Kelli Litsch

Assistant Athletic Director/Compliance

In a state that has had its fair share of great women’s basketball players, perhaps no one captured the imagination or gained more notoriety than Kelli Litsch. Growing up Litsch won championships, set records and pushed women’s basketball to headline status across the state.

While at Thomas High School, Litsch-led teams went a combined 77-9 in her final three seasons 1978-1981, winning two six-on-six state titles on the way. Her 3,364 total points was at the time the most ever points scored by any player (boy or girls) in Oklahoma high school history. She still holds the state tournament career scoring record of 37.6 points per game, more than a quarter century later.

Litsch, a 4.0 valedictorian, had her choice of any school in the country, including basketball powers Texas, Southern California and Louisiana Tech. She opted to stay nearby and enrolled at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, the same school her mother and father graduated from.

What followed at SWOSU can only be described as “Hoops Hysteria”, as the Lady Bulldogs exploded into the NAIA’s premier basketball program. In Litsch’s first year, she led SWOSU to an undefeated 34-0 season. She hit the game-winning jumper in the closing seconds to defeat Saginaw Valley, Mich. 54-43, in the title game. As a freshman, she earned MVP Tournament Honors and was named First Team NAIA All-American.

More championships followed in 1983 and again in 1985. She became the first NAIA player in any sport to be selected to the first team All-American squad all four seasons. Litsch ended her magical four-year run at SWOSU with a 129-5 record and as the NAIA all-time record holder in points scored with 2,700.

After graduation, she joined the Lady Bulldogs basketball program as an assistant coach and helped them to more NAIA titles, their fourth and fifth in 1987 and 1990. In 10 years with Litsch as an assistant, SWOSU posted a 278-49 record.

Litsch traded in her coach’s whistle in 1995 and now concentrates on the administrative end. She is in her 10th season as assistant athletic director in charge of compliance at her alma matter.

She has been inducted into four Hall Of Fames: SWOSU Athletic Hall of Fame 1990, NAIA Hall of Fame 1991, Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame 2004, Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame 2005.