Carol Blazejowski - College and Amateur Career

College and Amateur Career

Using a jump shot patterned after what she saw in televised professional games, Blazejowski became one of the greatest scorers in the history of women's basketball, although she didn't begin serious competition until her senior year at Cranford High School in Cranford, New Jersey.

At Montclair State College in Montclair, New Jersey, the 5-foot-10 (1.78 m) forward was a three-time All-American, from 1976 through 1978. Blazejowski won the inaugural Wade Trophy as the nation's finest collegiate woman player in 1978. She led the nation in scoring with 33.5 points per game in 1976/77 and 38.6 points per game in 1977/78. Blazejowski scored 40 or more points in each of her last three games, including the semifinal loss to eventual champion UCLA. Sports Illustrated would call her, "the most relentlessly exciting performer in the history of women's basketball". She set a Madison Square Garden record for either sex with 52 points in a 1978 game against Queens College. Similar to all-time men's collegiate scoring record holder, Pete Maravich, "The Blaze" played during an era without the three point shot.

Only an alternate on the 1976 Olympic team, she led the 1977 World University Games team in scoring and had 38 points in a losing effort against the Soviet Union.

After finishing her college career she played two seasons of AAU basketball with the Allentown, Pennsylvania, Crestettes. She often scored over 40 points in a game, and led the team to the semifinals both years, and once to a second place finish. The leading scorer on the national team that won the 1979 world championship, she was chosen for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, but her hopes for a gold medal were crushed after the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics.