SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Southern Conference mourns the passing of former women’s basketball coordinator of officials Charlene Curtis, who passed away Thursday.
 
Curtis retired from the SoCon in 2019 after 11 years as its coordinator of officials.
 
“Charlene approached her position as a conference coordinator from a unique background, having played and coached, as well as officiated,” said former SoCon Commissioner John Iamarino, who hired Curtis in 2008. “She had strong people skills and was adept at listening to coaches’ concerns. She always focused on improving both officiating and the sport of basketball in general.”
 
A member of the Radford Sports Hall of Fame as both a coach and a player and the Big South Conference Hall of Fame as a coach, Curtis served as the head coach at Wake Forest, Temple and Radford and was an assistant at Virginia, Georgetown and Connecticut. She was an assistant for the Charlotte Sting of the WNBA and served several stints with USA Basketball.
 
A pioneer in women’s basketball, Curtis was the first Black women’s basketball player at Radford and the first 1,000-point scorer – male or female – in Highlander basketball history. She was also the first Black women’s basketball head coach in Atlantic Coast Conference history and at Temple.
 
Curtis, who was also a women’s basketball officials evaluator for the South Atlantic Women's Basketball Officiating (SAWBO) organization, served as a women’s basketball analyst for Fox Sports Net and ESPNU prior to joining the SoCon.