Where Are They Now?

The Lady Gamecocks first African-American women's basketball player.

For Edith Cook-Burkett—the first African American on the Lady Gamecocks basketball team in 1976–77—her college hoops career was a classic case of what might have been. The talented Irmo, S.C., native had been an MVP at Irmo High School for two years when she enrolled at Carolina to study criminal justice. Despite her success on the high school court, Cook-Burkett didn’t initially try out for the women’s team, which had fielded its first squad in NCAA play only two years before.

“It wasn’t because there weren’t any other black players. I was used to that playing for Irmo in the 1970s,” she said. “I just didn’t have enough confidence in myself that first year.”

With a lot of urging from family and friends, she finally tried out for the team as a walk on at the beginning of her senior year. It didn’t take long for Cook-Burkett to shine as she led the team in steals and logged plenty of playing time for then-Coach Pam Backhaus.

“Sometimes, I wonder even now what might have been if I had gone out for the team my freshman year,” she said. “There’s no telling how far I might have gone.”

After graduation, Cook-Burkett became a youth counselor for the Alston Wilkes Society and later joined the S.C. Department of Corrections, where she worked at a maximum security prison for 11 years and is now a human services coordinator. She’s never strayed too far from her basketball roots: she coached a recreation-league church team and last year put on a free throw exhibition,
sinking 17 in two minutes. She still takes time every now and then to show community kids a few tips on how the game is played.

“I used to play in the old timers’ games at the Coliseum, but I haven’t done that in
a while,” she said. She’s still keeping in shape, though, exercising every day, bowling, fishing, gardening, and serving as recreation coordinator at her church. She’s also cheering on her son, Lawrence Markel Burkett, who was a basketball player at Dutch Fork High School and now plays for Palo Alto College in San Antonio. “He didn’t get much playing time in high school, but he never gave up,” she said. “And that’s what I tell people: Don’t give up—you have to believe in
yourself, keep the faith, and keep trying.”