Mississippi’s Greatest Athletes: Peggie Gillom-Granderson

Peggie Gillom, from the tiny town of Abbeville, is the namesake of the C Spire Gillom Trophy, which goes to the top Mississippi women’s college basketball player each year. Had such an award existed, Gillom would have won it more than once at Ole Miss (1976-80), where she scored more than 2,000 points and grabbed more than 1,000 rebounds in her amazing career. She is the all-time leading scorer and rebounder at Ole Miss.

Peggy Gillom
Courtesy of Mississippi’s Greatest Athletes book

After her career at Ole Miss, she played one year of professional basketball before going into the coaching profession. Peggie spent 16 seasons as an assistant coach on Hall of Famer Van Chancellor’s Rebel coaching staff from 1981-1997.

Prior to returning to Ole Miss in 2003, she was the head coach at Texas A&M University. She was also an assistant coach for the 2000 Women’s Basketball Olympic team that won the gold medal.

As an assistant at Ole Miss, she coached her younger sister, Jennifer Gillom, who was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. Peggie joined the Fellowship of Christian Athletes staff in 2009.

Courtesy of Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum director Rick Cleveland, author of Mississippi’s Greatest Athletes. Cleveland can be reached at rcleveland@msfame.com.