Hall of Fame
A dynamic scorer, team captain, dedicated student-athlete, two-time Most Valuable Player and the first female athlete to score 1,000 points, Daphne Selby played a major role in transforming the landscape of the Utica College women's basketball program.
In 1975, after a successful high school career at Walton High School in Bronx, N.Y. Selby moved on to pursue her academic and athletic dreams at Utica College, where she began a tradition of great women's basketball players that stands strong to this very day.
She burst on the scene at UC and after just one season she was named the College's Most Outstanding Female Athlete (1975-76). Over the course of the next four years she guided the Pioneers to a 51-15 overall record and two post-season appearances. Alongside Head Coach Joan Kay and a host of Lady Pioneers, she helped lift UC from zero wins the year before she began playing, to 18 victories in her senior season.
She played in 60 career games, recording 261 assists, and she also added 537 field goals for a total of 1,193 points. Simply put, Selby scored more points in fewer games than any other woman in the history of the program. Over 35 years after she first stepped foot on the Central New York campus, she still ranks fourth in career field goals, fifth in all-time assists and sixth in points scored. She also ranks second on the College's all-time assists per game list (4.35) and second in scoring average (19.9 points per game).
Selby was a strong role model for female athletes in a time when female athletics were just starting to spawn on college campuses around the United States. She set every single-season scoring record at UC including points in a single game (39) points in a season (404), field goals in a game (16) and field goals in a season (183). She was also named to the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women First-Team All-East Squad and was selected to the All Region Basketball Team in 1979.
In the Spring of 1979, Daphne graduated from Utica College with a degree in business administration/social work.
After college, Daphne moved to Atlanta to become the first women's basketball graduate assistant at Georgia State University. She obtained a Masters in International Finance from the American Graduate School of International Management in 1985 and spent 20 years in the financial service industry both domestically and internationally. Currently she spends her time using her managerial and financial skills assisting church organizations, while planning her next professional venture.
Her family includes her father, sister and brothers, Lawrence, Darlene, Rodney and Scott Selby. She is the proud aunt of six nieces, five nephews, one grand niece, and two grand nephews. Although her mother Laura Selby is deceased, she remains in her heart as a foundation of her successes.
