Geraldine "Jelly" Pigott

Sport: Coach

Induction Year: 2008

University: Northwestern State

Induction Year: 2008

The girls prep basketball coach at Dry Prong, Selma, Greensburg and Jena, Geraldine “Jelly” Pigott made an indelible impact on state prep history as the Lady Giants coach. She coached at Jena from 1952 to 1970, averaging 35 wins a year and losing no more than five games a season. Jena girls basketball became one of the state’s premier high school programs in any sport during her reign. In 34 years of coaching her teams never had a losing season, winning about 90 percent of their games. She had two one-loss seasons. Her teams won 29 district championships, six state titles and finished second three times, but no precise won-loss career record can be compiled. She is thought to have won 900+ games. Forty of her players, including all six starters one year, made all-state. The most games any of her teams lost in one season was seven. Piggott was a trend-setting strategist and a fierce competitor who demanded high standards from her players and students. She was one of the first girls coaches in the state to run a patterned offense and institute picks and rolls. Her teams did a flashy Harlem Globetrotters drill as part of its pre-game routine to excite fans and intimidate opponents. Her use of a rover revolutionized strategy in the defunct six-man girls game. She successfully weathered the transition from six-man girls basketball to the 5-on-5 modern style. She was the second girls basketball coach inducted to the LHSCA Hall of Fame (1980) a year after Edna Tarbutton was part of the first-ever induction class. A Northwestern State alumnus, she died in 1988.