The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Davis-Wrightsil a 2021 NCAA Legacy Award recipient
04.01.2021 | Women's Basketball
The Longhorn Legend is one of eight recipients this year for her civic involvement and inclusion efforts.
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Women's Basketball legend Clarissa Davis, now Davis-Wrightsil, was one of eight individuals honored as 2021 Legacy Award recipients by the NCAA for their community outreach, local activism and commitment to inclusive excellence this year.
The NCAA recognizes local individuals at both the NCAA Women's and Men's Final Fours each year with the honor. The awards program, which began in 2014, puts a spotlight on the career accomplishments and civic involvement of former student-athletes, coaches, administrators and community leaders.
A San Antonio, Texas native, Davis-Wrightsil is the founder and president of the TeamXpress Foundation, which empowers girls throughs ports by exposing them to positive role models, by creating opportunities to secure scholarships, and by encouraging literacy, goal-setting and volunteerism. She also mentored and helped 150 female high school student-athletes earn scholarships to NCAA schools. Additionally, she counsels and advises youth and has been instrumental in raising awareness for girls and women's basketball in South Texas. Davis-Wrightsil has also been an assistant coach at Rutgers and Texas, has worked as a chief operating officer in the WNBA, and has served on several local boards.
As a student-athlete, Davis-Wrightsil starred for the Longhorns from 1985-86 to 1988-89. During her four years on the Forty Acres, Texas compiled a record of 124-10 [.925], winning the 1986 National Championship, advancing to the 1987 NCAA Final Four and making two additional NCAA Elite Eight appearances. Davis-Wrightsil was the 1986 NCAA Final Four's Most Valuable Player, totaling 56 points and 32 rebounds in the two-game span. The Longhorns also won the Southwest Conference Championship in each of her four years.
A two-time All-American for Texas, Davis-Wrightsil was the recipient of the Naismith Trophy in 1987 and 1989, recognizing her as the National Player of the Year. In her senior season of 1989, she also claimed the Wade Trophy and the USBWA's National Player of the Year Award. Davis-Wrightsil was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006 and was a member inaugural women's class of the UT Athletics Hall of Honor in 2000.
Davis-Wrightsil is one of only three players in program history to eclipse the 2,000-point plateau and ranks third in program history with 2,008 career points. Davis-Wrightsil, who played in 101 games, is the school's all-time career leader in scoring average at 19.9 points per game for her career. Her 8.7 rebounds per game rank fourth in school history and her career field-goal percentage of 57.5 is fifth all-time.
Davis-Wrightsil boasts three of the top-eight scoring games in program history, including a career-high 45 points at Tennessee on Dec. 9, 1987 and a pair of 38-point scoring efforts. She holds school records with 13 career 30-plus-point games and 25 career 20-plus-point games.
Davis-Wrightsil received recognition from the NCAA and Southwest Conference Team of the Decade for the 1980s and was the Most Valuable Player of the SWC team.
Davis-Wrightsil helped USA Basketball earn gold medals at the 1986 World Championships and the 1987 Pan American Games. Following graduation, she starred on the bronze medal-winning 1992 U.S. Olympic team in Barcelona, averaging 13 points per game, while setting the team record for three-point shooting percentage. In 1994, she was a member of Team USA's gold-medalist Goodwill Games squad and bronze-medalist World Championship team.
Davis-Wrightsil played in Europe and Asia from 1989-96. In 1996, she played in the American Basketball league before joining the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury in 1999. Davis served as the Director of Development for Women's Basketball with the San Antonio Spurs from 2000-02 and was the Chief Operating Officer of the WNBA's San Antonio Silver Stars from 2002-06. She was an assistant coach at her alma mater during the 2006-07 season and at Rutgers from 2008-09.
Davis-Wrightsil earned a bachelor's degree in communications from UT in 1989. She resides in Austin with her husband, Jerald Wrightsil, and two sons.
