Nicky Anosike will become the latest former Lady Vol to enter the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame at the official induction ceremony in August.

“It came out of nowhere,” said Anosike, who was notified this summer of her selection. “I really was shocked. When I chose to come back to Knoxville in 2018 after being a public school teacher, I didn’t really know what to expect. I came here with an optimistic attitude, and it just so happened that I continued what I was doing in Florida with giving back to youth, except this time, I felt like I was in my community because Knoxville had become my home during the four years I was here.

“I love that the award encompasses not only sports accolades and accomplishments, but also being a valuable member of the community. And it really is an honor that somebody noticed.”

Anosike returned to Knoxville be a graduate assistant for Lady Vols basketball and earn her master’s degree after teaching middle school in a district in Florida with chronically low test scores that she raised in one year. She has coached in high school in the Knoxville area and assisted nonprofits who serve youth. Anosike is in the final phase of completing her PhD and also cares for her twin sons, Cheluchi and Chiemezie, who are now 4-years-old and in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy for autism to assist with their development.

Anosike arrived in Knoxville at the age of 18, won two national championships in 2007 and 2008 – the final two for the late Pat Summitt – and played professional basketball in the WNBA and overseas. The Minnesota Lynx drafted Anosike the day after the 2008 national title game in Tampa and included her among the organization’s top 25 players in a 2023 tribute.

Anosike, who is now 39, overcame tremendous childhood obstacles and survived growing up in a tough neighborhood in Staten Island, New York. It was her performance on the basketball court that drew Summitt to New York to recruit her.

“I honestly think about this all the time because I had such a promising basketball career,” Anosike said. “I had such a promising future in academics, but my life took me in a direction that was much different. Obviously, I did get to play pro sports, and I did continue my education, but a staple in my life since graduating has been doing what I can do to make sure that I’m influencing young lives in a way that people influenced me when I was a kid.”

Joining Anosike as inductees of the class of 2025 are Adam Brock, the No. 1 singles player at Virginia who became the head tennis pro at the Cedar Bluff Racquet Club; Bryan Brown, system athletics director for Knox County schools who led Hardin Valley Academy to 13 state championships in indoor and outdoor track and cross country; Charles Fondren, five-time medal winner, including two golds, at the Deaf Olympics in 1985 and 1989 who graduated from the Tennessee School for the Deaf; Ken Johnson, a defensive end for Knoxville College who was taken in the fourth round of the 1979 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills and played six seasons; Conchita Owenby, a former Carson-Newman and Sevier County basketball player who became the first girls basketball coach at Pigeon Forge High School in 1999 and the first female athletics director in Sevier County in 2017; Dr. Jerry Punch, an ESPN commentator on auto racing and college football; the late Frankie Randall, who grew up in Morristown and later moved to Knoxville to train under legendary boxing coach Ace Mille, winning 58 bouts, including 42 by knockout, and becoming a three-time light welterweight champion, including a defeat of Julio Cesar Chavez; and the late Gary Toulson, longtime head golf pro at Cherokee Country Club who earned the Tennessee PGA Section Distinguished Career Award and was a Tennessee PGA president and two-time winner of the Tennessee PGA Senior Championship.

The Southeastern Conference honored Nicky Anosike as an SEC legend in 2019.

Eligibility for the hall includes being a native of the Greater Knoxville area; being a resident of the Knoxville area for three years; or being a resident during coaching, officiating, media, sports administration or athletic career.

Summitt, of course, was inducted into the hall. Some other members with ties to Lady Vols athletics include Maryville’s Sarah Fekete Bailey, softball; Oak Ridge native Nikki Caldwell Fargas, basketball; and Michelle Marciniak, basketball, who now makes her home in the area.

The event, now in its 44th year, will honor the inductees Aug. 21 at the Knoxville Convention Center. Tickets are available HERE and include appetizers, reception and a cash bar at 5 p.m. and chef-curated food stations at 6 p.m. The induction ceremony will start at 7 p.m. Former Tennessee basketball player Ron Slay, who is now a studio analyst for the SEC Network, will be the featured speaker. Proceeds will benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley.

Summitt sang the praises of Anosike during her time at Tennessee from 2004-2008 – she entered the starting lineup as a freshman and never left it – for her leadership on the court and her academic achievements, which included a triple major as an undergraduate in four years.

What does Anosike think Summitt would say to her about being inducted?

“I think she would say, ‘Big Nick, you did it again. You’re always beating the odds. You’re always finding a way to make it despite your challenges, and that’s why I’m so proud of you.’ ”

Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press and a 10th anniversary edition will be released in 2026.