Above the Rim

Jackie Carson ’00 was confident when she stepped onto the basketball court her senior year for the Southern Conference championship game against UNC Greensboro.

The two-time SoCon Player of the Year and 12-time player of the week had been part of the team her first year at Furman, when the No. 3 seed Paladins were knocked out of the tournament in an upset in the first round.

“I thought to myself I’m not leaving here without doing what I set out to do,” Carson says. “We wanted a win, and we sensed it early.”

That night she’d lead the team to its second SoCon tournament championship title. It’s one of her legendary accolades during her four-year playing career that earned her a spot in the Furman Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005. Carson carried her successes with her after graduation as she went on to play internationally, then serve as an assistant coach at Bucknell and James Madison universities. She brought her Paladin pride back home in 2010 when she was hired as the head women’s basketball coach at her alma mater.

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.

“It was never just about women’s basketball,” she says. “Furman as a whole inspired me to get involved and make as big an impact as I could.”

While working at the university, Carson networked with Black alumni and served as an advocate for women in athletics, a cause she’s championed her entire career. Several of the professors she had as an undergraduate were teaching her players, so she was able to connect with her team as a mentor and a Paladin. Carson recalled professors encouraging her after classes, asking her to sink a free throw for them.

“Just the knowledge that your professors are invested in you and proud of your accomplishments meant a lot to me, and I know it means a lot to students still,” she says.

During her coaching career, Carson rallied the women’s basketball team to a 20-win season in 2021-22. During her tenure Furman produced 19 All-SoCon performers, 12 All-Tournament players, three Freshmen of the Year, 12 SoCon All-Freshman Team picks and a player of the year.

“I have no idea, still to this day, how many games I won at Furman,” Carson says. “I remember the feeling of watching our ladies compete. It’s seeing their goals come to fruition that gave me the most joy.”

Carson left her coaching position in June 2023 and took a role advocating for women’s sports nationally as senior associate commissioner for women’s basketball for the Atlantic Coast Conference.

On Jan. 31, she returned to Furman during the Joseph Vaughn Day event to receive one more notch in her belt: the Idella Goodson Glenn ’84 Outstanding Black Alumni Award. During her acceptance speech she said coming back to Furman was an emotional experience, one that celebrated a legacy of accomplished Black women paving a path for those who come after them.

“Furman was home,” she says, and it still inspires her today.