All-American Stands Tall As Homecoming Queen

Heidi Gillingham is an All-America basketball player on one of the nation's best teams, but her crowning achievement at Vanderbilt came on the football field this fall.

She was named Vanderbilt's homecoming queen.

"I was honored to represent my school and my class and to be recognized as more than a basketball player," Gillingham said. "We don't get that many opportunities to dress up. I was happy to show another side.

"The headline in the paper said, `Heidi gets the royal treatment,' and that's just how I felt.' "

It doesn't take a regal presentation to highlight Gillingham's other sides. It only takes a conversation. You suddenly realize her height is not her most extraordinary feature.

Yes, she is very, very tall. Vanderbilt lists the senior center as 6-10. Even when she takes off her basketball shoes and shrinks to a mere 6-8, she is probably taller than any woman you have ever seen.

So, go ahead and stare. She understands.

Gillingham still remembers noticing a tall woman in her church in Floresville, Texas. As the woman walked past, Gillingham's brother, Greg, nudged her. They smiled.

"We just couldn't believe that she was taller than my brother who was 6-5 at the time," said Gillingham, then 12. "I never, ever expected to get this tall. Neither did my father."

Kent Gillingham was 6-6.

Heidi's sister, Gwendolyn, who plays for North Carolina, is 6-7. Greg is 6-6 1/2. Sister Heather, a former New York model, is 5-11 1/2. Heidi's mother, Janet, is 5-8.

When the family played basketball on the Gillingham carport, the usual three-on-three matchup had Heidi on Gwendolyn, Greg on Kent and Janet on Heather. But sometimes, it was just one-on-one, Heidi vs. her father.

"He had an incredible hook shot," she said.

Heidi remembers the first time she beat him and the last time they played. She cemented those memories on the last trip home to her family's 75-acre farm about 30 miles from San Antonio.

The trip home was as unexpected as the late-night phone call Sept. 27.

Earlier that evening, Heidi had called to tell her father she was a finalist for homecoming queen. There was no answer. Later, her mother called to report Kent had been killed in a plane crash.

Kent, an aerospace medical researcher at Brooks Air Force Base, died when the plane he was piloting crashed seconds after takeoff.

"I went home for the week to deal with my sadness of the loss," Heidi said. "I purposefully thought of the things that would make me sad. I looked at all my dad's ties. I thought about every place that I would miss him."

Writing letter helped

On the flight home, Heidi wrote a letter to her father in which she expressed how much he meant to her and how much she would miss him. She read it at the memorial service.

"I needed to do that to get on with my life," she said. "I wasn't in mourning when I got back.

"I definitely know it was my faith in God, and the belief that He has everything under control that kept me from really mourning the loss. I had a peace about the whole thing because of my faith. It gets me through the ups-and-downs."

As a teenager, Heidi once became so passionate about her faith, that she was moved to tears as she tried to explain it to her friend. When she was only five, she remembers looking at her hand and marveling at God's creation.

"I thought, `Wow!, I've been given this,' " she said. "I've always looked at life as a gift. If you don't think someone owes life to you, when it's taken away, you aren't devastated.

"I remember realizing there was a God, something of more value than what we were doing. I remember thinking how small all humans are."

Heidi, who wants to be a Christian counselor, grew up in a religious family that attended the First Lutheran Church. Her faith, her family and her small hometown helped define her. So did her height.

"I think if she had gone to a bigger school in San Antonio, it would have been more difficult for her," Heidi's mother said. "She would have had a lot of people making comments about her height. But when you're with the same group of kids from kindergarten through 12th grade, everybody knows you for your whole personality.

"The hardest time was around 11 through 16. She thought there would never be a boy interested in her because she was so tall. When she was 16, she had a summer romance with a college fellow, and she realized some person could love her."

Gillingham hardly has time for a boyfriend now. She is a psychology major, vice-president in the Vanderbilt chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and one of the country's best basketball players on one of the best teams.

Last season, she averaged 14.6 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.2 blocked shots as coach Jim Foster's Commodores reached the Final Four. The team won 30 of 33 games.

In addition to Gillingham, two other starters return - 6-4 forward Mara Cunningham, most valuable player of the Southeastern Conference tournament, and senior guard Donna Harris, not on the team last season but Vanderbilt's scoring leader two years ago.

Accustomed to attention

As the most-prominent player on a team favored to win the national championship, Gillingham has become accustomed to the attention and publicity.

"Sometimes, I wish I could just fade into the background. But I have had to deal with that all my life. I can't go through a mall without being noticed, without people stopping me and wanting to talk.

"I definitely think I'm a role model, not by choice, but by my situation . . . I enjoy the position because I've had a lot of experiences that have made me stronger. I've learned to deal with a lot."