This broken nation tormented by anti-intellectualism and a politics of lethargy briefly put all that to the side to commemorate the life of one of the world’s greatest cultural heroines: Dolly Parton.
The country music powerhouse and philanthropist passed away at age 80 on Tuesday, Aug. 25.
Immediately, a flood of tributes was unleashed, with politicians, athletes, fellow musicians, actors, other cultural figures and her legion of everyday fans sharing fond feelings and memories about the woman who wore the coat of many colors.
Her signature hits “I Will Always Love You”, “9 to 5” and “Jolene” are timeless classics. Dolly’s unquestioned genuineness and unabashed generosity will forever hold a place in the hearts of people around the nation and world.
Dolly’s legacy was so big that she intersected with other spaces in the culture beyond her stomping grounds of music and cinema.
One of those was women’s basketball.
While the sport may not be top of mind when you think of Parton, the celebration of her within the sport will say otherwise.
Former University of North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell remembers a time when Dolly used the team locker room as her dressing room before a concert when she was head coach of Francis Marion University in South Carolina. Dolly had left a note behind wishing the team luck. Hatchell later credited Dolly’s note as a motivator in their 1982 AIAW Division II national championship win.
In February 2024, Lipscomb University, a private Christian college in Nashville, paid homage to Dolly by wearing customized pink rhinestone-accented uniforms patched together by fashion students, who put together an exhibit on campus entitled “Dolly Parton and the Makers: My Life in Rhinestones”.
In March of this year, Dolly’s high school, Sevier County High School in Sevierville, TN, saw the girls’ basketball team win its first state championship since 2002.
Dolly recorded a message to the team celebrating them, telling them, “You girls have really knocked it out of the park. Well, out of court, I guess I should say.”
Following Dolly’s passing, WNBA teams participated in the commemoration of the cultural icon, with fans and players alike singing and dancing along to “9 to 5” in the arenas of the Seattle Storm and Las Vegas Aces. The Dallas Wings also amplified and extended the city’s celebration of Parton.
Other voices in the women’s sports space also have recognized the resonance of Parton within women’s basketball.
Over at the Minnesota-focused sports blog Hitting the Hardwood, Kenneth Ward offered a tribute to Parton by assigning every Minnesota Lynx player a Parton song. TOGETHXR co-founder Jessica Robertson wrote a Substack post connecting and celebrating the examples of Dolly and another Tennessee icon: Pat Summitt.
There was nothing that Dolly couldn’t touch that didn’t turn to gold.
While she never, by all accounts, hooped it up, she found a home everywhere she went, including women’s basketball.
And in this moment where a toxic, uncalled-for culture war is subsuming the sport, the call to get in touch with our own version of Dolly Parton is greater than ever—because she herself wouldn’t put up with this nonsense. She was all about seeing the good in one another, caring for one another, and cheering one another on.
In other words, Dolly told us how to do it right. Let’s honor her by doing just that.