[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 13, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E346-E347]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO JACKIE STILES

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. ROY BLUNT

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 13, 2001

  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a young lady 
who has brought praise and honor to the sport of basketball and to 
Southwest Missouri State University by becoming the nation's all-time 
leading scorer in women's NCAA Division I basketball
  Jackie Stiles has been among the leading scorers in women's college 
basketball for four years. Her 31 points per game average is the best 
in the nation this year. She was the leading women's scorer last year 
and ranked second in the nation in her sophomore year. She was also the 
country's top scoring freshman in her first year of collegiate 
competition.
  Stiles has scored 20 or more points in college games 86 times, 30-
plus points 35 times, 40-plus points 10 times and in two games she 
broke the 50 point mark. She is one of only two players in NCAA woman's 
basketball history to break the 50 point mark twice.
  Stiles broke the 12 year old NCAA Division I career scoring mark of 
3,103 points during a contest at Southwest Missouri State University 
when her Lady Bears squad beat Creighton University Thursday night. 
Needing only 20 points to eclipse the old mark set by Mississippi 
Valley State's Patricia Haskins, Stiles finished the Creighton game by 
netting 30 in laying claim to the title of ``Women's Collegiate 
Basketball Scoring Champ.''

[[Page E347]]

  The SMSU Lady Bears squad has one more conference game and perhaps as 
many as three tournament games left in their season that will allow 
Stiles to raise the new bar even higher.
  The accomplishments of Jackie Stiles have been noticed by fans, other 
players and coaches who typically have guarded her with two and 
sometimes three defenders. She is the first player in the history of 
the Missouri Valley Conference to earn back-to-back ``Player of the 
Year'' honors and the first sophomore to earn that title. She has made 
the first team All-Missouri Valley Conference in each of her first 
three years on the court at SMSU.
  Jackie Stiles grew up playing basketball in Claflin, Kansas where she 
was highly recruited by colleges and universities nationwide as a 
perimeter shooting guard. Today, her 58 percent field goal percentage 
ranks among the 20 best in the nation.
  Jackie Stiles is an All American both on the court and off. She is as 
good a student as an athlete. Majoring in physical education, Stiles 
has maintained a sparkling 3.45 grade point average into her senior 
year and has been named to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-
Athlete first team every year in her career.
  Stiles has become an icon on the basketball court in Springfield, 
Missouri. She is a role model for younger women who would like to 
follow the good-student, good-athlete trail she is blazing. She is a 
key reason that while some women's basketball games around the country 
draw crowds numbered in the hundreds, the Lady Bears' games often draw 
larger crowds than the men at Southwest Missouri State University. 
Thursday night's game at Hammons Student Center at SMSU drew the second 
biggest crowd in school history with more than 9,100 fans there to 
witness history. Fans in Southwest Missouri believe Jackie Stiles 
stands a lot taller than her 5 foot, 8 inch frame.
  I'd like to wish Jackie Stiles and her teammates continued good 
shooting in their pursuit of a crown in the Missouri Valley Conference 
and in the women's NCAA tournament later this month.

                          ____________________