2017 WEPAC School Assembly
September 21, 2017
Ashland High School Gym
10 am
TAMIKA CATCHINGS | #24FOREVER
Position: Forward
WNBA Years: 16
Height: 6-1
Weight: 167
Born: July 21, 1979 in Stratford, New Jersey
High School: Duncanville (Duncanville, Texas)
College: Tennessee ‘01
Drafted: By Indiana, first round, 2001 WNBA Draft (3rd overall)
Indiana’s “do-everything” forward completed 16 seasons in the WNBA, stepping away from her future-hall-of-famecareer
following the 2016 season. Her naming as recipient of the very first ESPN Humanitarian Award in 2015 and an 12-
year run of community service by her Catch The Stars Foundation are testament to her work off the court, however – more
impactful than her MVP career on the court.
Since her playing retirement, she serves as director of player programs and franchise development with Pacers Sports &
Entertainment, a post that keeps her engaged working with all three Pacers franchises: the Indiana Pacers, Indiana Fever
and Ft. Wayne Mad Ants. She operates the cozy Tea’s Me Café on the north side of downtown Indianapolis, and continues
her service as an ambassador with the NBA and WNBA. She serves on a developmental committee with USA Basketball. She
also began a broadcasting career as a college basketball analyst last season with ESPN and covers Fever games broadcast as
part of a local television package.
In March 2016, Catchings released an autobiographical story written by Ken Petersen with a Foreword by Tony Dungy.
Catch A Star: Shining through Adversity to Become a Champion telling Catchings’ story of overcoming. She faced being set
apart by her hearing loss, separation from family, high expectations and the pain of debilitating physical injury. She reached
for the stars with hard work, perseverance and her faith in God. Through the silence, she found a way to shine.
On the court, Catchings’ legacy is cemented as one of the greatest women ever to play the game. She retired as the
league’s No. 2 scorer (7,380 points) and rebounder (3,316) of all-time, already its career leader in free throws (2,004) and
steals (1,074). In postseason play, nobody appeared in as many WNBA Playoff games (68) as Catchings, or started as many
(67). She retired as the WNBA postseason leader in points (1,141), rebounds (598), free throws (356), steals (152), doubledoubles
(27) and minutes played (2,310). She finished her career second in postseason assists (223), fourth in blocked shots
(62) and fifth in 3-point field goals (81).
She earned WNBA Finals MVP honors while leading the Fever to the 2012 WNBA championship. A year earlier, in 2011,
she captured her first regular-season MVP honor.
The first man or woman in recorded basketball history to record a quintuple-double (Duncanville High School in 1997),
Catchings’ leadership, tenacity and all-around skills led the Indiana Fever to becoming one of the WNBA’s elite franchises.
The Fever reached the playoffs 13 times in Catchings’ 15 active seasons, including a WNBA-record run of 12-in-a-row from
2005-16. The Fever reached the conference finals eight times, including five straight seasons. The Fever won a WNBA
championship in 2012 and came within one game of two more championships in five-game WNBA Finals appearances in
2009 and 2015. Catchings played in every playoff game in Fever history through the time of her retirement.
Among her All-Star peers, Catchings left the game as the leading scorer in WNBA All-Star Game history (108 points), and
the only player to appear in 10 WNBA All-Star Games. She actually has been voted to 11 All-Star Games, including the 2006
season in which she was the league’s top vote-getter, but missed the game due to injury.
Catchings was the WNBA’s only player ever to spend an entire career of 16 or more seasons with the same franchise.
Through 15 active seasons (not counting 2001) with the Fever, Catchings joins an elite list of NBA counterparts with as
many seasons of an entire career playing with the same team (through 2017): Kobe Bryant (19), John Stockton (19), Tim
Duncan (18), Reggie Miller (18), Dirk Nowitzki (17), John Havlicek (16), Tony Parker (16) and Hal Greer (15).
Catchings’ retirement coincided with the Summer Olympics in August 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when she joined an
elite club with Teresa Edwards, Lisa Leslie and teammates Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi who are the only basketball players in
the world, male or female, to earn four Olympic gold medals. A four-time Olympic gold medalist for the United States, she
also won gold at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece; the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China and the 2012 Games in London.
