Basketball (1978-80)
Natalie Brown Cooksey was a standout basketball player for Southeastern from 1978-to-1980, earning team Most Valuable Players honors and earning all-conference honors.
As a junior, Cooksey helped propel her squad, coached by fellow hall of famer Vicki Hudson, to its first of back-to-back Oklahoma Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. Southeastern toppled Oklahoma Christian in the title game of that tournament in a game played in Bloomer Sullivan Gymnasium.
That team advanced to the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women regional tournament where they were consolation champions after winning four-of-five games.
As a senior she helped guide the team back to another OAIAW state championship, winning this one in Alva, Okla., before advancing to the AIAW region 4 tournament where Southeastern finished as runners-up.
Cooksey was a two-time all-conference honoree while at Southeastern where she splashed her name across the record book.
At the time of her induction, she held the fourth-best single season points per game average in school history with 21.2 and the fifth-best single season points total with 633 points, both those coming her senior year. She also holds marks in the top-10 in field goals made and attempted, free throws attempted and rebounds.
Cooksey went on to a career in education with a brief stint in coaching, spending time in Stringtown, Okla., before moving to the Oklahoma City area.
Cooksey, throughout her years as an athlete and an educator, excelled to a level that brings great honor to Southeastern Oklahoma State University. The University honored her with membership in the Southeastern Oklahoma State Athletics Hall of Fame on August 25, 2012.
