PLAINVIEW – What has been more than 70 years in the making culminated Saturday morning when the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced its 2019 induction class, including the Wayland Baptist University Flying Queens. The program was inducted on the strength of its history, impact on the game and its continued success over a long period of time.

One of the players that played for the Flying Queens was former Little Cypress High School standout Phyliss “Parish” Summers, who played for the Flying Queens from 1967-69. Summers now resides in Burkeville.

The Flying Queens were named to the Hall by a veteran’s direct-elect committee. The Queens have a storied program that includes being the first college to offer women athletic scholarships decades before Title IX. The Queens also hold the record for the longest winning streak in basketball at 131 games, accomplished in a five-year span from 1953-58. The team’s history includes numerous All-Americans, 10 AAU national titles, national runner-up finishes, nine consecutive NWIT titles and success throughout the decades that has led to more than 1,600 wins — more than any team in history. The program continues to be successful as the Queens set another team record in 2019 with three athletes named as NAIA All-Americans.

Wayland’s history will now be on full display alongside the likes of Nancy Lieberman, Sheryl Swoopes, Pat Summitt, Wilt Chamberlain, Meadowlark Lemon, the Harlem Globetrotters, John Wooden, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.

The Flying Queens will be officially inducted Sept. 5-7 at the Hall of Fame ceremony in Springfield, Mass. Located in the city where basketball was invented, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame promotes and preserves the game of basketball at every level – professional, collegiate and high school, for both men and women on the global stage.