She served as a U.S. tri-captain alongside Bird and Taurasi in both 2012 and 2016.
A telling note of Catchings’ durability is that Catchings played at least 30 games in 12 of her 15 active seasons – including
34 starts in 34 games in her final WNBA season at age 37, plus action in a playoff game and all eight Olympic contests. She
led the WNBA in steals (1.82 per game) and was the Fever’s leading scorer (12.7 points per game) even as she entered
retirement. Fittingly, she finished her final game with her 27th playoff double-double. In 2012, at age 33, Catchings was the
only WNBA player to start every regular season (34) and playoff game (10), as well as every game in the Olympics (8). In
2015, at age 36, Catchings defied expectations with 13.1 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in 30 regular season starts,
followed by an improbable playoff run that included averages of 15.5 points and 6.9 rebounds through a league-record 11
playoff games. Her 47 percent 3-point shooting in the 2015 playoffs was the best of her career.
Universally liked by fans, media, coaches and fellow players, she is the only three-time winner of the WNBA’s Kim Perrot
Sportsmanship Award. She won it outright in 2010 and 2016, and shared the honor with Chicago’s Swin Cash in 2013.
She was named the WNBA’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2012, receiving the award an unprecedented five times – in
2005, 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2012. Catchings was second in WNBA MVP balloting in 2002, 2009 and 2010, and has finished
among the top three in balloting for the WNBA MVP Award in seven of her 15 active pro seasons. She finished among the
top five in MVP balloting in 10 of 15 active seasons, asserting herself as one of the world’s premier players. She scored in
455 of 457 games played in her pro career. She is a 10-time WNBA All-Star and a 12-time All-WNBA recipient. She earned
WNBA Player of the Week honors 22 times, more than any player in league history at the time of her retirement.
Catchings averaged 16.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.4 steals per game during her career. Catchings led the
Fever in points per game, rebounds, assists and steals in each of her first six active pro seasons and again in 2010 and 2011
– no other WNBA player led her team in as many categories in even one of those seasons.
Catchings became the WNBA’s all-time leader in steals during the 2011 season and she emerged from the 2012 season as
the league’s all-time leader in free throws made. She is the only player in WNBA history to rank among Top 25 all-time
leaders in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks – and Catchings ended her career ranked in the Top 12 in all of them:
points (7,380, 2nd), rebounds (3,316, 1st), assists (1,488, 6th), steals (1,074, 1st) and blocks (385, 12th). She also ranks
among WNBA career leaders in free throws made (2,004, 1st) and 3-point field goals made (605, 7th). She is the only player
6-feet or taller ranked among Top 10 WNBA assist leaders. She averaged more steals per game (2.4) than any player in
WNBA history with more than two seasons. Catchings owns four of the top five single-season steals figures in league history
and in 2009 finished just one shy of Teresa Weatherspoon’s league record of 100 in a season (94 in 2006; 94 in 2002; 90 in
2005; 99 in 2009). A member of the WNBA’s 10th Anniversary All-Decade Team, awarded in 2006, she is the only player in
WNBA history to ever rank in the league’s top 10 in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and blocked shots in the same
season. Catchings, though, did it twice – in 2002 and 2006. She posted double-doubles in more than one-fifth of her
professional games (96-of-457), now third in WNBA history. She also was named to the WNBA’s Top 15 Players of all time in
2011, and a member of its Top 20@20 in 2016.
Catchings was a frequent nominee for “best women’s basketball player” during the ESPY Awards and she was one of five
nominees for Cartoon Network’s “She’s Got Game Award,” honoring five notable female athletes for 2013 Hall of Game
Awards.
Catchings was president of the WNBA Players Association for 13 years from 2006-16.
