Nov. 28, 2006
Editor's Note: This is the fourth story in a seven-part salute to Baylor's 2006 Athletic Hall of Fame Class.
By John Hillman
The long road trips, cramped accommodations, dingy dressing rooms, greasy fast food, and sparse crowds never bothered Carol Reeves Brandenburg. Playing collegiate sports gave the combination basketball/softball athlete and newest female member of Baylor's Athletic Hall of Fame everything she desired.
"I grew up playing with brother and his friends in pickup games at the Rec Center," Carol said. "I believe the abilities I had were way before my time, and God truly blessed me with sports."
Arriving in Waco in the fall of 1977, the former high school star at Dallas Bryan Adams made an immediate impact on Olga Fallen's basketball squad. Following in the tradition of earlier Baylor Hall of Famers Suzie Snider Eppers, Karen Aulenbacher Heintz, and Lynnell Pyron Pilgrim, Brandenburg scored 813 points and grabbed 315 rebounds to lead the Bearettes (the team's nickname prior to being renamed the Lady Bears) to a 33-8 record and a berth in the AIAW Regionals.
"We were a good team with a lot of good players," Brandenburg recalled. "Karen (Aulenbacher Heintz) and Babette (Metcalfe Eikenberg) were still there, and we could play with anyone."
The second full-scholarship female athlete at Baylor following Eppers quickly established a national reputation on the basketball court. In January 1978, the Bearettes traveled to Provo, Utah, and participated in the BYU Classic.
Brandenburg, who spurned scholarship offers from Stephen F. Austin, North Texas, East Texas State (since renamed Texas A&M-Commerce) and SMU, lit up the scoreboard with 35 points in the opening contest, a 111-93 win over Weber State. She posted another 30 points in the tournament championship game against Brigham Young, pacing the Bearettes to an 81-77 victory. Her back-to-back 30-plus performances garnered the freshman post the tournament's MVP award. During her freshman year, the Baylor Invitational and Houston Girl's Tournament also named Carol to their all-tournament squads.
"This tournament was a lot of fun in Utah," she said. "I remember seeing Danny Ainge play at BYU."
In the season's first game against Southwest Texas (since renamed Texas State), the 6-3 freshman scoring machine turned everyone's head with a 34-point outburst in a 116-64 Baylor triumph. Brandenburg also hauled down a career-high 19 rebounds in that contest which she matched later that season against McLennan Community College. In the MCC affair, she also notched her fourth over 30-point game, scoring 32 against Highlassies.
"It would have nice to play a lot of the teams you read about back then like Old Dominion, Delta State, USC and UCLA," she said. "Most of the time, it seemed like we just got on a van, drove somewhere, and came back."
Carol, who wore #33 almost 30 years before All-American Sophia Young made the number famous for the Lady Bears, produced one final 30+ point performance in her initial campaign. She blistered the nets for 36 points in leading Baylor to an 84-80 win over North Texas in the finals of the AIAW zone tournament held in Wichita Falls.
That victory sent the Bearettes to the state tournament in San Angelo where they posted wins over Trinity, Texas Lutheran, North Texas, and Houston and lost to Texas. At the AIAW Regionals in Nacogdoches, Baylor fell in the opener to Louisiana Tech, defeated North Texas for a third time, and ended the season with a loss to the Lady Longhorns.
"It was a different time from today," Brandenburg reflected. "The competition isn't like it is now, but it was what we had at the time. You had your Nancy Liebermans and players like that, but it wasn't the same structure as the NCAA."
High school basketball fans needed no introduction to Brandenburg before she inked with Baylor. The three-year starter for coach Obenna Hartford earned third-team all-state honors as a junior and made the state's first team as a senior. The Dallas Morning News selected her to its All-Metro team in both 1976 and 1977 and named her Forward of the Year in 1977. Bryan Adams collected three straight 6-4A titles from 1975 to 1977, and Carol collected the district MVP award each year.
Brandenburg scored over 2,800 points and averaged over 30 points per game in her three seasons for the Cougars playing the old style three-on-three game. During her senior season, she tallied 58 points against Dallas Lincoln in district finale and almost matched that number with 56 points in a playoff win over Thomas Jefferson. In July 1977, Carol participated in the Texas High School Coaches all-star contest, and her 21 points led the North to a 79-45 triumph.
"Gary Blair (then at South Oak Cliff now head coach at Texas A&M), Sandra Meadows (Duncanville), Welton Brown (Bishop Dunne), and my coach Obenna Hartford did a lot to help me get noticed by colleges," Brandenburg said. "We played Duncanville each year and went to a lot of out-of-town tournaments."
When Baylor's basketball season ended, Brandenburg moved over to the softball diamond where Fallen also served as coach. Playing first base, she batted over .400 for the season and led the Bearettes to a 28-21 record. For the first time in school history, Baylor earned a berth in the AIAW regional tournament, winning its opener 4-3 over Northeastern Oklahoma before falling to top seed Stephen F. Austin 5-1 and Texas Wesleyan 8-2.
"I played shortstop, and Carol made my throws look a lot better than they were," said Paula Young, Baylor's event management coordinator and softball coach from 1982 to 1988 and then from 1996 to 2000. "She was a great hitter with tremendous power."
Tragedy struck, however, after Carol's stellar freshman season. In the opening game of the 1978-79 season, she injured her knee and missed the remainder of the campaign. Baylor physicians opted to forego surgery and allow the knee to heal with only physical therapy. Brandenburg returned to the diamond that spring and paced the Bearettes to a 6-10 mark in Fallen's final season to coach.
"It was a shame Carol hurt her knee in that opening game because she had All-American potential," Fallen said. "She was a great player inside and had a tremendous outside shot as well. Anytime she was double-teamed, she could make a move to the outside and consistently hit that 15-foot shot."
The 6-3 post returned to the court the following year under new coach Pam Bowers. Although Carol's scoring fell to 581 points, she continued to pound the boards, collecting 307 rebounds. After Baylor finished Bowers' first year with a paltry 4-24 record and because of ailing knee, Brandenburg opted to concentrate solely on softball.
She played two more seasons for the Bearettes under new softball coach Bob Brock. In 1980, Baylor compiled a 19-19 mark and advanced to the AIAW Nationals in Sacramento. After losing the first game to Sacramento State 1-0, the Bearettes defeated Sacred Heart and Francis Marion before being eliminated by Oregon State 3-1.
Carol married Don Brandenburg, her husband of 26 years, in July 1980 but completed her senior season of softball in the spring of 1981. That year, Baylor finished 24-27-1 and made its second straight appearance in AIAW national tournament. The Bearettes lost both contests at the Omaha, Neb., event, falling 3-1 to C. W. Post and 2-1 to Oklahoma Baptist.
"I enjoyed my time at Baylor because of people like Coach Fallen and Dutch Schroeder," she commented. "I had some good teammates and enjoyed softball as much as basketball. I made some really good friends in my time at Baylor."
After leaving Waco, Brandenburg returned to the Dallas-area where she continued to play softball for the Silver Streak, an ASA-sponsored team, until the late 80s. In 1985, she began her career as an administrative assistant with the Hyatt Regency and continues to work there today. The Brandenburgs reside in Garland and have two daughters, Heidi, a high school senior, who plans to play basketball next season at Missouri, and Heather, a sixth grader.
