11/08/12 On Friday, Nov. 9, the Culver Girls Academy basketball team will honor Patricia Babcock McGraw, the school’s all-time leading scorer – girls and boys – and Indiana’s Miss Basketball of 1990. She is ranked 12th in the state in career scoring with 2,199 points and 19th for single season scoring with 725 points in 1989-1990.
The junior varsity game against Bethany Christian will start at 6 p.m., followed by the ceremony in which a replica of Babcock McGraw’s Miss Basketball jersey will be hung in Fleet Gym at approximately 7 p.m. The varsity contest is scheduled to tip off at 7:30. A reception for Babcock McGraw will be held after the varsity contest.
Babcock McGraw was named the CGA Athlete of the Year in 1990. She also received the Jane Metcalfe Culver Bowl for her outstanding athletic and academic achievements. She won four varsity letters in basketball and was also a two-time MVP in volleyball. Along with the Miss Basketball honor, she was named to the Parade Magazine All-America team and named the Indiana Player of the Year by USA Today. She also was a three-time member of The Associated Press All-State Team.
Following graduation, Babcock McGraw played at Northwestern University. She was named second team All-Big Ten in 1994 and honorable mention in 1993. Babcock McGraw was also named the Wildcats’ Most Valuable Player for the 1993-94 season. And, she earned all-Big Ten academic accolades while majoring in journalism at the Medill School of Journalism.
Since 1997, she has worked for the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago as a sports writer and columnist. In 2002, Babcock McGraw won a Peter Lisagor Award for a series on the 30th anniversary of Title IX. For years, she has been a voter for The Associated Press women’s college basketball Top 25 weekly poll, the John Wooden Award for the best player in women’s college basketball, and the Nancy Lieberman Award for the best point guard in women’s college basketball.
In 2007, she extended her reach to television as a color analyst for women’s college basketball games on the Big Ten Network and for Chicago Sky (WNBA) games on Comcast.
