ranks second on the Marauders' career scoring chart with 1,463 points.
After she graduated from MU in 1985, Bryant served two years as a resident advisor at Prospectus Associates, Inc. and one year as a crisis counselor at Good Samaritan Hospital in Lebanon. From 1988 to 1990, Shelly was a drug and alcohol counselor at the Addictive Disease Clinic in Harrisburg.
In 1990, Bryant moved to Lexington, Ky. and served as employee assistance program manager at the University of Kentucky for five years. Currently, she is a social worker in the Heart/Lung/Liver Transplant Unit at the University of Kentucky Medical Center.
The mother of two children, Jasmine (8) and Sierra (3), Shelly earned her master's degree in social work from UK in 1994 and presently is studying for her doctoral degree in psychology (emphasis in sports psychology).
