The first Black woman to play basketball at Clemson was so much more to her family
There was so much Dominique McNeal didn’t know.
Patsy “Cookie” Blakney was like a second mother to him, helping her sister BJ Blakney with child rearing, yet McNeal knew very little about Cookie’s time at Clemson or about her unique place in the school’s athletics history.
She was the first Black female player as part of the inaugural Tigers women’s basketball team in 1975.
“I would’ve been bragging about this every day,” McNeal said. “I would let them know, because my uncles do that. They brag about, ‘I did this and that.’ She never said anything and she did more than them.”
Rather than talk about herself, Cookie was more invested in others, making sure everyone else was OK and often putting herself last. It’s time for people to know about her, BJ Blakney believes.
Cookie Blakney, who passed away in 2016, was one of Clemson’s two recipients of the inaugural ACC UNITE Award in September. She was honored posthumously by the Tigers during Sunday’s women’s basketball game against Duke.
The ACC created the award to recognize those associated with the league who had an impact in racial and social justice. This year, the award was given to the first people of color to integrate athletic teams at each respective ACC institution.
Cookie was the Clemson women’s basketball honoree, while Craig Mobley (1969, men’s basketball) was the Tigers’ other recipient.
All this is something the Hartsville native never would’ve wanted — too much attention on herself — but still deserved.
“If she was alive, this would’ve never happened,” BJ said. “She would’ve said no because that’s the kind of person she was. She was the first Black to play for Clemson women’s team. Nobody ever knew it because she didn’t talk about it. She never allowed us to talk about it. She just wanted to be Patsy. She don’t like standing out.”
Cookie, the player
As much as Cookie loved (and was good at) basketball, family was priority.
Growing up as the fourth of eight children and the oldest of two daughters, she helped her mother raise her siblings. She managed to shine on the basketball court as well and decided to go over 200 miles west to be part of Clemson’s first women’s basketball team, which began in the 1975-76 season.
“When she got the offer to come, she called my mama and my mama told her, ‘Yeah, go,’ and she came,” BJ recalled.
The Tigers won their first game 55-51 against Davidson on Dec. 6, 1975 in Clemson. Less than a month later, Cookie set the school record for most rebounds in a game with 25 while playing South Carolina. To this day, the former forward shares that record with Donna Forester, who grabbed 25 boards against Columbia College on Feb. 12, 1977.
That first season, Cookie played in 23 of 24 games for Clemson and started in six games, averaging 4.4 points, going 34.5% from the field, and 7 rebounds per game.
As a team, the Tigers went 14-11 under coach Mary King, who had just earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Clemson two years prior. In the program’s second year, the Tigers got a new coach in Annie Tribble, finishing 22-9 as an independent program before joining the ACC for the 1977-78 campaign.
Cookie only played the 1975-76 season, though, and returned home to Hartsville to help raise her brothers and sisters.
Cookie, the matriarch
Despite also taking care of home and working for L’eggs, an apparel company under the umbrella of Hanes, Cookie still found a way to incorporate sports in her life. The former basketball player took her talents to the diamond and dugout as part of a local softball team called the Hartsville Hell Cats, coached by Evans Gilliard.
Once her brothers and sisters were grown, she helped to rear another generation along with raising her own son, Patrick, who currently lives in Lexington.
“(She would always) keep it real,” Dominique McNeal said. “If you do something wrong, she’s going to let you know you’re doing wrong. She always told me not to get in trouble like she knew I was going to go get in trouble or something. She was a sweetheart.”
McNeal stayed out of trouble, knowing Cookie didn’t mind being a disciplinarian — “She beat me until I was 18,” he laughed — while still implementing the importance of family to her nephew. It’s something he still carries with him to this day, even in his aunt’s absence.
In 2015, Cookie was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cell known as plasma cells. According to the Mayo Clinic’s website, “cancerous plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy blood cells. Rather than produce helpful antibodies, the cancer cells produce abnormal proteins that can cause complications.”
Before she could get radiation and treatment for the cancer, Cookie had an aneurysm. The one good thing that came out of her dire condition was BJ’s opportunity to repay her sister for decades of selfless work.
“When she got sick, I had the pleasure of taking care of her,” she said of Cookie. “It was just an honor to take care of her because she had taken care of us, and I felt like God gave me a chance to do the same thing for her that she did for me.”
Cookie put up as much of a fight as she could in a short time, but seemed to be at peace with her ultimate fate.
“I think she knew she wasn’t going to make it because when they were in the house, she was like ‘Nique, I don’t think I’m going to be here long,’ ” McNeal said. “I was like no, don’t say that. Then a week later, she was gone.”
On March 27, 2016, Cookie Blakney died.
Cookie, the legacy
Losing Cookie was a devastating blow to the family. They regularly took trips together when she was alive, but those family outings stopped when the Blakney matriarch passed.
Seeing her remembered and honored on Sunday, though, was a bittersweet feeling. As much as BJ, McNeal and the rest of her family would’ve loved for Cookie to have been there, her legacy hasn’t been forgotten.
“This right here, all these Black women out here playing ball,” McNeal said, motioning to the court at Littlejohn Coliseum on Sunday where the majority of the players for Clemson look more like Cookie than her former teammates almost 50 years ago.
McNeal, who enjoys learning of his aunt’s accomplishments, had the chance to come to Clemson for the first time ever Sunday as his aunt was honored. The family was given an orange Clemson “C” accompanied by her headshot, which were framed together. The applause and recognition meant the world to each person.
Cookie may be gone physically, but her spirit and impact will live on forever at Clemson and Hartsville.
“That’s like a dream come true to us because we felt like she never got a lot of recognition,” BJ said. “We thought they forgot about her, but when they started calling we were like, they didn’t forget about her. That’s a big thing to us.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
