![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/02\/UCOM20-21-JV-Day-Black-History-Month-Display-Ad_320x50-2-1024x160.jpg\")
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When Jackie Carson<\/a> \u201900 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t know how to fit into the rest of the campus community.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were a group that a majority of the students didn\u2019t look like,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Fortunately, Carson and other Black students had a champion in Idella Goodson Glenn, who was Furman\u2019s assistant vice president for student development and director of diversity and inclusion at the time.<\/p>\n Former Furman Women\u2019s Basketball head coach Jackie Carson led the Paladins for 13 years, transforming the program and serving as a role model for her players.<\/p><\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cShe brought a lot of Black culture to a place that didn\u2019t naturally have a lot of it,\u201d Carson said. \u201cShe was a bridge, a connector.\u201d Glenn, Carson said, \u201calways made us feel included, made us feel welcomed and empowered to be who we are and take pride in that.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen people believe in you, there’s a lot of power there,\u201d Carson said.<\/p>\n Glenn\u2019s 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\u2019s basketball coach at her alma mater.<\/p>\n What Glenn did for Black students, \u201cthat\u2019s what I wanted to do for my student-athletes,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n During her 13 years as Furman\u2019s head women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Carson said being a coach wasn\u2019t only about winning. \u201cI have no idea, still to this day, how many games I won at Furman. That wasn\u2019t what mattered to me. I remember the feeling of watching our ladies compete. Seeing their goals come to fruition gave me the most joy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In June 2023 Carson left her coaching position to champion women\u2019s sports as senior associate commissioner for women\u2019s basketball for the Atlantic Coast Conference<\/a>. She also serves on the NCAA Women\u2019s Basketball Oversight Committee and WBCA Board of Directors, she\u2019s on the Southern Conference Racial Equity Task Force and is president of the Women of Color Coaches Network.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2022\/08\/jackie-carson.jpg\")