MARQUETTE---First it was Tom Izzo, now it's Lisa Jamula (Maki).
The Northern Michigan University basketball program keeps going to its roots as it ushers in a new era of hoops at the Vandament Arena. And the ghosts of the Hedgcock Fieldhouse are alive and well, with two high-profile jersey retirements in the span of less than a month.
Iron Mountain's Izzo, a national coaching legend at Michigan State University, had his jersey retired during a wildly-successful exhbition basketball game in October.
And on Sunday, the women's program honored one of its greatest, Escanaba's Lisa Jamula (Maki), who scored just under 1,700 points between 1987 and 1991. It's a record that stood for more than three decades until Makaylee Kuhn broke it earlier this year.
Jamula's Number 40 jersey is the first to ever be retired by NMU women's basketball.
"Everybody has really embraced me, and still embraces me after all of this time," Maki told RRN Sports' Casey Ford. "I really was dumbfounded and really didn't know what to think, or how to react. I just feel like I didn't deserve it. I just did what I was told to do, and that was to play ball. I'm very humbled by it. It just really hasn't set in that much."
Maki played in the old Hedgcock Fieldhouse, smack dab in the middle of campus. That building still stands today, but is mostly an office building. The nostalgia of Hedgcock, with its noise and old-fashioned look, is still remembered by NMU basketnall fans to this day.
Maki is one of them, but she is also impressed with this new Vandament Arena, which is freshly remodeled after being simply known as the "Peef" for generations.
"A lot has changed," Maki said. "Northern is just growing, and I really love this facility. I feel like I'm still part of it."
Maki's jersey was retired during an exhibition game against the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, which NMU won, 59-53.
And the family was all there, representing three different universities. Maki's son, Escanaba graduate Bryant Maki, plays football at that dreaded school up in Houghton (Michigan Tech). One of her twin daughers, Keira, plays for Stevens Point.
And her other daugher, Morgan, played basketball at Escanaba and now is student at NMU. Her husband, a bank president in Gladstone, is an NMU alum.
"It's kind of come full circle," Lisa Maki said. "It just seems so surreal. I never would have thought in a lifetime that this would happen. And I am truly blessed."
NMU won the game, 59-53, as Jacy Weisbrod scored 12 points and Negaunee's Alyssa Hill added eight points. But NMU Coach Casey Thousand said that the game was not important. Honoring Jamula-Maki was, even if Maki was slightly embarrassed by all of the attention.
"She has deserved this for a very long time coming," Thousand said. "Obvously, she was a very good player, but she has still been a part of our program each and every year, which I think is awesome, too. As an alumni, she's always supported what we've been doing. Now, we get the time to recognize her, which I think is way overdue."
Not only was Maki NMU's leading scorer until Kuhn broke that record this year, Maki remains second in career rebounds with 893, while she also totaled 256 career assists and holds she the program record for free throws attempted (557).
Her second season at NMU in 1989 saw her score 491 points (17.5 points per game) and add 248 rebounds (8.9 per game), both as sophomore records that stand to this day.
As a senior, she scored 619 points for a 20 points-per-game average, a top-five single-season mark in program history even to this day. Over her 111-game career, she averaged 15.3 points/game on a 46.8% shooting percentage while also averaging 8.0 rebounds/game.
Jamula-Maki earned All-GLIAC First Team honors in 1989, 1990, and 1991, She got all-Defensive awards in 1990 and 1991, and she was GLIAC Player of the Year as a senior in 1991.
She was inducted into the NMU Sports Hall of Fame in 2003, and most recently, has been helping out with the Escanaba High School girls basketball program.
The Northern Michigan University basketball program keeps going to its roots as it ushers in a new era of hoops at the Vandament Arena. And the ghosts of the Hedgcock Fieldhouse are alive and well, with two high-profile jersey retirements in the span of less than a month.
Iron Mountain's Izzo, a national coaching legend at Michigan State University, had his jersey retired during a wildly-successful exhbition basketball game in October.
And on Sunday, the women's program honored one of its greatest, Escanaba's Lisa Jamula (Maki), who scored just under 1,700 points between 1987 and 1991. It's a record that stood for more than three decades until Makaylee Kuhn broke it earlier this year.
"Everybody has really embraced me, and still embraces me after all of this time," Maki told RRN Sports' Casey Ford. "I really was dumbfounded and really didn't know what to think, or how to react. I just feel like I didn't deserve it. I just did what I was told to do, and that was to play ball. I'm very humbled by it. It just really hasn't set in that much."
Maki played in the old Hedgcock Fieldhouse, smack dab in the middle of campus. That building still stands today, but is mostly an office building. The nostalgia of Hedgcock, with its noise and old-fashioned look, is still remembered by NMU basketnall fans to this day.
Maki is one of them, but she is also impressed with this new Vandament Arena, which is freshly remodeled after being simply known as the "Peef" for generations.
"A lot has changed," Maki said. "Northern is just growing, and I really love this facility. I feel like I'm still part of it."
Maki's jersey was retired during an exhibition game against the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, which NMU won, 59-53.
And the family was all there, representing three different universities. Maki's son, Escanaba graduate Bryant Maki, plays football at that dreaded school up in Houghton (Michigan Tech). One of her twin daughers, Keira, plays for Stevens Point.
"It's kind of come full circle," Lisa Maki said. "It just seems so surreal. I never would have thought in a lifetime that this would happen. And I am truly blessed."
NMU won the game, 59-53, as Jacy Weisbrod scored 12 points and Negaunee's Alyssa Hill added eight points. But NMU Coach Casey Thousand said that the game was not important. Honoring Jamula-Maki was, even if Maki was slightly embarrassed by all of the attention.
"She has deserved this for a very long time coming," Thousand said. "Obvously, she was a very good player, but she has still been a part of our program each and every year, which I think is awesome, too. As an alumni, she's always supported what we've been doing. Now, we get the time to recognize her, which I think is way overdue."
Not only was Maki NMU's leading scorer until Kuhn broke that record this year, Maki remains second in career rebounds with 893, while she also totaled 256 career assists and holds she the program record for free throws attempted (557).
As a senior, she scored 619 points for a 20 points-per-game average, a top-five single-season mark in program history even to this day. Over her 111-game career, she averaged 15.3 points/game on a 46.8% shooting percentage while also averaging 8.0 rebounds/game.
Jamula-Maki earned All-GLIAC First Team honors in 1989, 1990, and 1991, She got all-Defensive awards in 1990 and 1991, and she was GLIAC Player of the Year as a senior in 1991.
She was inducted into the NMU Sports Hall of Fame in 2003, and most recently, has been helping out with the Escanaba High School girls basketball program.