CITIZEN-ATHLETE
Off the court, Catchings is one of the country’s most highly-regarded citizen-athletes. On Jan. 18, 2016, she became the
first female recipient of the National Civil Rights Museum Sports Legacy Award, in Memphis, alongside Spencer Haywood
and Jalen Rose. She was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame on April 28, 2015. On April 26, 2014, Indy Parks
and Recreation dedicated Tamika Catchings Court, in Thatcher Park on Indy’s west side, in honor of her good works. In
2013, she served on a mentoring panel at the White House to honor Women’s History Month, speaking with other female
luminaries to a group of high school students. She was named by Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton to serve on the
U.S. Department of State’s Council to Empower Women and Girls Through Sports. Serving in that capacity with the State
Department, she has traveled to Bangkok, Thailand and Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. to engage girls and women in sports. Since the
2012-13 college season, she has been a National Ambassador for the Allstate WBCA Good Works Team, honoring college
women’s basketball stars who do good work in their communities. Catchings was the 2012 Honoree for the Pacers
Foundation and Simon Youth Foundation Masquerade Gala and prior to the 2013 season, the Catch The Stars Foundation
was honored by the Indianapolis City-County Council.
In 2012 alone, she was a spokesperson for Indy’s Super Cure, a community initiative of the 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl
Host Committee to aid in research and donation of healthy breast tissue; she was named an NBA/WNBA ambassador for
Sanofi’s “Dribble to Stop Diabetes” campaign; she was named to serve on the board of trustees of the Women’s Sports
Foundation; and appeared with First Lady Michelle Obama in Des Moines, Iowa, as part of Obama’s “Let’s Move Tour,”
geared toward solving the problem of childhood obesity.
In 2011, she was voted a Top 5 Finalist for the United Nations NGO Positive Peace Award and one of ten “Dream Team for
Public Service” finalists for the Jefferson Award for outstanding service by an athlete. She was invited to President George
W. Bush’s State of the Union Address in 2004 and was named a finalist for the 2006 Wooden Citizenship Cup, presented
annually to the nation’s top professional athlete who exhibits outstanding community service. She was the 2008 female
recipient of the Rotary Club of Tulsa Henry P. Iba Citizen-Athlete Award. She was the first recipient of the WNBA’s Dawn
Staley Leadership Award, presented in 2008 to the player who best exemplifies the characteristics of a leader in the
community and reflects Staley’s leadership, spirit, charitable efforts and love for the game.
FAMILY, GROWING UP AND CATCH THE STARS FOUNDATION
The youngest daughter of Harvey and Wanda Catchings, Tamika was married in February 2016 to former Pike High School
and University of Buffalo basketball player Parnell Smith.
Tamika has an older brother, Kenyon, and an older sister, Tauja. A devout Christian, she considers her family as the only
role models she’ll ever need, and she cites a seventh-grade promise as the time she decided to pursue a career in
basketball. She wore No. 24 because her father, a longtime NBA star, wore 42. Kenyon wore 21, which is half of 42 and
Tauja wore 12, which is 21 transposed and half of 24.
Known by nicknames Mik, Mika or Catch, she graduated from Duncanville High School in Duncanville, Texas, after two
years at Stephenson High School in suburban Chicago. Remarkably, she owns distinction as the recipient of Ms. Basketball
honors in both states – in Illinois as a sophomore in 1995 and Texas as a senior in 1997. One year old, Tauja was Tamika’s
high school teammate for two years while in Illinois, and won the state’s Ms. Basketball award in 1996. Tauja, a star at the
University of Illinois, was drafted in the third round (#37 overall) of the 2000 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury, but was
waived in training camp.
Tamika was drafted by the Fever with the third pick of the 2001 WNBA Draft, despite an ACL injury sustained late in her
senior year at the University of Tennessee. Under the tutelage and mentorship of legendary coach Pat Summitt, Catchings
helped guide the Vols to an NCAA championship as a freshman, on the way to All-America honors in four straight seasons.
Catchings finished her college career ranked third in the school’s history in points (2,113) and rebounds (1,004) and second
in steals (311) and blocked shots (140). She graduated with honors a semester ahead of her class with a bachelor’s degree
in sport management, in December 2000, and was a 2001 Academic All-SEC honoree while earning a perfect 4.0 GPA during
her final undergraduate semester. She earned a master’s degree in sports studies on May 6, 2005.
Born with a hearing disability, Tamika wore a hearing aid as a young girl. In 2000, she was honored with the Reynolds
Society Achievement Award by the world-famous Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston – the annual award given
to an individual who has overcome hearing, vision or voice loss and who has distinguished themselves and provided
inspiration to others.
