@IrememberOurHistory®: Marilyn “Que” Tucker, from Reidsville, Rockingham County, North Carolina, is the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s Commissioner with a proven track record of service to young people.

NCHSAA’s Que Tucker goes from Reidsville to hall of fame
by: Michael Hennessey / WGHP-Posted: Feb 19, 2024

REIDSVILLE, N.C. (WGHP) — From Reidsville to the Hall of Fame.

Marilyn “Que” Tucker has devoted her professional life to sports, especially on the high school level. While she was best known for playing basketball in her early life, it wasn’t a passion that was developed until she entered high school herself.

“When I started high school, it was the first year of integration in Rockingham County,” Tucker said.

As a freshman at Stoneville High School, she was discovered by her physical education teacher.

“She said, ‘have you ever thought about playing basketball?’ And I said, ‘no, not really,’” Tucker said. “So, she said, ‘I think you could play basketball.’”

The daughter of a teacher and a businessman, Tucker grew up on a farm with a younger sister. She never had a basketball hoop at their home.

“I thought I was pretty good. I actually developed what I thought was a decent little shot,” she recalled. “First game she put me into, a girl knocked that ball way up into the stands so far, I was so embarrassed, I thought, ‘this is not gonna work.’”

That summer, her father put a hoop up on a tree on their property, and Tucker began honing her skills.

“I played high school basketball for four years at that 1A high school in Rockingham County,” she said. “I enjoyed the basketball side. I enjoyed the competitiveness.”

Tucker continued her education as a student-athlete at Mars Hill College in Mars Hill, N.C., north of Asheville. She majored in Health and Physical Education and led the Mountain Lions in scoring for two seasons before earning a master’s degree at UNC Greensboro in 1977.

While a player at Mars Hill, she first met Kay Yow, who was coaching at Elon University.

Upon her graduation, Tucker got her first teaching job in McDowell County.

“They figured if you were a physical education teacher, then you could coach, and so that’s how it really started,” Tucker said.

After two years, she got a call that led her to a teaching job at Reidsville Junior High School, where she was the girls’ basketball and softball coach. She eventually moved to Reidsville High, where she also started coaching volleyball.

She also met Nora Lynn Finch, who started representing the NCAA on the U.S. Collegiate Sports Council in 1988. She worked a camp for Finch and Yow, and in 1989, coach Yow called.

Yow had moved from Elon to North Carolina State University in 1976. More than a decade later, she was offering Tucker a job. After consideration, Tucker decided she wanted to remain at the high school level.

“I turned down coach Yow, Kay Yow, and said, ‘no I don’t want to come be your assistant coach,’” Tucker said. “Well, you talk about a full court press.”

By August of 1989, she was at NC State.

“It didn’t take long there before I realized, boy this is big business right here,” she said.

Tucker remained at NC State for two years but decided shaping lives “in its purest form” was in the high school level.

In 1992, she started a student services program at the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. She worked her way through the organization until 2015, when she became the NCHSAA’s interim commissioner. By December of that year, she was named the permanent commissioner, becoming the association’s first female and African American commissioner.

“You treat people the way you’re supposed to treat them, work hard, and everything else will fall into place,” Tucker said.

A charter member of the Mars Hill College Athletic Hall of Fame, Tucker got the call from a different hall in 2023.

“That was a surprise,” she said.

About a week before Christmas, it was announced Tucker will be part of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame’s class of 2024.

“Dean Smith, and Mike Krzyzewski, Bones McKinney, all those people who are in the hall of fame right now that we know as big time,” Tucker said. “Michael Jordan.”

Tucker acknowledged she’s at the tail end of her career. For now, however, she’s happy continuing the NCHSAA’s mission, while representing its 436 association members.

“There is going to come a time when enough is enough,” Tucker said, before being asked if she had any idea when that would be. “Well, it’s probably sooner rather and later.”

Tucker will be enshrined during the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame’s 60th induction ceremony on Friday, May 10, at the Charlotte Convention Center.