Engineering The Game

If Auretha Fleming does not remember the exact moment she broke Pennsylvania's all-time basketball scoring record, Elizabeth Stegner cant seem to forget.

The first time Stegner returned to The Palestra, after her graduation in 1983, the program's defending career scoring leader was greeted with a bitter-sweet message from the arenas public address announcer. "As I walked up the steps to my seat at a men's game, I heard the announcer say 'This just in. Auretha Fleming just broke Beth Stegner's scoring record," recalled Stegner in a recent interview. "Auretha was playing an away game and I was like thanks a lot Auretha. I was happy for her, but I was also mad at her."

Stegner, whose married name is Peabody, sent Fleming a telegram to congratulate the new Quakers' scoring leader. It was no surprise to the recent graduate that Fleming surpassed her mark. Fleming had been closing in on several Penn records in her junior and senior years. She still holds the second spot in steals with 205 and is third in rebounds with 749.

Fleming, a native of Columbia, Md., a suburb set between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., first started playing basketball as a seventh grader. The teachers at her school started a girls basketball team, and Fleming decided to take part. Fleming found she had a knack for the game and continued to play for her high school team. She was a four-year varsity letterwinner at Oakland Mills High School, where she discovered a coach, Theresa Waters, who had a profound impact on Fleming.

"She was a great coach who taught more than basketball," said Fleming. "We still keep in touch today and I am actually going back for an alumnae game this week," she said in an interview earlier this month.

Along with basketball, Fleming also ran track for Oakland Mills. She exhibited her athlete talents as a top competitor in the quarter-mile run, the first leg of the mile relay and the high and long jump.

Upon graduation from high school, Fleming had put a lot of preparation and thought into college. However, the thought to play basketball at the collegiate level never crossed her mind. She was extremely interested in mathematics and engineering, and that love was charting her course to college. When she was not admitted to her first choice, Carnegie Mellon University, Fleming accepted admission to the University of Pennsylvania. Her older brother, Alton, was just finishing his freshman year at the Philadelphia campus, so Fleming had been exposed to Penn and knew she would be comfortable there.

In her first year at Penn, the basketball itch got a hold of Fleming and she went to talk to Quakers' basketball coach, Lois Ashley. Ashley coerced the freshman to walk on for the upcoming try-outs, and Fleming agreed. She had little difficulty earning a spot on the team and proving she deserved to be on the court.

"Auretha was just a great player and a great kid," said Stegner who was a year ahead of Fleming. "She was so quick and she was just killing my assists record." Stegner often joked that she would take Fleming out to dinner if the Maryland native made all of the lay-ups Stegner fed to her.

However, Fleming brought a lot more to her team and teammates than her hoops abilities. Stagner describes her as being exceptionally mature, dedicated and emotional and psychological strong. When teammates had disagreements or gripes, Fleming always remained calm and took control of the situation in an attempt to turn it into a positive state. Her teammates were impressed that she never complained or showed any signs of frustration or feeling under pressure.

"I was amazed that she was an engineering student, a time when the technology of that field was changing so much, and she never showed any pressure from that," Stegner related with a Southern accent dancing through her words. "She was so level-headed. To balance that degree that was very male dominated, at a male-dominated school and on top of that being a black student. I mean a black woman in the engineering school. There were almost none."

"She never showed that anything bothered her. Whether it was school or on the court, she didnt get upset about anything. I would try to get her upset," said the Kentucky native with a light chuckle. "But she just wouldn't do it. I think that is what drew me to her."

Fleming just took it all in stride and never thought of herself as a minority. "The basketball program in general had a higher percentage of blacks than the school itself," Fleming said. "That wasn't an issue for me, though. When you play sports you see people as athletes, not colors. As long as everyone is playing the way they are supposed to, it is fine."

As for being one of a handful of female engineering majors - Fleming never flinched. She was there to get her degree, not to ponder the male-to-female ratio of the engineering program. This humble confidence may be the product of Flemings close-knit family unit that was built on the foundation of strong Christian values. Her family stressed education, and all of the Fleming children earned graduate degrees. Teammates remember her family being at games and hosting receptions for the players and their families when the Quakers made an appearance in the Maryland or D.C. area.

"I thought I knew what an aunt was until I saw Auretha's family," Stagner, now the president of her own investment firm, recalled. "She had like 20 of them and they were always there for her."

Fleming finished out her basketball career at Pennsylvania with first team All-Ivy, first team American Sports Federation all-Northeast and second team all-Philadelphia honors. She also was the Quakers' Father's Award recipient, awarded to the University's top senior female athlete.

Following her graduation in 1984, Fleming married Ed Baldwin, a fellow Penn graduate who was a member of the University's ROTC. While her husband become a member of the U.S. Army, Fleming was awaiting an in-depth clearance in a master's program at George Washington University.

With Baldwin in the service, the couple was forced to relocate often. They lived in Virginia, Hawaii and Georgia, which made it difficult for Fleming to consider full-time work right away. It also made raising her two sons a challenge at times. When the boys were young, Baldwin was sent to Asia for a year, leaving Fleming behind to care for the boys on her own. The couple had the option of spending two years in Asia as a family, or having Baldwin go alone for one year. Since the boys had just started school, they felt it was unfair to remove them from their familiar home and family network so the father went on his own.

Now the Baldwins are settled in Virginia, and Fleming is working for Lockheed Martin Federal Systems. She plays some basketball with her kids, aged eight and nine, and tries to teach them the fundamentals of the game.

However, just as Fleming's parents instilled the value of education in their children's minds, Fleming is doing the same for her sons. She wants them to have the same benefits she enjoyed as a student at a top-notch academic institution.

"An Ivy League education is something that will help you down the road," explained Fleming. "You meet so many different people and learn from the country's top scholars. College-bound athletes need to look beyond scholarships to what a Penn education can do for you. When I tell people I went to Penn they automatically think I am well-prepared and that I can do things."

Fleming definitely proved that during her college years, and as a professional and mother.

-- Erica Hurtt

***Please note, this story was written for a previous Ivy League Black History Month celebration. It is reproduced here for archival purposes and has not been updated.***