On that merit and with the urging of Pat Summitt to share her voice and have an impact on others, Catchings launched
the Catch the Stars Foundation, Inc. in Spring 2004. Initially designed to assist disadvantaged youth in helping to achieve
their dreams, Catchings felt compelled to start the foundation because she understands that the youth of today are the
stars of tomorrow. The Catch the Stars Foundation has evolved to empower all youth, boys and girls, to achieve their
dreams by providing goal setting programs that promote fitness, literacy and youth development. Programs are targeted to
youth throughout Indianapolis, with a specific emphasis on supporting and assisting under-served and low-to-moderate
income communities. A public reception was held to unveil the foundation at the NCAA Hall of Champions, March 11, 2005.
In February 2011, the Foundation announced a partnership with the University of Tennessee School of Education, Health
and Human Services to assist at-risk high school students in Knoxville, Tenn.
Catchings and the Foundation annually conduct fitness clinics and basketball camps at numerous locations nationally. A
local “Catch on to Fitness Clinic” is conducted in November each year with canned food items being the only cost of
admission. Those canned food items are annually donated to Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, prior to Thanksgiving.
Catchings has also been an annual participant and sponsor of the Indiana Pacers’ annual Thanksgiving dinner to feed the
area’s homeless and less fortunate.
Other current programs maintained by CTSF include a college scholarship program for Indianapolis high school scholarathletes;
the Catch the Stars Youth Holiday Basketball Camp; Catch on to Fitness Clinics; Catchings Corner (donated Fever
game tickets) and S.T.A.R.S. (Sisters Teaching and Reaching Sisters). CTSF Reading Corners have also been established at
local schools and at IU Health Riley Children’s Hospital.
CTSF helped manage a Legacy Tour during Catchings’ final pro season in 2016, donating $2,000 to a comparable charity
organization in each WNBA market and conducting a postgame meet & greet and autograph session with Catchings
following a Fever game in each city. The concept behind the tour was to “pay it forward,” and enable communication with
those local organizations to foster clinics and CTSF opportunities in those cities in the future. Part Two of Catchings’ Legacy
Tour has involved a skills clinic in every WNBA city in 2017. For more information, contact [email protected] or visit
websites at www.catchings24.com or www.catchthestars.org.
Position: Forward
WNBA Years: 16
Height: 6-1
Weight: 167
Born: July 21, 1979 in Stratford, New Jersey
High School: Duncanville (Duncanville, Texas)
College: Tennessee ‘01
Drafted: By Indiana, first round, 2001 WNBA Draft (3rd overall)
Indiana’s “do-everything” forward completed 16 seasons in the WNBA, stepping away from her future-hall-of-famecareer
following the 2016 season. Her naming as recipient of the very first ESPN Humanitarian Award in 2015 and an 12-
year run of community service by her Catch The Stars Foundation are testament to her work off the court, however – more
impactful than her MVP career on the court.
Since her playing retirement, she serves as director of player programs and franchise development with Pacers Sports &
Entertainment, a post that keeps her engaged working with all three Pacers franchises: the Indiana Pacers, Indiana Fever
and Ft. Wayne Mad Ants. She operates the cozy Tea’s Me Café on the north side of downtown Indianapolis, and continues
her service as an ambassador with the NBA and WNBA. She serves on a developmental committee with USA Basketball. She
also began a broadcasting career as a college basketball analyst last season with ESPN and covers Fever games broadcast as
part of a local television package.
In March 2016, Catchings released an autobiographical story written by Ken Petersen with a Foreword by Tony Dungy.
Catch A Star: Shining through Adversity to Become a Champion telling Catchings’ story of overcoming. She faced being set
apart by her hearing loss, separation from family, high expectations and the pain of debilitating physical injury. She reached
for the stars with hard work, perseverance and her faith in God. Through the silence, she found a way to shine.
On the court, Catchings’ legacy is cemented as one of the greatest women ever to play the game. She retired as the
league’s No. 2 scorer (7,380 points) and rebounder (3,316) of all-time, already its career leader in free throws (2,004) and
steals (1,074). In postseason play, nobody appeared in as many WNBA Playoff games (68) as Catchings, or started as many
(67). She retired as the WNBA postseason leader in points (1,141), rebounds (598), free throws (356), steals (152), doubledoubles
(27) and minutes played (2,310). She finished her career second in postseason assists (223), fourth in blocked shots
(62) and fifth in 3-point field goals (81).
