Basketball player Mary Ostrowski (April 22, 1962 – July 19, 2013) was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, the daughter of Chester and Freda Dowler Ostrowski. She grew up in Parkersburg, where she showed remarkable athletic talent from a young age. As a child, she was a dominant pitcher in an otherwise all-boys Little League.

Ostrowski attended Parkersburg Catholic High School and became one of the most accomplished basketball players in West Virginia history. She led her team to 88 straight victories, two undefeated seasons, and two consecutive state Class A titles in 1977 and 1978. Ostrowski received three Russell A. Thom Awards, given to West Virginia’s top girls' basketball player (1977-79). She was the first woman to win the honor. She also received the “Shorty” Hardman Award as the state’s outstanding amateur athlete.

Ostrowski went on to play at the University of Tennessee, where she became the first number-one-ranked national recruit signed by Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt, who said of her, “I think she’s a combination of a natural athlete, because she does have some natural ability, and a self-made one, and she’s always been willing to put in hours perfecting her game.”

A 6’2” forward, Ostrowski helped Tennessee rise to national prominence, advancing four times to the NCAA Final Four in three years (1981, 1982, 1984). In the 1984 tournament, she led all players in points and rebounds; she was named the Mideast Regional MVP and to the Final Four All-Tournament Team. Over the course of her college career, she scored 1,729 points and collected 994 rebounds. While at Tennessee, she also competed with the United States women’s national basketball team, winning a gold medal at the 1983 Summer Universiade. She was a two-time first-team All-American.

She was inducted into the Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame as a charter member in 1998, Lady Vol Hall of Fame in 2006, and West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.

Ostrowski was diagnosed with cancer in 2007 and died in Bristol, Virginia, at age 51. In 2012, the West Virginia’s Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year Award was renamed in her honor.