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Nancy Mulkey put together a solid NCAA career, averaging 10.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, and a staggering 3.0 blocks while shooting 53.8 percent from the field across 131 games in five collegiate seasons.
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The 6’9″ star was nevertheless a more defense-oriented player, which isn’t surprising given her stature and confirmed with her winning Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year honors three times after consistently leading her mid-major conference in shot-blocking.
Although she led Rice to a WNIT championship in 2021, where she was named tournament MVP, she went undrafted in the 2022 draft, which raised a few eyebrows, given that she is one of the tallest players. But as she eventually shared on her Instagram, her extraordinary height often felt like a massive burden off the court as well.
“I wish people would stop asking tall women: ‘How tall are your parents?’” she wrote. “I understand the curiosity, but sometimes it feels like an interview for a genetics documentary. Immediately after that came questions about sibling heights, shoe size, and how tall I was in fifth grade,” Mulkey said.
She jokingly added that one question about her parents quickly turned into her having to recite her entire family’s medical history to strangers while waiting in line at the checkout.
Mulkey simply attracted attention wherever she appeared, which led the Las Vegas Aces to roll the dice and give her a chance to show whether she could translate her solid NCAA play to the WNBA.
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However, she was released after just a few months, before she managed to play a single official regular-season game. Shortly after that, she decided to retire from active playing and dedicate herself to coaching.
Mulkey inherited her height from a deeply athletic family; her mother, Dolores Bootz-Mulkey, was a standout basketball player at Georgia Tech, and both of her brothers stand over 6’11”. Still, as she frequently noted, being a woman of her stature made everyday life uniquely challenging simply because she always stood out in a crowd.
Unfortunately, her impressive height didn’t translate into a long WNBA career, but Mulkey still found a way to stay involved in basketball and remain dedicated to her greatest love.
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This story was originally published September 18, 2026 at 4:02 AM.