Dee Dee Thach enjoys competition.
From playing a game of pickleball to competing in a tennis match, “I love it,” said the former star high school basketball player.
She added, however, “I will have to say I’m not a good loser, because I’ve never lost a game, so I don’t like to lose at anything.”
Thach was a member of the Pillow Academy girls basketball team that won 100 consecutive games starting during the 1971-72 season, when she was a sophomore, and continuing through her senior year — all regular-season games and all tournament games.
The Greenwood native began playing basketball in junior high during P.E. class and then started playing on the junior high team. She kept playing on into high school.
Basketball was a big part of her life when she was in high school, and her team — known then as the Mustangettes — was the one to beat.
The former Dee Dee Harmon graduated in 1974.
“It was just an exciting time,” she said.
Thach said some of the things that led to the Mustangettes’ success were that they were composed of mostly tall members, were very aggressive on the court and had a very good coach, Charlie Wright.
The girls on the team also were good friends, and they continue to keep in touch. It was hard not to be, since they would see each other at practice and then at games at least five days a week for months on end. “We just had a bond,” said Thach.
The team gained national attention when Paul Harvey, a broadcaster for ABC News Radio, began keeping up with the Mustangettes.
“He talked about us,” said Thach. “At the end of his program, he would say, ‘Those Pillow Academy girls from Greenwood, Mississippi, have done it again.’”
Harvey would update his listeners with the count of the Pillow winning streak.
“UCLA had a streak going on also at the same time, so he talked about them and then talked about us,” said Thach.
The whole school was rooting for the team, and Harvey’s radio show was broadcast over the school’s intercom. When he began talking about the Pillow girls, “everybody would just start screaming,” said Thach. “The whole school would erupt screaming, and the whole town was supportive. It was just really exciting.”
The team got invited to every tournament around. “We drew such a big crowd,” said Thach.
But that wasn’t the only reason. On a hot streak and gaining national attention, they were the team that everyone wanted to defeat.
“People didn’t come to see us win; they really wanted to be there when the streak was broken,” said Thach.
Although that gave the Mustangettes extra motivation to continue their winning streak, it also added some stress.
“I would be lying if I didn’t say there was a lot of pressure,” said Thach. But overall, “we had a lot of fun. It was a fun thing.”
Dee Dee Thach wears this bracelet as a good luck charm to Pillow Academy basketball games. It was given to her when she was a senior in high school on the championship-winning PA girls basketball team that had a 100-game winning streak.
During her senior year, the father of one of the team members gave each Mustangette a charm bracelet with a charm that said “Pillow World Champions 2-5-74.” The members also received another charm that said “No. 1.” Thach continues to wear the bracelet every time she attends a Pillow basketball game for good luck.
After high school, Thach attended Delta State University. She received a scholarship to play basketball but decided to not take it. By her freshman year of college, “I was kind of tired of basketball, because that’s all I did for three years,” she said.
While at Delta State, she studied speech pathology.
Now retired, Thach, 64, worked as a speech therapist in the Greenwood School District for 32 years and then worked part time as a speech therapist in the Carroll County School District for 10 years.
Thach is married to her high school sweetheart, Cliff Thach. The couple will celebrate 45 years of marriage this week on Valentine’s Day.
They have two children — sons Clifton and Taylor — and four grandchildren, who all seem to be following in their grandmother’s footsteps. One granddaughter plays on the Pillow sixth grade basketball team. A fourth grade grandson is playing basketball, and a second grade granddaughter plays basketball at Twin Rivers Recreation.
“I do enjoy attending all of my grandchildren’s activities,” she said. “I try to go to every activity they have.”
It’s important to her to attend their games, and it’s also important to Thach to live life to the fullest. That’s because not only did she beat every team as a star high school athlete, Thach has also beaten a disease that many do not overcome.
In 2017, shortly after she was inducted into the Pillow Academy Sports Hall of Fame, Thach was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer — stage 3 peritoneal cancer, which develops in a thin layer of tissue that lines the abdomen.
“It was not a good kind of cancer to have,” she said.
In fact, Thach added, after her diagnosis, she didn’t think she would be here today to attend her grandchildren’s activities.
Thach had been playing tennis one day and noticed that she was having trouble breathing. She went to her doctor and got an X-ray. When the cancer was found, it was an unusual case because “we didn’t know where it came from,” she said.
Thach went to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, and then began aggressive chemotherapy treatments that lasted a year.
She recently had scans in January and is now cancer free.
“I’m just totally healed, and they can’t explain it. God has just healed me up,” she said. “I give God the glory.” Thach said she also credits “lots of prayers and lots of support from my family and friends.”
Pillow Academy is hosting the MAIS North AAAA tournament this week. The PA girls and boys both play on Tuesday, and Thach is sure to be in the stands, wearing her good-luck charm around her wrist.
She enjoys following the girls and boys basketball teams.
“I get nervous, especially the playoffs,” she said. “I get butterflies in my stomach.”
She offers this advice to the Pillow players: “You have to take one game at a time. You cannot look ahead. You have to just win this game, then win the next game.”
She also remembers some words of wisdom that her coach, Wright, told her when she was in high school.
“Because defense was my major thing, he would say, ‘Dee Dee, if you don’t let them score, then we will win.’ If they don’t score, we’re going to win. If I don’t let them make a basket, then I know my people are going to score.”
•Contact Ruthie Robison at 581-7235 or rrobison@gwcommonwealth.com.
