Quite simply, Brooke Armistead is the greatest women’s basketball player in Austin Peay history.
When the Elmwood native and Gordonsville High School graduate came to APSU in Fall 1999, head coach Susie Gardner knew she had something special, but not even her coach could have expected what transpired over the next four years.
Armistead left Austin Peay as the Lady Govs all-time leading scorer–second all-time in OVC history–while leading the Lady Govs to three straight OVC tourney titles and NCAA tourney appearances. She was named first-team All-OVC for three straight years and earned OVC All-Tournament all four seasons.
As a senior in 2002-03, the Elmwood native averaged an OVC-leading 18.9 ppg to help lead the Lady Govs to a 27-4 record, including a league record 22 straight
victories and an unprecedented 16-0 conference mark. In the process, she was named OVC “Player of the Year” and OVC tournament MVP, the second time she
earned the award. She scored 30 points against North Carolina in the Lady Govs heartbreaking 2003 NCAA tourney loss.
Armistead also was named OVC “Female Athlete of the Year” and the Steve Hamilton Sportsmanship Award recipient, annually presented to an OVC male or female student-athlete who best exemplifies the characteristics of the late Morehead State student-athlete, coach and administrator Steve Hamilton.
Armistead finished her career with 2,508 points, and probably would have broken the OVC scoring record (2,526) if a head injury hadn’t forced her to miss three games. She left APSU as the NCAA’s 29th all-time scoring leader and left as APSU’s career leader in scoring, field goals, field goals attempted, free throws, free throws attempted and free-throw percentage. In fact, Armistead’s career 86.6 percent free-throw shooting ranks eighth best all-time.
After earning OVC “Freshman of the Year” in 1999-2000, Armistead was named to three consecutive first-team All-OVC squads. Along the way, she also was named all-tournament in all 10 tournaments (regular season and postseason) that named all-tournament squads, including four straight OVC all-tourney teams, twice earning tourney MVP honors. She also was named MVP of the Unilever Tiger Classic at Missouri in her senior season.
In addition to leaving as the Lady Govs’ all-time leading scorer–and the school’s basketball all-time leading scorer–Armistead also owns the career mark for career scoring average (20.9 ppg).
After her senior season in 2003, she became the first OVC player to be drafted by the WNBA.
That same spring, she was named Austin Peay’s female Joy Award recipient as the most valuable senior athlete along with Most Outstanding Female Athlete.
A health and human performance graduate, Armistead was presented the Governors Club Academic Achievement Award for owning the highest GPA (3.85) among graduating APSU senior athletes. In addition, she was a three-time OVC Medal of Honor recipient, a four-time member of the OVC Commissioner’s Honor Roll and three-time honoree as the Lady Govs Scholar-Athlete. Armistead was named 2002-03 second-team Academic All-America after earning Academic All-District three times. In May 2003, she also received the prestigious Halbert Harvill Civitan Citizenship Award at APSU’s graduation ceremonies.
On Feb. 7, 2004, she became the first APSU women’s athlete to have her jersey retired. The uniform No. 10 joined six others at the time on the APSU Walls of Fame. She joined former football greats John Ogles (No. 30) and Harold “Red” Roberts (No. 84) and men’s basketball standouts Tom Morgan (No. 52), Howard Wright (No. 30), Charles “Bubba” Wells (No. 13) and Trenton Hassell (No. 44).
