MELISSA WARD

First in Flight

By USC Athletics Black History Month

February 12^th, 2015

By Caroline Deisley

Melissa Ward never scored the winning basket during USC women’s basketball’s back-to-back national championship seasons, but the legacy she’s established since walking onto the team nearly 30 years ago is one marked with groundbreaking success thanks to hard work and a bit of luck.

Ward may have stumbled upon a career as a pilot, but she wound up at the forefront of the integration of the Air Force, becoming the first African-American female flight instructor after graduating as the only woman in her class. In 1992, she became the first and only African-American female flight captain at a major airline. Now, she’s still blazing a trail in the sky, but also inspiring a new generation of pioneers as a women’s basketball coach in Colorado.

Caroline Deisley: For most college athletes winning a national championship is the ultimate goal, what was it like to be a part of two national championship teams?

Melissa Ward: It was incredible and made more so by the fact that I walked onto that team. I wasn’t recruited by USC. To be completely honest, I had wanted to go to UCLA and missed the application deadline. It was literally like winning the lottery to walk onto that team and play with what ultimately were, in my opinion, some of the best women’s basketball players of all time and then to feel like I helped them earn that. The quality of your starters is completely dependent on the quality of your practice players. I like to pride myself as the best practice basketball player USC has ever known.

CD: When you were here in the 1980’s, what was it like to be a student-athlete, specifically a black student-athlete?

MW: I have to say back then being black at USC was different because it was definitely not as diverse a school as it is today. If you saw black kids on campus, they were typically in the athletic department. I mean that wasn’t an exclusive thing, but it was kind of a trend. It was definitely an experience, but it was not a bad one. It was the kind where you felt like you could make a difference at this school and let people know that we’re no different than they are. I never felt any type of discrimination. It was more of a curiosity.

CD: So how and when did your passion shift from playing basketball to flying in the Air Force?

MW: I didn’t get a basketball scholarship to SC, but I actually came on an Air Force ROTC scholarship. I was planning on doing two years and then picking up a basketball scholarship. As it turned out, I really enjoyed ROTC. I got a couple of orientation rides in an Air Force jet and it was such a thrill. I’m not the kid that grew up wanting to be a pilot. No one in my family flies. It’s such a great honor to be chosen to represent your country. I always say I’ve had this really charmed life because I really stumbled into opportunities. I’ve definitely taken advantage of them, but it seems like I always was in the right place at the right time. Obviously, you have to make good on those opportunities, but I really truly just feel blessed that I had those opportunities to take advantage of.

CD: You mentioned that you’ve had a lot of firsts in your career. When you were growing up did you ever feel like you had this pioneer or leadership attitude?

MW: My mom was definitely a role model there. She was the first black woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Medical School, which was an incredibly elite medical school at the time. She actually had a lot of those firsts as she went through her career as a doctor and was successful in the city of Chicago. When you have that type of example, success is the only option at whatever you do because your mom set such a perfect example for you. It was the kind of thing that inspired me and made me want to accomplish a lot in my life. I’ve been surrounded by successful women my entire life. I went to school with Michelle Obama. She was incredibly smart and a leader back then in high school. Those are the type of women that I knew and when you’re surrounded by people like that you don’t even think about not succeeding.

CD: What would you say to this generation of pioneers?

MW: I would say that the first thing to do is never quit no matter how hard anything gets or what people tell you that they think you can’t do. Everything starts with your self-confidence and your desire to do something. Then, I would tell them to set goals. You can’t just rely on luck. While I say that it seems like I was always in the right place at the right time and I had a lot of luck, I also had a lot of goals. You may not achieve them all, but the point is when you set goals and are goal-oriented then you have the ability to expand your mind to alter a goal and take advantage of good opportunities. Learn everything you can about everything you can so that you have the expertise available when opportunities do present themselves to be successful.

CD: You’ve been really successful since you were here at SC but what’s next? What’s going on?

MW: I’m still a captain for United Airlines. I’m actually an evaluator at United, so not only do I fly, but I also check all the other pilots who fly to make sure their skill level is where it’s supposed to be and required by the FAA. I’m also coaching basketball at the high school level as a varsity assistant coach. I’m focusing on trying to give back to basketball players at the middle school and high school level because being successful in sports is a great way to begin to be successful in life. Not necessarily be successful in athletics after college but to learn what it means to work hard, to work with a team and be a great team player and what it feels like to win. If you get a taste of winning now in middle school, you’re going to work at that feeling for your entire life. That’s what my focus is these days and it’s been really important to me and really fulfilling. I kind of feel like all this luck I had and all the opportunities that presented themselves to me, I’m now at least giving some of that back to girls who are on their way to college.