Janice Felder (2000) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

Janice Felder

Induction:
2000

   When they talked about women’s basketball at Southern Miss, the player talked about was Janice Felder. Janice was the kind of player I just described and in her four years as a Lady Eagle she put her signature on her teams and this program for a lifetime.
Southern Miss had never seen a player that could quite do what Janice Felder could do. At six-foot tall she could shoot with the accuracy of a small forward, handle the ball like a guard and battle under the boards with women much taller than her. She could do it all, but her abilities in that respect, don’t tell the whole story.
   She had a drive, a dedication and a desire to succeed that hasn’t been seen very often in any sport at Southern Miss and was determined to take Lady Eagle basketball to another level. That’s exactly what she did.
   Over her four-year career she became the all-time leading scorer in Lady Eagle history with 2,275 points and of the players that have scored over 500 field goals in their careers, none was more accurate than Janice’s 54.4 field goal percentage.
She is also the leading rebounder in school history with 1,169 and her career rebounding average of 10.0 is the third best ever at Southern Miss. She also ranks in the school’s top 10 in steals (212), blocked shots (75), games played (117) and minutes played (3,999) and no one ever went to the foul line more than her 568 attempts or made more than her 421, a 74.1 percentage
Eight times in her career Janice scored over 30-points, including a career high 32 against Florida State in 1991 and Murray State in 1993.
Janice was named to the Kodak All-American team as a senior and was a three-time Metro Conference Player of the Year.
Three of the teams that Janice played only won 20 games, including the 1993-94 squad that finished 26-5 and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
In her four years at Southern Miss, the teams she played with had a record of 84-35 and won 54 of the last 67 she played in.
Following her career at Southern Miss, Janice went to Europe and played for a couple of seasons then returned to Mississippi to embark on a career as a coach. Now back with the Lady Eagles as an assistant coach under Rick Reeves, it is obvious that special something that she brought to the Lady Eagles as a player, she is still bringing to the team as a coach. With Felder on the bench the Lady Eagles advanced to the NIT.
The impact of Janice Felder and her contribution to the University of Southern Mississippi and our women’s basketball program is displayed by the fact that she is the only female athlete to ever have their jersey retired at the school and one of only five athletes to have ever been honored in that way.