Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee: Leslie Johnson When: April 27, 2019

Header image: Leslie Johnson, after being drafted by the WNBA’s Mystics; Johnson at Purdue University and Northrop High School [PHOTOS: LESLIE JOHNSON]

Loaded with basketball talent and tradition, the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame proudly announced their 2019 women’s induction class, to be honored at the 18th Annual Women’s Awards Banquet at the end of April.  Fort Wayne-native and former Northrop High School superstar Leslie Johnson will be inducted in the spring ceremony.

Johnson was a 1993 Indiana All-Star and high school All-American after graduating as the 7th leading scorer in IHSAA girls basketball history with 2,045 career points and 1,282 rebounds.  Johnson led Fort Wayne Northrop in scoring for four seasons, including 28.4 ppg (points per game) as a senior for the 25-1 Bruins.  As a senior, she also averaged just over 14 rebounds a game with an outstanding 75.1 field goal (FG) shooting percentage (she made three out of every four shots taken) as a senior en route to 18 school records, including 739 season points and a 71% career FG%.

She earned four-time SAC all-conference honors, leading her squad to three SAC championships, three sectional championships, three regional titles, and three semi-state finals appearances.  She set the Indiana All-Star record with a 29-point single-game performance in a 113-51 win over Kentucky.  She was named the consensus NCAA National Freshman of the Year, 3rd team All-American and the first freshman to earn 1st team all-Big Ten honors, leading Purdue University in scoring (18.5), rebounds (9.1) and FG% (.596) as they reached the 1994 NCAA Final Four.  She transferred to Western Kentucky University where she became first player to surpass 1,000 points in two seasons, with 1,079 points and 472 rebounds in 64 games, earning two-time all-conference and two-time honorable mention All-American honors.  In all, she totaled 1,860 points and 861 rebounds in 3.5 seasons of college basketball.  Drafted by the WNBA Washington Mystics, she played professionally in Greece, Turkey, Israel, South Korea, Portugal and Spain.