Jackie Carson ’00 carried on a legacy of helping Furman students feel at home

When Jackie Carson ’00 came to Furman as a highly recruited basketball player in 1996, it was easy to find her place as an athlete. Her statistics are legendary.

Over her four-year playing career, Carson was named SoCon Player of the Year twice and a player of the week 12 times, more than any other Furman athlete. She had 52 double-doubles and set records for free throws in a season (212) and in a career (724). In 2005 she was inducted into the Furman Athletics Hall of Fame for these and many other accolades.

But finding her place as a Black person was a more difficult. Many of the Black students at the time were athletes, like her, and they didn’t know how to fit into the rest of the campus community.

“We were a group that a majority of the students didn’t look like,” she said.

Fortunately, Carson and other Black students had a champion in Idella Goodson Glenn, who was Furman’s assistant vice president for student development and director of diversity and inclusion at the time.

Former Furman Women’s Basketball head coach Jackie Carson led the Paladins for 13 years, transforming the program and serving as a role model for her players.

When Carson and other Black students were feeling disconnected and struggling to fit in at Furman, it was Glenn who brought step team shows, National Pan-Hellenic Council organizations, Black student groups from Clemson University and South Carolina State University as well as Black comedians to campus.

“She brought a lot of Black culture to a place that didn’t naturally have a lot of it,” Carson said. “She was a bridge, a connector.” Glenn, Carson said, “always made us feel included, made us feel welcomed and empowered to be who we are and take pride in that.

“When people believe in you, there’s a lot of power there,” Carson said.

Glenn’s example inspired Carson. After playing professionally in Europe, she was an assistant coach at Bucknell and James Madison University. In 2010, she was hired as the head women’s basketball coach at her alma mater.

What Glenn did for Black students, “that’s what I wanted to do for my student-athletes,” Carson said. At her press conference after taking the coaching position, she said she wanted to provide the feelings and experiences she had at Furman to a new generation of women. Being a woman in college sports is a balancing act of dedication to athletics and academic rigor, she said, and she let her athletes know she was in their shoes when she was a player. She worked to connect them to mentors throughout the campus and alumni communities. At games, she would tell players to make friends with the band students cheering them on.

During her 13 years as Furman’s head women’s basketball coach the program produced 19 All-SoCon athletes, 12 All-Tournament players, three Freshmen of the Year, 12 SoCon All-Freshman Team selections and a player of the year.

Carson said being a coach wasn’t only about winning. “I have no idea, still to this day, how many games I won at Furman. That wasn’t what mattered to me. I remember the feeling of watching our ladies compete. Seeing their goals come to fruition gave me the most joy,” she said.

In June 2023 Carson left her coaching position to champion women’s sports as senior associate commissioner for women’s basketball for the Atlantic Coast Conference. She also serves on the NCAA Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee and WBCA Board of Directors, she’s on the Southern Conference Racial Equity Task Force and is president of the Women of Color Coaches Network.

On Jan. 31, as part of the Joseph Vaughn Day program commemorating the university’s first Black undergraduate, Carson returned to Furman to receive one more accolade. This one was named for the woman who mentored her: the Idella Goodson Glenn ’84 Outstanding Black Alumni Award.

“Idella Glenn was probably one of the most inspirational people I encountered during my time as a student,” Carson said. “There are so many that came before me that marked my path, and hopefully there will be many who come after me who might say I served as an inspiration.”

There already are.