Wake Forest Athletics
A Legend On And Off The Court
2/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By Cherin Poovey, Wake Forest Magazine
When she was just 2 weeks old, Janice Marie Collins ('86) made the first of several moves that would come with life as a military brat. Her father, a lieutenant colonel in the Army, was transferred from her birthplace in Oklahoma to Germany, then ultimately to Kentucky, Virginia and Germany -- again.
For the first 13 years of her life, she moved about every year-and-a-half, an experience that she says strengthened her family and heightened her belief in diversity, leadership, adaptability and service.
Her parents -- mother was her first philosopher and father had teaching in his genes -- raised their children to be intellectually curious and physically active. They were expected to read the newspaper every day and learn a second language. Her mother emphasized academics and social etiquette. Her dad was a sports addict who taught her that women could be great athletes and still be respected as women. From her older brother she learned to play soccer, softball and basketball; with coaching from an aunt on Virginia's Eastern Shore she mastered a fierce hook shot -- the target being a straw basket hanging from a barn in the backyard.
Through her aunt and uncle, Barbara Eure and retired Professor of Biology Herman Eure (Ph.D. '74), she met Dr. Maya Angelou and became acquainted with Wake Forest. So when the basketball scholarship offers poured in, she narrowed her choices to West Point and Wake Forest -- and the latter prevailed.
Collins, a 5-foot-9-inch guard/forward on the 1983-86 women's basketball team, had a vertical jump described as "out of this world" and played in 109 career games with 80 starts, amassing 992 points, 548 rebounds, 186 assists and 146 steals. A four-year letter-winner and Wake's first All-ACC honoree, she was named to the second team in 1985. That season, as a junior, she led the team in field goal percentage (.507) while averaging 12.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. She will be inducted into the 2015 class of ACC Tournament Legends on March 7.
