Coach Margaret Wade was a three-time national championship women’s basketball coach at Delta State. Coach Wade hails from McCool, MS and attended Delta State from 1929-1933 where she was a member of DSU’s Mississippi Valley and Southern championship squads. She was also a tennis champion in 1932 and 1933 and was named Best Female Athlete at Delta State in 1932. Margaret began her four decade coaching career in 1933 by serving as head coach for the Tupelo Red Wings, an independent women’s team and head coach at Marietta High. She coached at Belden High from 1934-35. She arrived at Cleveland High in 1940 and forged a championship squad. Coach Wade led Cleveland to the Bolivar County Championship 14 out of 14 years from 1944 to 1959. She led her girls to the Delta Valley Conference crown on three occasions in 1952, 1953, and 1956. She arrived at Delta State in 1973 and developed one of the finest women’s basketball programs in America. Margaret guided the Lady Statesmen to four Mississippi AIAW state titles in 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1977. Her teams captured the AIAW Region 3 crown three times in 1975, 1976, and 1977. She led Delta State to three consecutive National AIAW Championships in 1975, 1976, and 1977. Her Lady Statesmen were the first Mississippi team to play in famed Madison Square Garden in New York. Her high school record was 453-89-6 while her Delta State teams compiled a mark of 157-23. She was named the Governor’s Outstanding Mississippian in 1975 and was selected the Kellogg’s Coach of the Year in Mississippi in 1977. Coach Wade was inducted into the Delta State Athletic Hall of Fame in 1972 and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1975. In 1978, the Margaret Wade Trophy was established in her name to honor the nation’s top women’s college basketball player. Coach Wade passed away on February 16, 1995.