PUC Chronicle

Issue date: 1/29/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Derek Newell

The number 14 will never be worn by another PUC women's basketball player after, for the first time in PUC history, a former student-athlete's jersey number was retired.
Hammond native and three-time Kodak All-American women's basketball player Lee Ann DeYoung was honored Saturday at halftime of the Lady Peregrine's v.s. Illinois Institute of Technology homecoming basketball game.
DeYoung, now DeYoung-Slowik, wore the number 14 on the court from 1984-88 when she played forward for who were then known as the PUC Lady Lakers.
DeYoung-Slowik also received the Purdue Alumni Association-Calumet's annual Bob Hayes Athletic Alumni Award. The Hayes Award is named after the retired PUC coach, athletic director, faculty member and statistician who served in the athletic program for 37 years. It is presented to a former distinguished PUC athlete or other graduate following his or her career at the university.
With a total of 2,592 points, averaging 24.5 ppg, DeYoung-Slowik is recognized as PUC's all-time leading basketball scorer among both women and men.
"This is all a bit overwhelming," said DeYoung-Slowik. "It's been so many years I thought .someone would have knocked off my record by now."
The former athlete also totaled 1,211 rebounds, 258 steals and 131 assists during her four year basketball career.
As a sophomore, junior and senior, DeYoung-Slowik was named to the Kodak Women's All-American Basketball Team for National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics institutions, which was compiled of only ten players nationwide. She was also a three-time NAIA District 21 Player of the Year and an All-Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference selection.
"It's only appropriate that we retire the number 14," said Athletic Consultant John Friend, who served as PUC's athletic director during her playing career.
DeYoung-Slowik earned nursing degrees from PUC in 1988 and 1992, and worked in health care for 17 years before joining her family's real estate business. Currently she coaches high school basketball at Elcho and resides in Wisconsin with her husband and three children.

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