HAMMOND – Current Southeastern Louisiana head women's basketball coach Lori Davis Jones often says that once someone joins her program, that person is a “Lady Lion for Life”. Perhaps no one personifies that ideal more than former Southeastern All-American Pam Cook Forrest, who will have her jersey retired in conjunction with 2011-12 Alumni Weekend on Feb. 25.
 
Forrest, a native of Mount Hermon, will become the third student-athlete in program history to have her jersey retired, joining fellow Southeastern Athletics Hall of Famers Queen Brumfield Nard and Robin Roberts. The jersey retirement ceremony will be held prior to Southeastern's 3 p.m. game versus Central Arkansas.
 
A two-time All-American for the Lady Lions, Forrest was part of the first team at Southeastern in 1974-75 and two years later helped bring a national title to Hammond. The 1976-77 AIAW Small College National Championship team will be celebrating their 35^th anniversary and will be recognized along with all returning alumni at halftime of the game with the Sugar Bears.
 
Forrest has been involved with basketball her entire life, as her father, W.C. Cook, was the long-time boys' basketball coach at Mount Hermon High School. Some of her earliest basketball memories are of attending her father's practices as a young girl and running drills with his team.
 
At Mount Hermon, Forrest met the next major influence on her basketball career. Prior to Forrest's junior year, Linda Puckett took over the girls' basketball program after having success in the Mississippi high school ranks. Nearly 40 years later, Forrest remembers her first encounter with the Southeastern Hall of Fame coach vividly.
 
“The first day of practice, she came in and we were all pretty intimidated because we could tell she was tough,” Forrest recalled. “She went down the line and asked each of us, 'So, are you any good?'. We were all kind of taken aback at first, but finally we all said, 'Yeah, we're good.'
 
“She then told us, 'Well, if you're good, show it on the court and let everyone know it by holding your head up and proving it with your play,'” Forrest continued. “From the beginning, she instilled that winning attitude into all of us. She knew what we were capable of and wanted us to have the confidence to show everyone what we could do. As I got to know Coach Puckett better over the years, I realized although she was tough, she had a softer side and really cared about her players.”
 
After a near miss in Puckett's first year, Forrest led Mount Hermon to the 1974 state title as a senior. For Forrest, a 2007 inductee into the LHSAA Hall of Fame, winning a state championship was just keeping the family tradition intact.
 
“Mount Hermon won state titles in girls' basketball in 1962, 1964 and 1974,” Forrest commented. “My aunt Faye was a senior in 1962, my aunt Jan was a senior in 1964 and I was a senior in 1974. So our family had a hand in all three of those championships.”
 
Following her senior year, Forrest was part of the first Louisiana girls' basketball All-Star game, organized by her father and Puckett. While she was not part of the winning team, she poured in 26 points and was named the game's Most Valuable Player.
 
With the implementation of Title IX, women's basketball programs were starting all across the state, including at LSU and Southeastern. Forrest's performance at the All-Star contest caught the eye of new Tiger coach Jinks Coleman. Coleman offered her a scholarship, making her one of the original four female student-athletes to receive an athletic scholarship to LSU.
 
While at LSU, Cook Forrest was overwhelmed by the size of the campus. Late in the fall semester, she called her father and told him of her unhappiness.
 
“When I talked to my dad, he told me that Coach Puckett had gone to Southeastern to coach,” Forrest said. “So, I left LSU at Christmas break and started at Southeastern in January. This was before the days where you had to sit out, so I just started playing with the Lady Lions. We were pretty good right away.”
 
The Lady Lions were indeed successful that first year, finishing with a 22-2 record. As a sophomore, Forrest and the Lady Lions moved into the National Tournament and went home with a fifth place finish. With a twinge of disappointment from the previous year, Forrest and her teammates went into 1976-77 with a more focused attitude.
 
“We went into that season with the goal that we wanted to win it all,” Forrest remembered. “We worked harder after having that bad taste in our mouths from how the previous season ended.”
 
