Tara Heiss obit

Maryland Mourns the Passing of Hall of Famer Tara Heiss

 

She was not on the list.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The Maryland Women's Basketball Family mourns the passing of all-time Terrapin great and Women's Basketball Hall of Famer, Tara Heiss, who passed away Friday, July 7.

Heiss played for the Terrapins from 1975-78 and led Maryland to its first ACC championship and the 1978 AIAW Final Four. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003, the Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Maryland State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011.

Heiss was named Most Valuable Player of the first ACC Tournament (1978). She set the program record for assists with 504 and scored 1,350 career points. Heiss was the first Terrapin to score 1,000 career points. Her No. 44  jersey was retired and now hangs in the rafters of XFINITY Center.

She went on to play for USA Basketball in 1979 and 1980 and was named to the 1980 US Olympic Team. She also played on USA teams that competed in the R. William Jones Cup, World Championship, Pan American Games, and World University Games in 1979, garnering three gold medals and one silver medal.

A Maryland native, Heiss went to Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda before coming to University of Maryland.

-Terps-

After nearly making the 1976 US Olympic team, she played on the US national team in 1979 and the team won gold at the 1979 FIBA World Championship for Women. She postponed professional play after college to maintain amateur status and became a member of the 1980 US Olympic women's basketball team. However, due to the United States boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, American athletes like Heiss were unable to complete.

Heiss played for the Allentown Crestettes in the Amateur Athletic Union and the New Jersey Gems in the short-lived Women's Professional Basketball League.

Following her playing career, she was an assistant coach at Maryland and Towson University and worked for twenty years for FedEx.

Heiss was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003, the University of Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011.