National player of the year and All-American Chiney Ogwumike can add another prestigious honor to her time on The Farm, as she was honored by the Stanford Alumni Association as one of two graduating seniors to receive the 2014 J.E. Wallace Sterling Award for outstanding service to Stanford.
Ogwumike and fellow senior Hunter Kodama were announced as the award-winners at the SAA board meeting on Thursday, May 15. Ogwumike was honored in absentia due to the beginning of her rookie season in the WNBA with the Connecticut Sun.
The All-America forward was named the John R. Wooden Award winner as national player of the year following a record-breaking season in which she helped lead the Cardinal to a 33-4 record and the program's sixth appearance at the Final Four in the past seven years. The Cardinal also captured its 14th straight Pac-12 regular-season title.
Ogwumike finished the season as the only player to rank in the national top 10 in scoring (26.1 ppg - fourth), rebounding (12.1 rpg - ninth), field-goal percentage (60.1 - fourth), and double-doubles (27 - third). She was named a consensus All-American in addition to sweeping the Pac-12 Player and Defensive Player of the Year awards for the second straight season, with the defensive honor being her third in a row.
She finished her collegiate career as the Pac-12 all-time leading scorer (2,737 points) and rebounder (1,567 rebounds) in addition to setting the single-season conference record for points scored (967).
In the classroom, Ogwumike achieved a cumulative grade-point average of 3.47 while earning her bachelor's degree in international relations. She was named the 2014 Capital One Academic All-American of the Year in February, and earned her second straight selection to the Capital One Academic All-America Team. In March she collected another academic honor, being named the Pac-12 Women's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Ogwumike was also an active participant in numerous community service projects, both local and abroad. Locally, she worked with the Stanford women's basketball teams at local food banks while during the spring of 2013 she traveled abroad to Nigeria for a mission that was two-fold. While interning with the Nigerian Ministy of Petroleum as part of her academic curriculum, she found time to work with the charity "Access 2 Success" to help raise funds with the goal of building a brand-new basketball court for the local youth.
In April, Ogwumike joined her older sister Nneka (2012, Los Angeles Sparks) as Stanford's second No. 1 overall selection in the WNBA Draft, being tabbed by the Connecticut Sun. The honor made the Ogwumikes the second set of siblings to be taken first overall in a major American sports draft, joining the Mannings, Peyton (1998, Indianapolis Colts, NFL) and Eli (2004, San Diego Chargers, NFL).