BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU Athletics is saddened to announce the passing of Kay McDaniel, one of the pioneers of the LSU Women’s Tennis program. McDaniel leaves an international reputation for excellence on and off the tennis court.
The Louisiana native was born on September 20, 1958, in Shreveport. McDaniel joined the LSU Women’s Tennis team in 1975 and quickly became one of the program’s most outstanding players.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Kay and her family,” said Head Coach Taylor Fogleman. “She was one of the most outstanding players in this program’s history. She will be dearly missed.”
Due to her play, she became the program’s first All-American with teammate Ebie Taylor in 1978. That same year, the Tigers went 19-5 and captured the title of Louisiana AIAW Champions, along with a 10th-place finish at the National AIAW Championships. The 1978 team holds the record for most consecutive wins in a season, with 12 in a row.
In her collegiate tenure, she boasted 92 wins from 1975 to 1979, which ties her for 13th all-time in the LSU Women’s Tennis record book. She is also second on the list of match wins in a single season, with 43 in 1977-78.
After earning collegiate success, McDaniel toured the professional courts from 1980-86.
Throughout her career, she hit the courts at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open six times played the French Open thrice and appeared at the Tournament of Champions once. She secured a singles title in Atlanta, GA, in 1985 and picked up a doubles title in Las Vegas, Nev., in 1984. In 1983, she was ranked No. 30 worldwide for singles and No. 20 for doubles in 1986. That same year, she even got the Concord British Airways Award for having the “Fastest Serve in Women’s Tennis.”
She has competed against legendary players such as Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and Steffi Graf.
After her career concluded, McDaniel received honors for her play, including being inducted into the United States Tennis Association Tennessee Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Louisiana Tennis Hall of Fame in 2019.
Beyond her athletic achievements, McDaniel was a professor at Lee University, teaching health science. She was also known to give back to her community, running a free annual summer camp for kids at the university. She also writes a weekly column for the Chattanooga Times-Free Press on topics ranging from tennis to religion.
In 2002, she wrote a book called Serving the Master, in which she shares how God gave her the strength to live with two serious diseases: Systemic Lupus and Addison’s disease. She actively participated in her community and often traveled to give motivational speeches about her experiences to audiences nationwide.
For more information on the LSU women’s tennis program, follow the Tigers on Twitter @lsuwten, Instagram @LSUWTen, and Facebook.com/lsuwten.