Psalms & Proverbs on the Playing Field

Patsy Neal, Captain of the United States basketball team in the 1964 World Basketball Tournament, highlights the uniqueness of Psalms and Proverbs in the life of an athlete.

Patsy Neal was a three-time All-American AAU basketball player. She played with the Hutcherson Flying Queens of Wayland Baptist College (Plainview, Texas) from 1956-1960. Wayland offered women full basketball scholarships in the 50's, years before Title IX required it.

Patsy won the 1957 National Free Throw Title with 48 out of 50 free throws, played in the 1959 Pan-American Games, and was on the United States team that toured the states against the Russian All-Star team in the winter of 1959-1960, including a game in Madison Square Garden. She was Captain of the United States team in the 1964 World Basketball Tournament in Peru, South America, and she played on the U.S. All-Star team that toured France, Germany, and Russia in 1965. She also played with the Sports Ambassadors against Mexican All-Star teams in 13 cities in Mexico in the summer of 1970.

She has been inducted into the National Association Sports and Physical Education Hall of Fame, the National AAU Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Wayland Baptist University Hall of Honor. In 1998 she was selected as one of ten ServiceMaster/NAIA Distinguished Graduates in the United States. She has won four Freedom Foundation Awards for essays, and has had numerous articles published in newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek, the New York Times, Prevention, and the Christian Athlete.