By By SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
Michigan State University womens' basketball coach Joanne P. McCallie will be the principal speaker at the 54th annual Dowagiac All-Sports Banquet which will be held on Thursday, May 29.
McCallie will be the first woman speaker in the banquet's 54-year history.
McCallie is in her third season as the Spartans' head coach. MSU went 10-18 in the first season under the direction of McCallie and then 19-13 in 2001-02, reaching the National Invitational Tournament semifinals, a first in school history.
This past season the Spartans were 17-12 this season, qualifying for the NCAA tournament.
Michigan State was defeated by TCU in the opening round of the tournament.
McCallie came to Michigan State after spending eight years as head coach at Maine. McCallie were 167-73 at Maine where the Black Bears made six consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament.
A native of Brunswick, Maine, McCallie led Maine to seven-straight 20-win campaigns, including a 20-11 overall record in her final season. She was named conference coach of the year three times, twice in the North Atlantic Conference (1995 and 1996) and once in the America East (1999).
McCallie, then Joanne Palombo, played at Northwestern University and was an All-Big Ten Conference honorable mention pick her senior year.
The Wildcats reached the second round of the NCAA tournament McCallie's senior year. She was an Academic All-Big Ten first team pick as a senior.
McCallie joins a distinguished list of principal speakers at the All-Sports Banquet. Among them have been MSU's Duffy Daugherty, Iowa's Forrest Evashevski, Notre Dame's Johnny Lujack, Michigan's Bump Elliott, Notre Dame's Ara Parseghian, sports writer Jim Enright, MSU's Jud Heathcote, sports writer Bill Leason, DePaul's Ray Meyer, Chicago Bears running back Gale Sayers and Notre Dame's Mike Brey.