Former T-M star is the newest inductee into the MSHSL Hall of Fame
Madonna. Cher. Britney. Mary Jo.
The latter might not have the singing chops or world-wide acclaim as the others, but when it comes to sports, the woman who will always be referred to in these parts simply by her first name because of her legendary prowess on the court has joined a different elite group.
On Oct. 8, the unstoppable, tenacious point guard with the curly, blonde locks who now as an adult is known as Mary Jo Miller Hmielewski, was chosen as one of 12 people announced as the latest inductees into the Minnesota State High School Hall of Fame.
The all-time scoring leader at Tracy-Milroy-Balaton was caught a bit off guard to say the least when she got the call.
“Actually, I was wondering if it was a prank call, if I was getting scammed,” said Miller Hmielewski. “You dream about things like this, but as the years go on … it’s something I never dreamed would happen.”
Wearing a basketball jersey with “TRACY” scrolled across the chest in block letters, Mary Jo scored her 2,000th career point 37 years ago. That milestone was just one impressive turn in what would develop into a trail-blazing athletic journey that culminated in a Kansas State uniform.
But it wasn’t one she realized until after the fact. Her former high school coach and mentor Terry Culhane wasn’t much for statistics and individual performances, so Miller Hmielewski wasn’t even aware that she was making history.
“I didn’t even know I had done it,” she said. “Our coaching staff was very adamant about keeping our team, and me, level — we never saw stats, we never knew how many points we made. I never knew I was even close (to 2,000 points). I didn’t even know when I did 1,000 points.” But more than the personal accomplishments, Miller Hmielewski was a driving force in what grew to be one of the most heralded small-school female sports programs in the state, one that through both basketball and volleyball developed that reputation by making many state tournament appearances. During her prep career, Miller Hmielewski and her teammates made 12 state tournaments between her three sports.
“Our coaches did a wonderful job of keeping us focused on the moment; we never got beyond that,” Miller Hmielewski said. “I think it was more outside noise of how good we were and what the expectations were because we always saw ourselves as having room to grow.” Miller Hmielewski was a three-sport standout for Tracy-Milroy after the two high schools partnered in 1987 and became to be known as one of the early legendary icons who symbolized greatness among female athletes in Minnesota.
MILLER HMIELEWSKI
Miller Hmielewski was the 1988 Miss Basketball winner and is one of only three Tracy, Tracy-Milroy or Tracy-Milroy-Balaton athletes to score more than 2,000 career points. She finished her high school basketball career with 2,655 points, 850 steals and 652 assists. Miller Hmielewski, who also excelled in volleyball, and track and field, played collegiately at Kansas State University — and scored 1,000 points there as well — before serving as a volleyball and basketball coach in southwestern Minnesota.
Miller Hmielewski chose Kansas State over the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities or the University of Colorado, she said, because the small-town vibe reminded her more of her roots, proving at the time that this farm girl wasn’t ready to take on the big city just yet.
“It had more of a family atmosphere — back then, Manhattan (Kansas) wasn’t very big,” she said. “Back then, it had more of a home feeling than the Twin Cities and Boulder. Kansas State, they have the vet school there, so they had the animals, they had the corn fields.”
Miller Hmielewski also admits she has thought about the “what-ifs” in life in terms of the chance to play pro basketball in the U.S. like today’s female players do in the WNBA, “Back in the early nineties, I was an average point guard size … that was a long time ago,” she said. “I really wish I would’ve know what it had been like if there was a WNBA back when I was that age. Would I have been able to go on and play?”
Miller Hmielewski was one of Culhane’s first protégées to play basketball collegiately.
“I kind of want to say I was his guinea pig,” Miller Hmielewski said. “He really made sure that I didn’t believe I was better than I was. I always thought that I had room to grow and was never good enough, that I could always be better. I never really realized how big the accolades were until I heard people talking about them later on.”
Miller Hmielewski’s high school career can be traced back to her days as a Milroy Spartan, where as a freshman at Milroy High School, she helped lead her 1985 team to a Class A state runner-up finish while notching her 1,000th point. Two years earlier, as a braces-wearing seventh- grader, the Spartans reached the region finals. It was clear then that she was something special, but in the moment, being so young, she wasn’t able to grasp what was going on and how her team’s success affected the small town of Milroy. “Basketball was just a part of me,” she said. “(In 1985) I was just in my third year playing varsity basketball, it was just something I did, something I loved to do. I really didn’t understand that success we had until it was all done and I got to look back, read the paper articles, re-watch it on TV. You don’t really grasp it until it’s over with.”
Miller Hmielewski now works at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine and lives in Sioux Falls, with her husband, Chris. Their three adult children, Drew, Ashtin and Matthew, all also live in Sioux Falls.
The MSHSL Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on April 19 at the InterContinental Hotel in downtown St. Paul.
‘
Basketball was just a part of me. (In 1985) I was just in my third year playing varsity basketball, it was just something I did, something I loved to do. I really didn’t understand that success we had until it was all done and I got to look back, read the paper articles, re-watch it on TV.
You don’t really grasp it until it’s over with.
— MARY JO MILLER HMIELEWSKI
