Former Tall Fern Erin Rooney is to be inducted into the Fordham University Athletic Hall of Fame, class of 2021.
She will be amongst a group of 13 inductees who will be honoured at a ceremony in October.
Erin initially spent two years at Monmouth University under the tutorage of Head Coach Stephanie Gaitley playing 63 games for the Hawks.
The Christchurch native then followed Gaitley to the Bronx where she enjoyed an amazing two-year career at Fordham scoring over 1000 points. In an outstanding senior year in 2014 she led the Rams to their first Atlantic 10 championship in programme history and also became the first player in Fordham’s history to record 500 points, 200 rebounds and 150 assists in the same season.
Her 15.7 points per game scoring average still ranks fourth best all-time at Fordham while her 84% career free-throw shooting ranks fifth best.
Erin told Fordham Athletics, “It’s nice of course to individually recognised but mainly my legacy at Fordham was to build a foundation of success. To have been able to get that A-10 championship in 2014 and then see us back again in 2019 and continue to be a powerhouse in the Atlantic 10 is really cool.
“2014 was fantastic. It had a very low point the year before losing the championship game so going into the next season we had everything to play for.
“The group of girls I was around still to this day are great friends of mine, and we made memories that will last a lifetime.”
In total she played 131 collegiate games, remarkably starting on all but three occasions.
Erin totalled 1648 career points the most by a Kiwi in NCAA Division I basketball.
Currently studying for a masters degree in Integrative Neuroscience at the University of Helsinki, Erin was a member of the Tall Ferns team that won bronze at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
The Cantabrian guard played 50 games for the Tall Ferns after debuting in 2009 on the tour of Japan. Following her collegiate career Erin had professional stints in France, Poland and Switzerland having earlier played for the Canterbury Wildcats.