She earned WNBA Finals MVP honors while leading the Fever to the 2012 WNBA championship. A year earlier, in 2011,
she captured her first regular-season MVP honor.
The first man or woman in recorded basketball history to record a quintuple-double (Duncanville High School in 1997),
Catchings’ leadership, tenacity and all-around skills led the Indiana Fever to becoming one of the WNBA’s elite franchises.
The Fever reached the playoffs 13 times in Catchings’ 15 active seasons, including a WNBA-record run of 12-in-a-row from
2005-16. The Fever reached the conference finals eight times, including five straight seasons. The Fever won a WNBA
championship in 2012 and came within one game of two more championships in five-game WNBA Finals appearances in
2009 and 2015. Catchings played in every playoff game in Fever history through the time of her retirement.
Among her All-Star peers, Catchings left the game as the leading scorer in WNBA All-Star Game history (108 points), and
the only player to appear in 10 WNBA All-Star Games. She actually has been voted to 11 All-Star Games, including the 2006
season in which she was the league’s top vote-getter, but missed the game due to injury.
Catchings was the WNBA’s only player ever to spend an entire career of 16 or more seasons with the same franchise.
Through 15 active seasons (not counting 2001) with the Fever, Catchings joins an elite list of NBA counterparts with as
many seasons of an entire career playing with the same team (through 2017): Kobe Bryant (19), John Stockton (19), Tim
Duncan (18), Reggie Miller (18), Dirk Nowitzki (17), John Havlicek (16), Tony Parker (16) and Hal Greer (15).
Catchings’ retirement coincided with the Summer Olympics in August 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, when she joined an
elite club with Teresa Edwards, Lisa Leslie and teammates Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi who are the only basketball players in
the world, male or female, to earn four Olympic gold medals. A four-time Olympic gold medalist for the United States, she
also won gold at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece; the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China and the 2012 Games in London.
She served as a U.S. tri-captain alongside Bird and Taurasi in both 2012 and 2016.
A telling note of Catchings’ durability is that Catchings played at least 30 games in 12 of her 15 active seasons – including
34 starts in 34 games in her final WNBA season at age 37, plus action in a playoff game and all eight Olympic contests. She
led the WNBA in steals (1.82 per game) and was the Fever’s leading scorer (12.7 points per game) even as she entered
retirement. Fittingly, she finished her final game with her 27th playoff double-double. In 2012, at age 33, Catchings was the
only WNBA player to start every regular season (34) and playoff game (10), as well as every game in the Olympics (8). In
2015, at age 36, Catchings defied expectations with 13.1 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in 30 regular season starts,
followed by an improbable playoff run that included averages of 15.5 points and 6.9 rebounds through a league-record 11
playoff games. Her 47 percent 3-point shooting in the 2015 playoffs was the best of her career.
Universally liked by fans, media, coaches and fellow players, she is the only three-time winner of the WNBA’s Kim Perrot
Sportsmanship Award. She won it outright in 2010 and 2016, and shared the honor with Chicago’s Swin Cash in 2013.
She was named the WNBA’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2012, receiving the award an unprecedented five times – in
2005, 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2012. Catchings was second in WNBA MVP balloting in 2002, 2009 and 2010, and has finished
among the top three in balloting for the WNBA MVP Award in seven of her 15 active pro seasons. She finished among the
top five in MVP balloting in 10 of 15 active seasons, asserting herself as one of the world’s premier players. She scored in
455 of 457 games played in her pro career. She is a 10-time WNBA All-Star and a 12-time All-WNBA recipient. She earned
WNBA Player of the Week honors 22 times, more than any player in league history at the time of her retirement.
Catchings averaged 16.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.4 steals per game during her career. Catchings led the
Fever in points per game, rebounds, assists and steals in each of her first six active pro seasons and again in 2010 and 2011
– no other WNBA player led her team in as many categories in even one of those seasons.
