It would be hard to refute the claim that Dawn (Crosby) Gentry is the greatest women’s basketball player in Augustana history. She has the statistics to prove it and anybody who saw her play knows that she raised the skill level to a height that had not been seen in the Carver PE Center prior to her arrival. It has seldom been seen since.
Crosby came out of nearby Bettendorf High School in the fall of 1979 after helping lead the Bulldogs to a second place finish in the Iowa state tournament the previous winter. Although she played under the now-defunct six on six system of basketball, her transition into the five on five style was seamless. An astute observer of the game, she paid attention to defense even though she never played it in high school.
Her high school prowess caught the attention of then-Viking coach Paulette Stein, who was in the process of building Augustana into a small college power. Crosby was the cornerstone upon which the program was built. After a 16-11 season during her freshman year, the slender sharp-shooter led the Vikings to 19 wins as a sophomore and junior and 17 as a senior. During her career, Augustana was 71-40 for a winning percentage of .639.
In her own words, she described her decision to jump across the Mississippi River for her college choice. “It was an honor to follow in the footsteps of my father and mother who both attended Augustana.”
As a freshman she helped lead the Blue & Gold to a second place finish in the Illinois state tournament under the old Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. During her sophomore year the Vikings won the state title with a 65-56 victory over North Central in the championship game and were defeated by Spring Arbor 56-55 in the regional championship. Augustana moved to the NCAA during her junior year and the team hosted the North Regional, defeating Grove City 83-62 before losing to Clark (Mass.) 67-56 in the NCAA Division III quarterfinals. The game against Grove City was significant because it was played as part of a double header with the men’s team. On the same night that the Augustana men defeated Luther to win the Midwest Regional, Crosby scored 19 points in the 21 point victory over Grove City in the first men’s and women’s basketball doubleheader in NCAA tournament history. In her senior year the Vikings lost to Central of Iowa in the NCAA regional in Naperville, Illinois.
To this day her name is all over the Augustana record book, holding eight school marks. She earned AIAW All-America honors in 1983 and she graduated with 1,876 points, which is over 200 points better than second place. She holds the record for points in a single season with 512 in 1983, which was her senior year. She set the single game record for field goals with 17 against Wheaton on February 19, 1983 and she holds the career mark for field goals with 792. Her other school records are career free throws made (292), career free throws attempted (458) and career games played (110).
A versatile performer, she was the leading rebounder as a freshman in 1979-80 with 174 and led the team in scoring all four years: 415 in 1979-80…462 in 1980-81…487 in 1981-82…512 in 1982-83. She is eighth on the career rebounding list with 571 and has the first, fourth, fifth and ninth best single season scoring totals in school history. She was all-tournament at the AIAW state tournament in 1980 and 1981. After her basketball career was over she played softball as a senior for the first time since high school and was the starting centerfielder.
After graduating from Augustana with a degree in elementary education, she served as an assistant coach to Stein at Northern Michigan and Butler. She has been a teacher in the Lawrence Township school district for the past 12 years. She was the IPALCO Golden Apple award winner and she is a member of the Indiana Association for Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Dawn and her husband Joe are the parents of Nicole and Eric and the family currently resides in Indianapolis, Indiana.
She has been a guest speaker for Relay for Life and was the top fund-raiser in the Indianapolis “Susan Kommen Race for the Cure”.
“I wouldn’t be here without knowledgeable coaches and unselfish teammates who were a joy to play with,” was her comment about being inducted into the Tribe of Vikings Hall of Fame.
