Tampa Bay's Title IX Trailblazers: Wanda Guyton
Guyton was taken fifth overall in the 1997 inaugural WNBA Draft and won two championships with the Houston Comets.
WANDA GUYTON
CLICK HERE FOR TRAILBLAZER PROFILES
By today’s standards, Wanda Guyton’s recruitment to USF women’s basketball lacked drama and attention. As her senior season began at Tampa’s Hillsborough High School in 1983-84, Guyton drew interest from Florida, Florida State, Miami, Tennessee, Auburn, Indiana and TCU.
She chose the hometown Bulls. Guyton called a Tampa Tribune reporter she knew and asked if he could come to the Hillsborough High principal’s office. Guyton became the first Hillsborough County athlete to utilize the NCAA’s new “early signing period,’’ which allowed her to have a pressure-free senior season. Guyton signed. Cake was served. She returned to class.
And just like that, a new era had begun for USF women’s basketball.
Guyton, a 6-foot-2 center, said she got homesick after visiting other schools. She said all her goals could be accomplished at USF. During her career from 1984-89 (with a redshirt season due to injury), she became USF’s all-time leading scorer (1,820 points) and rebounder (1,077), marks that lasted nearly two and three decades. Twenty years after completing her college eligibility, she still owned 10 USF career records.
As a USF senior, she was named Kodak All-America honorable mention and the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year.
“Signing Wanda was a really significant moment for the USF program,’’ then-USF coach Anne Strusz said at the time. “We really wanted to build with Florida players and Tampa Bay area players. And she was the best one.’’
After playing overseas, Guyton was taken fifth overall in the 1997 inaugural WNBA Draft and won two championships with the Houston Comets. Her No. 50 USF uniform was retired and she was named to the inaugural 2009 class for the USF Athletics Hall of Fame.
USF women’s basketball now enjoys the type of team success — seven NCAA Tournament bids in the past 10 seasons — that Guyton never enjoyed (14-13 was her best record). But all these years later, you can’t write the history of USF women’s basketball without including Wanda Guyton.
CLICK HERE FOR TRAILBLAZER PROFILES
— Joey Johnston