Catchings became the WNBA’s all-time leader in steals during the 2011 season and she emerged from the 2012 season as
the league’s all-time leader in free throws made. She is the only player in WNBA history to rank among Top 25 all-time
leaders in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks – and Catchings ended her career ranked in the Top 12 in all of them:
points (7,380, 2nd), rebounds (3,316, 1st), assists (1,488, 6th), steals (1,074, 1st) and blocks (385, 12th). She also ranks
among WNBA career leaders in free throws made (2,004, 1st) and 3-point field goals made (605, 7th). She is the only player
6-feet or taller ranked among Top 10 WNBA assist leaders. She averaged more steals per game (2.4) than any player in
WNBA history with more than two seasons. Catchings owns four of the top five single-season steals figures in league history
and in 2009 finished just one shy of Teresa Weatherspoon’s league record of 100 in a season (94 in 2006; 94 in 2002; 90 in
2005; 99 in 2009). A member of the WNBA’s 10th Anniversary All-Decade Team, awarded in 2006, she is the only player in
WNBA history to ever rank in the league’s top 10 in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and blocked shots in the same
season. Catchings, though, did it twice – in 2002 and 2006. She posted double-doubles in more than one-fifth of her
professional games (96-of-457), now third in WNBA history. She also was named to the WNBA’s Top 15 Players of all time in
2011, and a member of its Top 20@20 in 2016.
Catchings was a frequent nominee for “best women’s basketball player” during the ESPY Awards and she was one of five
nominees for Cartoon Network’s “She’s Got Game Award,” honoring five notable female athletes for 2013 Hall of Game
Awards.
Catchings was president of the WNBA Players Association for 13 years from 2006-16.
CITIZEN-ATHLETE
Off the court, Catchings is one of the country’s most highly-regarded citizen-athletes. On Jan. 18, 2016, she became the
first female recipient of the National Civil Rights Museum Sports Legacy Award, in Memphis, alongside Spencer Haywood
and Jalen Rose. She was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame on April 28, 2015. On April 26, 2014, Indy Parks
and Recreation dedicated Tamika Catchings Court, in Thatcher Park on Indy’s west side, in honor of her good works. In
2013, she served on a mentoring panel at the White House to honor Women’s History Month, speaking with other female
luminaries to a group of high school students. She was named by Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton to serve on the
U.S. Department of State’s Council to Empower Women and Girls Through Sports. Serving in that capacity with the State
Department, she has traveled to Bangkok, Thailand and Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. to engage girls and women in sports. Since the
2012-13 college season, she has been a National Ambassador for the Allstate WBCA Good Works Team, honoring college
women’s basketball stars who do good work in their communities. Catchings was the 2012 Honoree for the Pacers
Foundation and Simon Youth Foundation Masquerade Gala and prior to the 2013 season, the Catch The Stars Foundation
was honored by the Indianapolis City-County Council.
In 2012 alone, she was a spokesperson for Indy’s Super Cure, a community initiative of the 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl
Host Committee to aid in research and donation of healthy breast tissue; she was named an NBA/WNBA ambassador for
Sanofi’s “Dribble to Stop Diabetes” campaign; she was named to serve on the board of trustees of the Women’s Sports
Foundation; and appeared with First Lady Michelle Obama in Des Moines, Iowa, as part of Obama’s “Let’s Move Tour,”
geared toward solving the problem of childhood obesity.
In 2011, she was voted a Top 5 Finalist for the United Nations NGO Positive Peace Award and one of ten “Dream Team for
Public Service” finalists for the Jefferson Award for outstanding service by an athlete. She was invited to President George
W. Bush’s State of the Union Address in 2004 and was named a finalist for the 2006 Wooden Citizenship Cup, presented
annually to the nation’s top professional athlete who exhibits outstanding community service. She was the 2008 female
recipient of the Rotary Club of Tulsa Henry P. Iba Citizen-Athlete Award. She was the first recipient of the WNBA’s Dawn
Staley Leadership Award, presented in 2008 to the player who best exemplifies the characteristics of a leader in the
community and reflects Staley’s leadership, spirit, charitable efforts and love for the game.
FAMILY, GROWING UP AND CATCH THE STARS FOUNDATION
The youngest daughter of Harvey and Wanda Catchings, Tamika was married in February 2016 to former Pike High School
and University of Buffalo basketball player Parnell Smith.
