Connie Winstead-Mackay, Class of 2016

The world was a much different place when Connie Winstead-Mackay walked onto the Perkinston Campus at Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College.

She was a member of the first group at the school to receive women's athletic scholarships, and she parlayed her only offer to play after high school into much bigger and better things.

Winstead-Mackay's life was shaped by her two years at Perkinston, and her accomplishments at Gulf Coast and in her life after earned her a spot in the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges Sports Hall of Fame. She was inducted with 14 other members of the 2016 class during ceremonies in Pearl on April 26.

"It's an honor just to make it to there," she said. "When you look back at all the people who have been inducted, they've been outstanding in their sports. For me to be put in that same class means a lot."

Her freshman year, that 1975-76 team was the first time the Gulf Coast teams were called Lady Bulldogs. As part of that vanguard, she went out and was named first team All-State as a freshman.

Winstead repeated that honor as a sophomore, part of a group that helped raise Gulf Coast to new heights. On Feb. 23, 1977, she scored 42 points in a state tournament elimination game against Coahoma, the most in school history. The next night, the Lady Bulldogs beat East Central to win the first state women's basketball team in the school's 66-year history.

Winstead scored 22 points in a 68-51 win over Cleveland State in the NJCAA Region VII Tournament. She was named All-Tournament, Most Valuable Player and All-NJCAA Region VII. She averaged 19.8 points per game that season and was named second team All-American.

"We won South, we won state, we won regionals, we place seventh in the nation," she said. "It was a team effort."

Her time at Gulf Coast shaped her future athletically, personally and professionally. She met her future husband. David Mackay was a men's basketball player, and they've been married more than 30 years. Their three children, Brian, 33, Laura, 28, and Craig, 27, all graduated from MGCCC.

Winstead hadn't received any offers coming out of high school. That changed after Perk.

"To play two years there, we were awesome. We were playing four-year colleges and would beat them," she said. "It was a great experience to be part of that team. By the time I graduated, I was being recruited by I can't even tell you how many universities were recruiting me at that point."

She said her phone, the one in her college dorm hallway, rang all the time with coaches recruiting her. Legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summit was one of them.

She'd already played for a pretty good coach at Perk, though. Coach Sue Ross was a legend in the state of Mississippi. Winstead-Mackay said Ross was a good woman who was all business and knew how to win. She instilled her work ethic in the team, kept them focused and prayed with them.

"All these things played into not just winning," Winstead-Mackay said, "but to help us grow into what we would one day be."

After graduation from Gulf Coast, Winstead-Mackay signed the first women's athletic scholarship given by Mississippi College. The following year, she accepted a scholarship to the University of Mississippi and was a starter on the Ole Miss AIAW state championship team.

After college, she was drafted by the St. Louis Streak of the Women's Professional Basketball League. When her professional career ended, she got married to David and started their family.

In the past 23 years, Winstead-Mackay has been head of human resources at several casinos on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and is the director of human resources at IP Casino Resort Spa in Biloxi.

"The opportunity to play at a community college helped me to move on and eventually play professionally," she said. "When I look back on it, I think I'm in a profession today because I'm part of a team. Sports allow people to grow in whatever industry or business. I'm a better businessperson because I've been part of a team all my life. It's because you learn to work with so many diverse people."