Everyone on the University of Arizona campus in the 2000s knew Shawntinice Polk — at 6-foot-5, she was pretty unmistakable. Known universally as Polky, she had a quiet and friendly demeanor that belied the hard-nosed post game that earned her three All-Pac-10 Conference awards.
Polky was universally liked, and my wife/then-girlfriend Courtney — a student manager for the Arizona women’s basketball team — shared a close friendship with her. That’s a testament to Polky’s personality: I can’t imagine it’s often that a star basketball player befriends part of the student staff.
Courtney still today has a t-shirt with Polky’s No. 00, which in 2006 was retired, and in 2011, we took with us on a road trip back to our alma mater for Polky’s Hall of Fame induction.
Before Aari McDonald, the current All-American and soul of the current, Elite Eight-bound Wildcats, Polky was undeniably the greatest player in Arizona women’s basketball history. Her humility would never have let you know that, though.
In the summer of 2005, I was working as a counselor at Lute Olson’s Basketball Camp. Each student counselor was paired with a co-coach, and for one session, mine was my dad. We were running a rebounding station and my dad, while demonstrating box-out techniques, spotted Polky and stopped his presentation.
“If you want to be a great rebounder,” he called out to the campers, then pointed at Polky, “Watch some game film of Double-Zero right here.”
Polky chuckled and rolled her eyes. That moment’s stayed with me for 15 years.
Three months later, Polky died of a blood clot that traveled to her lungs.
Polky’s death rocked the campus and the community. A memorial service for her drew thousands to McKale Center. She embodied the idea of Big Woman on Campus in every way, and it was painfully evident.
I covered football for the university newspaper at the time, and remember the heavy atmosphere of the practice field the week of her death. She was every bit the close friend to Darrell Brooks, the best player on the UA football team, that she was to Courtney, the student manager.
Polky made an impression on people’s lives in her mere 22 years that few can approach in much more time on Earth. Basketball was her conduit.
March 27, 2021 marked her 38th birthday. Arizona’s Sweet 16 rout of Texas A&M earned the Wildcats the first Elite Eight berth in program history, and that it happened on Polky’s birthday could not be more appropriate.