Lisa Laurencin-Tunstall’s basketball career began later than most collegiate athletes today. She was encouraged by her high school coach to try out for the team in her junior year. Although she made the team, she did not want to return and play her senior year, as she felt uneasy about her basketball skills. Upon her matriculation at Adelphi University in the fall of 1972, she began shooting around in Woodruff Hall after class. She caught the eye of then-head women’s basketball coach Janet L. Ficke, who offered her a spot on the team. During her first two years on the team, Laurencin-Tunstall helped the Brown and Gold to berths in the New York State Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) tournament. As a freshman, she averaged four points a game and was a member of a 17-6 team that picked up wins over local powerhouses Hofstra and Wagner. During another successful campaign in 1973-74, Laurencin-Tunstall improved her average to 9.4 points per game.
Remarkably, things changed for Laurencin-Tunstall in 1974 when the United States Congress passed the Javits Amendment, which would later become part of Title IX. This amendment stated that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” This paved the way for Director of Athletics Ron Bazil, Coach Ficke and Laurencin-Tunstall to make history, as she became the first female athlete awarded a full scholarship to play intercollegiate basketball at Adelphi.
Laurencin-Tunstall was among the first of just four women to receive full athletic scholarship for 1974. She was not only ground-breaking off the court, she also blossomed on it. She helped the Panthers to a 15-4 record in 1974-75 and upped her average to 12 points per game; Adelphi earned a spot in the New York State AIAW tournament for the second straight year, and won the consolation bracket.
During her senior year, Laurencin-Tunstall became truly dominant. As team captain and leading scorer, she posted career-high averages in both scoring and rebounding; she averaged a double-double with 26 points and 15 rebounds per game. She again led the Brown and Gold to the New York State AIAW tournament, where they captured the consolation bracket for the second straight year. Laurencin-Tunstall led all scorers, had a game-high 25 rebounds and was honored as an AIAW All-Star.
A mainstay on the Garden City campus, Laurencin-Tunstall was active in more buildings than just Woodruff Hall. A communications major and member of the Dean’s List, she was a news broadcaster for the campus radio station, an intern admissions counselor and the editor of the campus poetry magazine. Her undergraduate educational experience came to a close in 1976, as she graduated with cum laude honors and three team MVP awards to her credit; she was also awarded departmental honors, was named Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year and was selected to the Who’s Who Among American Colleges and University Students.
Presently, Laurencin-Tunstall is a teacher of the deaf in the Philadelphia Public Schools. She is also the head of coaches for the South Jersey Blitz AAU basketball program, a high school girls’ basketball coach and holds a seat on the Council on Education of the Deaf. She is married to Dennis Sr. with three children, Dionna, Dennis Jr. and Danielle; all were honor roll students and played varsity basketball.
