Tulane hoops legend Grace Daley to be Inducted into Greater New Orleans Sports

NEW ORLEANS – Grace Daley, the all-time leading scorer in Tulane basketball history, has been selected for induction into the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023. FULL STORY BELOW.

Daley is one of four standout local sports figures who will be added to the Hall of Fame this year. Each year’s Hall of Fame class is selected by the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, a group of current and former media members who annually recognize a variety of annual award-winners, as well as the Hall of Fame, the Corbett Awards and the Eddie Robinson Award. The group also selects the Greater New Orleans Amateur Athlete of the Month each month.

Overall, 24 individuals and three teams will be honored this year for their achievements at the Committee’s annual awards banquet on Saturday, August 5. Honorees are currently being announced over a two-week period, wrapping up with the Corbett Awards for the top male and female amateur athletes in the state on July 28.

The Allstate Sugar Bowl will continue announcing its awards tomorrow (Tuesday) with the next member of the 2023 Class of the Allstate Sugar Bowl Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.

Grace Daley
Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame, Class of 2023

By Lenny Vangilder of the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee

Lisa Stockton had been Tulane’s head women’s basketball coach for a little more than a year in the fall of 1995 when a guard from Ocala, Florida, decided to sign with the Green Wave.

It would change the immediate course of the program.

Over the next four seasons, Grace Daley would put up numbers unmatched to this day by a Tulane basketball player, male or female, lead her team to multiple conference championships and four straight NCAA Tournaments and become the highest draft pick in program history.

For her career achievements, Daley is one of four inductees in the Class of 2023 into the Allstate Sugar Bowl Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.

As a shooting guard coming out of Lake Weir High School, Daley had narrowed her college choice to two.

“Tulane did their homework,” she said. “I’m a church girl. Tulane took me to the House of Blues for a gospel brunch. I absolutely fell in love with the city and the campus.”

As quickly as Daley was sold on Tulane, she made an impact on the floor.

Stockton “was going to make me into the best player I could possibly be,” Daley said. “The team always came first.”

And while the points would pile up, so would the wins. The Green Wave went 99-23 in Daley’s four seasons in a Tulane uniform.

What made her different?

“Most players can shoot or drive,” Stockton said in an interview during Daley’s junior season, “but she’s a scorer who can do both.

“She has so many aspects to her game. She’s a competitor. When the game gets close, she plays better. If you had two like her, you could probably win a national championship.”

As a freshman…