Carolyn Peck

Carolyn Arlene Peck (born January 22, 1966 in Jefferson City, Tennessee) is former head coach in Women's basketball at Purdue University and the University of Florida. She is also the first head coach-general manager in the history of the WNBA’s Orlando Miracle. Currently, she is a basketball analyst for ESPN.

Basketball Player

As a senior in high school, Peck, a 6-4 center, was named Tennessee’s Miss Basketball after averaging 35 points and 13.2 rebounds per game. She played college basketball at Vanderbilt University from 1985 to 1988, averaging 10.6 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. She also blocked 180 shots, to date a Vanderbilt women’s basketball career record.

Peck graduated from Vanderbilt with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications in 1988. She passed up on an opportunity to play professionally in Spain to work as a marketing consultant at a Nashville television station, as well as sell pharmaceutical products for a Fortune 500 company for two years.

Peck returned to basketball in 1991, quitting her job to play professionally in Italy for three weeks, then for Japan’s Nippondenso Corporation for two years. During her second year in Japan, her team won the league championship.

Coaching Career

Assistant Coach

Peck’s coaching career began in 1993. She returned to her home state to serve as an assistant coach for the Tennessee Lady Vols under legendary coach Pat Summitt for two seasons. The Lady Vols posted 30-win seasons and won the Southestern Conference championship during both seasons: 31-2 in 1993-94, and 34-3 in 1994-95. The latter team lost to the undefeated, Rebecca Lobo-led Connecticut Lady Huskies in the NCAA Championship game.

Peck went on to serve as an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky during the 1995-96 season. After this season, she received another assistant coaching job, this time at Purdue University under Nell Fortner, who had just replaced the fired Lin Dunn. The Lady Boilermakers finished 17-11 during the 1996-97 season and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. At the end of this season, Fortner was offered the position of head coach of the USA Women’s basketball team for the 2000 Summer Olympics and was leaving Purdue. She handed over the reigns of head coach to Peck, who would become Purdue’s third head coach in as many seasons.

Head Coach

Purdue University

During Peck’s first season as head coach (1997-98), Purdue went 23-10 with an Elite Eight appearance. Things appeared looking up for the following season; the bulk of the team was returning.

Meanwhile, in April of 1998 the young WNBA annonced that it was expanding from 10 teams to twelve, one of the new franchises to be based in Orlando, Florida. Pat Williams, senior executive vice president of the Orlando team-to-be, began his search to find a head coach/general manager. The original list of prospects had six candidates, including Summitt, Duke’s Gail Goestenkors and Florida’s Carol Ross—but not Peck. After all six candidates turned down the offer, Williams then called Peck upon the recommendation of both Ross and Goestenkors. In June 1998 Peck accepted the job with a four-year contract.

Despite accepting this new role, Peck was faced with a dilemma: having to return to Purdue to tell her team that they would once again going to have to play under a new coach. After she broke the news, some of her players felt betrayed and angry, some of them even telling her so personally. So after struggling with the idea of leaving Purdue after just one season as their coach, Peck again called Williams, asking him if she could remain at Purdue for the 1998-99 season and then go to Orlando for the start of the WNBA season. He granted her request.

In July it was announced that Peck would be the first head coach and general manager of the Orlando team (now named the Miracle), and coach at Purdue for one last season.

The friction between Peck and her players eased, after the team took a preseason trip to Switzerland and France for exhibition games. By the start of the season, the team was together, and Peck would neither discuss the fact that she was leaving nor answer any questions about Orlando.

Led by Katie Douglas, Stephanie White and Ukari Figgs, the Lady Boilermakers posted a 28-1 record during the regular season, the lone loss coming against Stanford—by one point. The team won the National Championship, winning all six of its games by at least 10 points, including a 62-45 victory over Duke in the title game. Peck was named Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year by the Associated Press, as well as becoming the first woman and the first African American to win the Winged Foot Award (which honored the best coach in college basketball) from the New York Athletic Club. Two weeks after guiding Purdue to the title, Peck was in Orlando preparing the Miracle for their upcoming season.

To date, Peck is the only African American to coach a women’s Division I basketball championship team. The title is also the only one in women’s college basketball by a member of the Big Ten Conference.

Orlando Miracle

During Peck’s three season as WNBA coach, the Miracle, which featured Shannon Johnson, Taj McWilliams-Franklin, Nykesha Sales and fellow Vanderbilt graduate Sheri Sam, posted a 44-52 record, narrowly missing out on the playoffs in 1999 and qualifying for them in 2000, where they lost to the Cleveland Rockers 2 games to 1.

University of Florida

On April 3, 2002, Peck returned to coaching college basketball, this time at the University of Florida. On November 15 of that year, she was requested by legendary comedian Bill Cosby that she introduce him as the headline performer at that year’s Gator Bowl, the country’s largest student-run pep rally, which took place at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. 58,403 people were in attendance as part of University of Florida homecoming activities.

During her five seasons at Florida (2002-03 through 2006-07), the Lady Gators posted a 72-75 record with two NCAA tournament births. The 2003-04 team, which posted a 19-11 record after going 9-19 the season before, was eliminated by Baylor in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, but not before defeating New Mexico in the first round before 16,029 fans at Albuquerque. The 2005-06 team posted a 21-7 record and received a #6 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but this time New Mexico got revenge on Florida, defeating them by 24 points in the first round.

The 2006-07 season was a disaster—the Lady Gators suffered through a 14-game losing streak and finished 9-22. Following the losing streak, the University fired Peck in February but allowed her to finish the season as coach. Former University of Florida basketball player Amanda Butler replaced Peck for the 2007-08 season. Peck wasn't out of basketball for long, however: ESPN hired her as a basketball analyst within months.

Peck's younger brother Michael served as one of her assistant coaches both with the Orlando Miracle and at the University of Florida.