That hard work paid off, as Southeastern defeated Phillips University, 92-76, for the national title. Forrest recalls the closeness of the team accounting for the Lady Lions' magical run that season.
 
“Nobody was worried about who was the star,” Forrest recalled. “We were just happy to be out there playing and winning. We all had our spots and just clicked. My spot was from the corner, so the fans called me, 'Two from the Corner' Cook.
 
“We didn't care about who scored the most points or who got the most attention, as long as we won,” Cook added. “We were fortunate to not only have talented players on that team, but more importantly good people. We had a special group.”
 
The 1976-77 title game was the last time Forrest would don the Southeastern green and gold. However, she had one more special playing appearance left, as she, Brumfield Nard and Sarah Williams were selected to represent the Lady Lions at the first-ever All-American Game on April 23, 1977 in Washington, D.C. Along with the Southeastern trio, women's basketball legends Nancy Lieberman and Ann Meyers were among the participants in the inaugural contest.
 
“Being able to play in that first All-American game was really special,” Forrest said. “(Former Washington Redskins kicker and 1982 NFL MVP) Mark Moseley and his wife were our hosts and they treated us like royalty. For Sarah, Queen and I to have an opportunity to play a part in the first real national recognition for women's basketball is something I still cherish.”
 
Forrest's love affair with the game has not diminished. For roughly the past decade, she and her husband Craig have made the annual trip to the Women's Final Four, a tradition Forrest plans to continue.
 
“It really means something to me to be part of the women's basketball family,” Forrest commented. “To go to the Final Four and talk with people like Nancy Lieberman or Pam Summitt or Kim Mulkey and know that we have that bond from going through the same experiences is neat.”
 
Though Forrest cherishes the memories of her playing days, her experiences as a spectator have opened her eyes to how much the game has changed.
 
“I watch these players now on television and it looks like they get tired after running up down the court a couple of times,” Forrest commented. “Coach Puckett had us running up and down the bleachers at Strawberry Stadium, so we were prepared to run for 40 minutes straight.”
 
A certain rule change since Forrest's playing days has also made her say what if many times over the years.
 
“I wish we'd have been able to play with the three-point line,” Forrest said with a laugh. “I scored (a still school-record) 46 points against Whitworth College, so maybe I'd have been able to top 50. As many times as we scored 100 points or more, we could've really put up some big numbers if we had three-pointers.”
 
Forrest was not as involved with Southeastern as she would like after leaving the program, as the duties of raising her family and caring for the family's 200-acre farm in Kentwood took precedence. All that changed however, when the university brought back the 1976-77 team for the 25^th anniversary of its championship campaign. Through her experiences with that celebration, Forrest was named to the search committee to find a replacement for long time Southeastern head coach Frank Schneider.     
 
“Serving on that committee and meeting Lori really got me back involved,” Forrest commented. “Lori's passion for the program was infectious and with my kids grown and out of the house, I felt it was time to get back into Southeastern women's basketball.”
 
Forrest is a member of the Southeastern PRIDE group, which mentors Lady Lion student-athletes and raises money for scholarships. She also sits on the university's Hall of Fame Committee and is fixture at courtside at most women's basketball home games.
 
“I just love watching women's basketball and I'll be there in the University Center as long as I can,” Forrest commented. “Being involved with PRIDE has been a rewarding experience and I hope I can help our student-athletes anyway I can.”
 
According to Jones, Forrest has been a huge asset to both the PRIDE and to her program.
 
“Pam is Lady Lion Basketball,” Jones said. “To have somebody who was part of the first team and won a national championship here visible and accessible to our student-athletes really makes the history of our program come alive for our players.”
 
 The honor of having her jersey retired and to have the opportunity to share it with her teammates will be special, according to Forrest.
 
“It's an awesome honor,” Forrest commented. “It's a testament to the hard work that myself, my teammates and Coach Puckett put in. I never realized it would happen, but I couldn't be more honored.”