In a way, it all started with a massive coffee maker and some hot dogs.
Linda Wooster, one of five founders of the Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, was in the basement of a building at Southern Connecticut State University, helping prepare refreshments to sell at a baseball card show in an effort to fundraise enough money for the organization to put on its first gala.
“We didn’t have anything big enough to cook hot dogs in for that many people, so we cooked them in a 100-cup coffee pot,” Wooster said. “Talk about the saying, ‘from humble beginnings.’ We couldn’t get any more humble than we were.”
Wooster and the organization’s other four founders pulled together enough money to honor the first group of inductees in April 1988.
Jennifer Rizzotti, who was inducted in 2001 thanks to her illustrious career as both a player and a coach, remains one of the organization’s most decorated honorees. But she didn’t stop there.
