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Ruth Riley Hunter and Shiela McMillen Keller to join Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame

This spring, two Notre Dame greats will forever be etched in state basketball history.

On Tuesday, the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame announced that former Irish stars Ruth Riley Hunter and Sheila McMillen Keller will be part of the organization’s 2023 Hall of Fame class. McMillen Keller played at Notre Dame from 1995-99, and Riley Hunter played for the Irish from 1997-01.

McMillen Keller hailed from Rochester, Ind., and led the Rochester Zebras with 28.2 points per game her senior year, which ranked second in Indiana that season. She was the South Bend Area Player of the Year, All Conference, a Parade All-American, Nike All-American, North/South All Star and Indiana All Star. She holds the all-time scoring record — for boys and girls — with 1,696 career high school points and was a member of the Hall of Fame’s 2020 Silver Anniversary Team.

Once she arrived at Notre Dame, she became the first women’s basketball player to appear in four straight NCAA Tournaments and is one of four players to receive Notre Dame’s Francis Patrick O’Connor Award. She earned second-team all-BIG EAST honors as a senior and was named to the 1999 Big East Championship All-Tournament Team after guiding the Irish to their third title game berth in four years. By the time she left South Bend, she had amassed 1,439 points.

Riley Hunter attended North Miami High School and grew up in Macy, Ind. At the conclusion of her high school career, she was a USA Today Honorable Mention and a first-team All-State member. She led North Miami to a 20-1 record during her senior year, and she holds the school record for rebounds per game, season and career; blocks in a season and career; and points in a season and career.

Once Riley Hunter joined the Irish, she bolstered her already impressive resume even more. Her senior year, Notre Dame won the NCAA Championship and she averaged 18.7 points a game. She was National Player of the Year, Final Four MVP, Naismith Player of the Year, NCAA Verizon Academic All-American of the Year and Sports Illustrated Player of the Year. Over the course of her career, Riley Hunter was a two-time first-team AP All-America selection and two-time first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American. She was also a three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year from 1999-2001. She held seven Notre Dame records in individual categories when she left South Bend.

After graduating Summa Cum Laude from Notre Dame with a B.A. in psychology and an executive MBA, Riley Hunter was drafted fifth overall in the 2001 WNBA Draft by the Miami Sol and was the first player to be named the MVP of both the NCAA and WNBA Finals. After two WNBA Championship seasons in 2003 and 2006 with the Detroit Shock, she continued to wear many hats including being the first Vice President of WNBPA, United Nations Foundation Spokesperson, Share Our Strength Spokesperson and on the Notre Dame Monogram Club Board of Directors. She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019 and in 2006 was named to ESPN.com’s 25 greatest women’s college basketball players of the last 25 years.

The Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame’s 21st Annual Women’s Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday, April 29, 2023. The day’s events will include a free reception at the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Museum that afternoon and a banquet that evening at the Primo Banquet Hall in Indianapolis. Reservations will be available online, over the phone, or through mail order in early 2023. Call the Hall at 765-529-1891, visit www.hoopshall.com or email kayla@hoopshall.com for more information.