Maggie Dixon

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Maggie Dixon
Title Head coach
College Army
Sport Basketball
Born May 9, 1977(1977-05-09)
Place of birth Flag of the United States North Hollywood, California
Died April 6, 2006 (aged 28)
Place of death Flag of the United States Valhalla, New York
Career highlights
Overall 20-11 (.645)
Championships
Patriot League Tournament Championship (2006)
Playing career
1995–1999 San Diego
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2001–2005
2005–2006		 DePaul (asst.)
Army

Margaret Mary "Maggie" Dixon (May 9, 1977 – April 6, 2006) was an American collegiate women's basketball coach.

Maggie Dixon was born in North Hollywood, California, and played basketball at Notre Dame High School. Dixon graduated in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in history from the University of San Diego, where she played for the women's basketball team. After an unsuccessful try out for the WNBA Los Angeles Sparks, she took up coaching, at the urging of her older brother. She became an assistant coach at DePaul University from 2001-2005.

In 2005, just 11 days before the 2005-2006 season, Dixon was hired as the women's basketball coach of the United States Military Academy. In her first year, they surprised the college basketball world by going 20-11 and winning the Patriot League conference tournament; she took them to 2006 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament as a 15 seed, where they lost to the University of Tennessee, 102-54. It was the first March Madness tournament appearance for any Army basketball team.

Her brother was Jamie Dixon, the head men's basketball coach of the University of Pittsburgh. In 2006, the Dixons became the first brother-sister pair to take teams to the NCAA basketball tournaments the same year, as Jamie's Pittsburgh Panthers also made the 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. Her brother lost in the second round to Bradley.

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[edit] Death

Just weeks after her appearance in the tournament, on April 5, 2006, Dixon was hospitalized at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York, after collapsing and suffering what her brother described as an "arrhythmic episode to her heart." Dixon died the next night at the age of only 28, a little over a month shy of her 29th birthday. An autopsy revealed that Dixon had an enlarged heart and had a problem with a heart valve.

[edit] Tributes

Dixon was buried at the West Point Cemetery, an honor usually reserved only for high ranking officials.

On November 12, 2006 West Point held the 1st Annual Maggie Dixon Classic, a basketball mini-tournament in Dixon's honor. It featured two games, a men's and women's game. In the men's game Jamie Dixon's Pitt Panthers defeated Western Michigan and in the women's game the Army women's team lost to Ohio State. The games were televised by ESPNU.

In the 2007-2008 season the Classic moved to Madison Square Garden and featured the University of Pittsburgh women's team against Duke University and Army and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights

[edit] Maggie Dixon Award

In tribute to Maggie's amazing rookie turnaround at Army before her untimely death the Women's Basketball Coaches Association announced the creation of the Maggie Dixon Award for the 2006-2007 season. The award is a "rookie of the year" award for the best coach in their first year as a division 1 head coach.

The ignaural award was given to Krista Kilburn-Steveskey of Hofstra University and the 2007-2008 award was given to Jeff Walz of the University of Louisville

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Sherri Abbey-Nowatzki		 Head Coach of the
Army Black Knights women's basketball team
2005		 Succeeded by
Dave Magarity
2006-present