But Lois Muir was also a hero on the hardwood.
The 84-year-old is best known for her contribution as a netball player, administrator and long-serving coach.
But her extraordinary contribution to netball has overshadowed her exploits in the basketball arena.
Muir was a part of the trailblazing 1958 New Zealand women's team which went to Australia and vanquished its opponent 3-0.
They are the only New Zealand national team, men's or women's, to beat Australia 3-0 in a series.
And for the historic achievement, the team was inducted into the Basketball New Zealand Hall of Fame during the organisation's awards evening in Wellington earlier this month.
Muir attended the event and "thoroughly enjoyed'' catching up with people she had not seen for a long time.
The sporting environment was a very different in the late 1950s. Muir remembers doing considerable fund-raising to pay for the trip.
The players were also in billeted accommodation which presented a "challenge''.
"You couldn't manage your life. You were staying with people who were feeding you out of their money and yet you had to get out there and do the goods,'' Muir said.
"We only came together to play, so it was more complicated.
"But we felt great because we felt we were breaking ground and we were putting a foot somewhere no-one else had put a footprint before and it was fun.''
It was the first series between the teams to be played under Fiba international rules.
The Australians were the favourites. They had competed at the 1957 World Championships in Brazil.
But the home side was beaten 50-40 in the first game. The second match was the closest of the series; New Zealand won 27-24. It then completed the series with a 43-13 victory.
Muir was among the leading players in the team, which included Otago players Francis Pedofsky and Dianne Enright.
The New Zealand team went on to play in the Australian state championship and lost just one game on the tour.
Also inducted into the Hall of Fame were two-time Olympian Donna Wilkins (nee Loffhagen) and former New Zealand women's captains Penny Simmons and Otago's Heather Stenhouse.