Tamika has an older brother, Kenyon, and an older sister, Tauja. A devout Christian, she considers her family as the only
role models she’ll ever need, and she cites a seventh-grade promise as the time she decided to pursue a career in
basketball. She wore No. 24 because her father, a longtime NBA star, wore 42. Kenyon wore 21, which is half of 42 and
Tauja wore 12, which is 21 transposed and half of 24.
Known by nicknames Mik, Mika or Catch, she graduated from Duncanville High School in Duncanville, Texas, after two
years at Stephenson High School in suburban Chicago. Remarkably, she owns distinction as the recipient of Ms. Basketball
honors in both states – in Illinois as a sophomore in 1995 and Texas as a senior in 1997. One year old, Tauja was Tamika’s
high school teammate for two years while in Illinois, and won the state’s Ms. Basketball award in 1996. Tauja, a star at the
University of Illinois, was drafted in the third round (#37 overall) of the 2000 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury, but was
waived in training camp.
Tamika was drafted by the Fever with the third pick of the 2001 WNBA Draft, despite an ACL injury sustained late in her
senior year at the University of Tennessee. Under the tutelage and mentorship of legendary coach Pat Summitt, Catchings
helped guide the Vols to an NCAA championship as a freshman, on the way to All-America honors in four straight seasons.
Catchings finished her college career ranked third in the school’s history in points (2,113) and rebounds (1,004) and second
in steals (311) and blocked shots (140). She graduated with honors a semester ahead of her class with a bachelor’s degree
in sport management, in December 2000, and was a 2001 Academic All-SEC honoree while earning a perfect 4.0 GPA during
her final undergraduate semester. She earned a master’s degree in sports studies on May 6, 2005.
Born with a hearing disability, Tamika wore a hearing aid as a young girl. In 2000, she was honored with the Reynolds
Society Achievement Award by the world-famous Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston – the annual award given
to an individual who has overcome hearing, vision or voice loss and who has distinguished themselves and provided
inspiration to others.
On that merit and with the urging of Pat Summitt to share her voice and have an impact on others, Catchings launched
the Catch the Stars Foundation, Inc. in Spring 2004. Initially designed to assist disadvantaged youth in helping to achieve
their dreams, Catchings felt compelled to start the foundation because she understands that the youth of today are the
stars of tomorrow. The Catch the Stars Foundation has evolved to empower all youth, boys and girls, to achieve their
dreams by providing goal setting programs that promote fitness, literacy and youth development. Programs are targeted to
youth throughout Indianapolis, with a specific emphasis on supporting and assisting under-served and low-to-moderate
income communities. A public reception was held to unveil the foundation at the NCAA Hall of Champions, March 11, 2005.
In February 2011, the Foundation announced a partnership with the University of Tennessee School of Education, Health
and Human Services to assist at-risk high school students in Knoxville, Tenn.
Catchings and the Foundation annually conduct fitness clinics and basketball camps at numerous locations nationally. A
local “Catch on to Fitness Clinic” is conducted in November each year with canned food items being the only cost of
admission. Those canned food items are annually donated to Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, prior to Thanksgiving.
Catchings has also been an annual participant and sponsor of the Indiana Pacers’ annual Thanksgiving dinner to feed the
area’s homeless and less fortunate.
Other current programs maintained by CTSF include a college scholarship program for Indianapolis high school scholarathletes;
the Catch the Stars Youth Holiday Basketball Camp; Catch on to Fitness Clinics; Catchings Corner (donated Fever
game tickets) and S.T.A.R.S. (Sisters Teaching and Reaching Sisters). CTSF Reading Corners have also been established at
local schools and at IU Health Riley Children’s Hospital.
CTSF helped manage a Legacy Tour during Catchings’ final pro season in 2016, donating $2,000 to a comparable charity
organization in each WNBA market and conducting a postgame meet & greet and autograph session with Catchings
following a Fever game in each city. The concept behind the tour was to “pay it forward,” and enable communication with
those local organizations to foster clinics and CTSF opportunities in those cities in the future. Part Two of Catchings’ Legacy
Tour has involved a skills clinic in every WNBA city in 2017. For more information, contact [email protected] or visit
websites at www.catchings24.com or www.catchthestars.org.