Jewel Clark first set foot on the Palestra floor in 1996 for a Nike-sponsored basketball tournament. Not once did the former Penn basketball player think she would be spending four years of her life representing the Quakers on that very court.
And it certainly never crossed her mind that she would join the ranks of many Philadelphia legends in the Big 5 Hall of Fame.
But that possibility became a reality on Friday.
Clark was honored along with other Big 5 greats — St. Joseph’s Rashid Bey, Villanova’s Kerry Kittles and Rick Brunson and Stacey Smalls of Temple — as a member of the 2011 Big 5 Hall of Fame induction class.
“I don’t know how it feels yet because it’s kind of surreal right now,” Clark said. “I understand how big it is, but I haven’t known the history behind the Big 5 as long as many of the other people who are from Philadelphia or in the area understand it. But it’s an amazing honor, and I do know that.”
The honor may be ‘amazing,’ but it’s not surprising. During Clark’s time with the Quakers, she recorded 1,743 points and 29 double-doubles. She also led the program to its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance during the 2000-01 season and again in 2003-04.
In addition to her stunning performance on the court, Clark, a 2004 College graduate, led the team in other ways as well. Joe McGeever, a member of the coaching staff during Clark’s senior season — in which the squad won its second Ivy title — spoke very highly of the Hall of Famer’s ability to inspire.
“Jewel, not only as a player, but as a person is unbelievable,” he said. “Her senior year, we lost a couple games and we were fighting for the Ivy League and Jewel went out and got wristbands made with ‘I Believe’ on it and gave them all to the team. And we didn’t lose another game after that.”
Clark, now a schoolteacher and mother of two, has continued to lead by example. Upon receiving her award, she thanked her family and went on to credit McGeever and former women’s basketball coach Kelly Greenberg for giving her the opportunity to play for an Ivy League school.
“Playing in the Ivy League is probably a best kept secret only because you are always underrated, so that means you have no limitations on what you can achieve,” Clark said. “And that’s special. You can’t really understand that until you’re in that position.”
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