Lynnette Woodard to the Globetrotters?

The only offer that could draw Olympic gold medal winner Lynette Woodard from her job as assistant women’s basketball coach at the University of Kansas would be one from the Harlem Globetrotters.

The Globetrotters have announced they will add at least one female to their 1985-86 traveling squad, with tryouts for the spot to be held in September.

“I read in the paper that the Harlem Globetrotters were looking for a female for next season,” Woodard said. “And I thought to myself, this is the female.”

“I’m still practicing. They do a lot of wizardry with the ball and I’ve always worked on that type of thing since high school.”

Dick Palmer of the Harlem Globetrotters in Los Angeles said the club wants to be the first professional team to have a woman on its squad.

“Like everyone else, we were glued to the TV set during the Olympics and saw all the really good, strong women athletes,” Palmer said. “The Harlem Globetrotters have had many firsts during the years, so we thought we would have another.”

Woodard is in her first season as a full-time Kansas basketball assistant after serving as captain of the 1984 women’s gold-medal Olympic basketball squad. She is the major-college all-time leading scorer with 3,649 points in four years at Kansas. Not only was she a four-time All-America, she earned academic All-America honors as a junior and senior.

“We definitely know of Lynette,” Palmer said. “She’s a fine person as well as a great basketball player.”

The Globetrotters insist they are serious about finding a woman for the team.

“It’s not just a sideshow,” Palmer said. “We want them to play. For 58 years we have had a sterling reputation and we can’t do anything to drag that down.

“We will bring six to eight girls in by invitation for our September training camp. We will narrow that down to one, or possibly two if there are two that are good, until we get the gal we want. We’ll definitely have a woman next season.”

Palmer said that because many good players are still in college, invitations won’t be extended until school is finished.

“That’s the only thing that would draw me away from coaching at Kansas,” Woodard said. “I would love it, and it’s serious for me. That would be the ultimate.”